I have used brass wire for flag staffs, javalins, and short spears. However, recently I bought a Minifigs (USA) 15mm Alexandrian-Macedo-nian DBA army and decided that the brass was too soft for the long pikes and switched to piano wire.

The size that I use is 0.020. The wire is available wherever model trains or flying models are sold. It comes in three foot lengths and costs about 15 cents a length. To cut brass wire all I needed was a pair of old nail clippers. To cut the piano wire (which is spring steel) I needed something tougher than normal side cutters or dykes. The spring steel will be only be dented by normal pliers and the cutter will have nice little indentations where the wire was! I settled on buying a pair of cutters specifically designed for "hard" wire. They are made by Xuron Corp. and are model number 2193 Hard Wire Shear. Not only do the cut the wire with ease, but they cut it at a nice, burr free 90 degree angle. Well worth the $15 I paid for them.

Ok. so much for materials. Now on to technique. Here's how I do replace spears and pikes on 15mm miniatures. First remove the mold-ed pike. Using those old nail clippers, just snip the pike a fraction of an inch above the hand and at an angle matching the bottom of the hand and off the base. Sometimes, a spear or pike is attached to the head, leg or body. In those cases one will have to carve it away. Once the pike has been removed file the top of the hand flat (that's why you left that fraction of the pike there). I use needle files that are obtainable at Radio Shack in a five or six file set for about $6.00.

So now we have this pike-less little guy with the hand filed flat. Now comes the hardest part of this whole exercize...With a SHARP #11 blade in your X-Acto handle in one hand and the figure in the other, hold the figure between you and a light source (lamp) at such an angle that the light reflects off the nicely filed top of the figure's hand. If you filed it right, you should see a bright white circle where the pike used to be. Now, carefully, take the knife and place the point, horizontally on top of the hand (so you can see exactly where the point is). Hold the blade at such an angle that the light *does not* reflect off of the point. Now what you should see is the bright circle of the top of the hand and that dark point of the blade in the exact center of the circle. Now, without lifting the point, rotate the knife to the vertical and twirl it between the thumb and forefinger exerting only slight downward pressure. Keep this up for a little while. The objective is to make a starter hole for the drill bit. Don't get impatient and press too hard with the knife. If you do the tip of the blade will break off and be embedded in the metal of the figure. You will have ruined the blade and wasted a drill bit (when you drill the hole, the little be of stainless steel will be under the point of the bit and will tear it up).

Now that the starter hole is made (whose purpose is to keep the bit from sliding off the the target), chuck an .020 drill bit in the pin vise, locate the starter hole with the bit's point and start drilling gently. Too much pressure on the drill will either make it slip out of the starter hole and into your finger (trust me on this one...drilling an .020 hole in your finger hurts!) or will break the bit and you will stab yourself with the remaining bit as a bonus. It is temping to support the tiny little hand from underneath with a finger nail. Don't do it! You *will* drill through your own finger nail! Owww! Been there - done it!

Ok so now you have a hole and a bit of wire presumably cut to the right length and sharpend on one end (to protect the figures in the deployment zone from bellies of people leaning over the table!). Don't automatically start super gluing the pikes in place. Take a look at the figure and decide if you should put them in now or wait until the figure is painted. If the pike or spear is going to limit brush access, wait till everything else is pained, then put them in, prime them and paint them.

Anyhow, this is how I do it. After doing a few times, it became pretty much just motor reaction with the only part of the process that requires any concentration being the location of the starter hole. I hope this description helps. This question is probably one of the most frequently asked questions by new figure painters.