Scots Lowlanders

[Radar]

Those of you who have been following the ECW Suggestions thread over on Workbench will know that I, somewhat foolhardily, have decided to drill out the hands of lowland pikes to accept wire pikes. (Considering it yourself? Don't. trust me.)

And before anyone says "but the pikemen are available open handed", all the pikemen packs are available open handed with the exception of lowlanders.
Keen eyed will spot a lowland halberdier: made from Ramrod Man™ (Scots artillery pack) and the head of a Donnington halberd.


Also a casualty marker made with 'dead Scot in trousers', with added halberd because I thought he looked a bit too like a dead Morris dancer. And a general.

Usual inane rambling here: http://www.keepyourpowderdry.co.uk/2018/03/scotland-brave-part-two.html

Can my fingers take drilling out another 24 pikemen? Maybe not this week...

[Leslie BT]

Sorry to point out the obvious, you did not say you were using the Lowland ECW figures.

The regiment is looking good though, well worth the effort in replacing the pikes!

Go on do the next regiment. Look like you need to make a jig of some sort.

I usually find the the drills break when they are worn out.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Just one query on the drilling - are you using an electric one (Dremel or similar) or a finger-powered pin vice?

I broke many a mini-drill bit years ago when using my electric drill (even with a variable speed) to drill out spears and lances. And it often made a mess of the hands too. I then discovered the benefits of very slow speed manually-powered pin vices, and haven't looked back.

Is this worth a go, if you've not already tried?

[Colonel Kilgore]

And another thought - rather than drilling the pikes out, what about buying open-handed figures and converting them to Lowland Scots with a head swap? That's probably easier drilling, if you're not too fussy about some of the other details of the figures...?

[Radar]

 I have found that a jig made out of blutack seems to help, hold the figure in an angled position whilst i press down with a finger or two. The blutack will be useless for putting posters up with when i finish though, full of metal shavings. All fingers mostly intact.

Head swaps? Thought about that, it would have been easier, but the Scots rarely wore breast plates etc unlike their English counterparts. So a bit of a stumbling block. Normally quite tolerant of a paint conversion  but it just didn't look right. The Irish pike  are a slightly better option.

Might finish their command this week then have a break.

Yes using a pin vice, with nice new sharp bits. They are just such an awkward shape and position to drill, plus metal is really hard (compared to many other manufacturers). Not really much to drill into. The artillery chap I used to make halberdiers were much easier to drill, hand seemed bigger/fatter, probably mostly down to the pose.

[Smiley Miley 66]

I 've got the Dremel with the LED readout to change the speed. It was a bit more expensive at the time but worth it's weight in gold.