Of Bendy Pikes, and Magnetic Shields.

Iron Fangs have got to be my favorite unit aesthetically. I think the unit that made me want to get Khador was probably the widowmakers, as well as the big stompy robots. But once I had gotten into Khador and began looking into the different options that they contained Iron Fangs were definitely the coolest. There is a reason that my forum name on privateer press is "The Iron Fang."

Unfortunately when I initially got into the game Iron Fang's were lacking a bit. I started shortly before the release of Colossals and Khador's best bet for a victory then was high defense. So I made the winterguard purchase and the Kayazy Assasin purchase. . . and then Colossals dropped and while not completely invalidating those purchases, Iron Fangs stock certainly began to go up. Then the Iron Fang Kovnik came out and they really started to shine. But since they are an all metal unit they aren't that cheap so it took me some scrimping and saving to be able to get them.

When you do get the Iron Fang unit, whatever drives you to them. You'll notice very quickly one painful fact. . .

The pikes are downright squirly. They will bend and twist to the point that instead of looking like a spear you can make them look like a crazy straw. The solution to this problem is more or less universally agreed to. You remove the pewter pike and replace it with a brass rod. 

The other thing that might not be readily apparent but that you should nonetheless be made aware of is that Privater Press currently has two units both based on the same Iron Fang kit. One is the regular Iron Fangs, and the other is the Iron Fang Black Dragons. I won't go into which is better, in part cause i don't think there is an answer and in part because this is a hobby post, but the fact is that the Black Dragons differ from the regular pikeman primarily because of the shields they carry and the banner that their UA holds. That's it!!! As someone who hates repurchasing units because of slight variations, I decided I would also take the step of magnetizing my pikeman's shield. The end goal being to go from this. . . 

To this. . .

With the option of Magnetically attaching the shield like this. . . 

WARNING PICTURE BARAGE TO FOLLOW.

So I figure in this post I can give you a run down of how to make the change from the regular super bendy pikes to the brass rodded ones. 

From left to right the tools I used were just super glue, sprue cutter, a pin vice with 1/16" drill bit, exacto knife, file, saw, and a dremel with 1/8" drill bit. 

Materials. . . other than the box of 10 Iron Fangs, I also used 1/8" magnets, brass rod I found at hobby lobby, 1/16" magnets, and copper rod (for pinning). 

So step one is separating the pike bits. The warhead and counter weight come off pretty easy the arms can be a bit trickier but should cut away pretty easily. using the 1/16" drill bit you get the holes for each end and drill through the arm. You'll want to cut the rod to the right length as well. I looked at lengths between an inch and a half and two inches, but each looked a little bit wrong. I ended up going with an inch and three-quarters. then just cut them all to the same length. Uniformity is the key. Then just glue on one end, thread it through the hand, glue in place and then glue on the other end. 

For the shields I drilled out a small pot in the arm and put in a 1/16" magnet. initially in the shield I also drilled out a 1/16" spot for a magnet but found that the shields held better using a 1/8" magnet so I actually ended up using a larger magnet than is pictured below. 

Here is an image with the arm and the shield both drilled out and glued on.

When you get them all glued up they will start to look like this. 

And a group shot to let you see what they look like all shield walled up. 

Here they are charging full speed ahead. 

 Till next time, keep your pikes straight Komrades.