Saxon violence

Its not easy being a Thegn. Sure, you get some social status and privileges; maybe some land, better armour and equipment to strut around in and impress the pretty young mægdens. That sort of stuff. But its not all a big basket of rosy apples. Oh no indeed! First you have to suffer the attentions of some scalpel wielding modelling maniac intent on hacking away your fingers and wresting your spear from your grip. And now he's at it again, intent on pricking your pride with pin-sharp arrows. Oh the indignity!

Well, the Thegns are all painted and based, but I felt they needed a bit of battle damage. Not wishing to hack them about again, I thought the best way to represent this was by making them the target of a few arrows. But how to make them?

I wanted something wargames proof that would stand up to handling without snapping. That ruled out plastic rod or stretched sprue. Pins seemed the obvious choice, but I wanted the thinnest I could find to avoid my arrows looking more like scale javelins. After a bit of research, here's what I came up with; Prym super fine 0.4mm glass-headed pins made of flexible spring steel.

"These are really good" said the lady in my local haberdashers as I handed over my cash. No doubt she thought I was going to do a spot of hemming or quilting. I hadn't the heart to tell her I was going to chop them up to make tiny arrows.

It took a few attempts to get the fletchings right. These were made by cutting thin strips of 10 thou' (0.25mm) plasticard styrene sheet, which were then cut into shorter lengths and trimmed to shape. A thin layer of superglue was then applied to the shaft of the pin and each fletching carefully applied using fine tweezers. Once the glue had dried thoroughly, I ran another thin layer of glue along the seams of the fletchings for extra strength. To give each fletching a 'feathered' appearance, I drew a fresh scalpel blade across the edges several times to roughen them a bit.

Here's my first attempt. I found that the pins were long enough to cut in half to make two arrows. I wasn't entirely happy with the fletchings as they looked a bit too angular.

Here are a couple of later attempts, plus a broken arrow shaft, stuck in a blob of blu-tac to make them easier to handle for painting.

Once the arrows were painted, I chose some of the figures and drilled holes in their bases and shields; a task made easier by them being made of plastic rather than metal. After that, it was a simple matter of gluing the arrows in place...

…and here are the rest of the Thegns.

Well that concludes this little project. I'm pleased with the results and more so because it has got me back in to painting after a very long hiatus.

Okay, I'm off for toast and tea. See you next time!