First off Happy New Year. Among the things Santa brought me was Reedees Miniatures WWI bust http://www.redlancers.com/displaypic.asp?item=26592&hot= I am thinking of adding a trench club hanging from the left wrist; my problem is inspite of having lots of reference material, I am no math wiz and so I am having issues with measurements. What I need to know is what diameter dowel should I get to start (the bust is 1/9)? Also if anyone has any ideas how I should make the "business end " I am all ears. Thin wire "spikes" seems the easiest, but I have seen all kinds of wicked heads on these things, so,..., Sorry if this is not the right forum (mods please feel free to move).

Thanks Carl. If I go with wire, that would be the easy part, but I am wondering how I could do something like this

Thanks again Carl. I will most likely go with the spikes as I will have my hands full with this and existing pieces between now and mid March (SCAHMS), but I thought I'd sk in case there was a quick and easy way I wasn't thinking of.

Hi - there are many sizes of cogs in Techincal Lego, Fischer Technik, etc - you could try locating something suitable from there which would be close to the pic?
Steve

The LHS where I will get the dowel for the club has a large inventory of RC stuff, so maybe I will see what kind of a cog I can find there. Thanks.

You really are over thinking and over complicating this thing. Trench clubs were a weapon of convenience and most were hand made. They were simply a "f**k you up" weapon that were made of whatever was handy and would do the job. There are two examples here in a local vet memorial/museum that are nothing more than a handle fashioned and whittled down from a branch with nails, studs and some wire wrapped around it to give it some weight at the end. The other looks like a turned table leg with a similar treatment. What ever fit into the guys hand comfortably enough that he could wield it with out it being clumsy and still smash a skull or collar bone was sufficient. I think this is one of those cases where close is good and less is more. If you're determined to do the style that looks like a mace then I would think a piece of wood scraped or whitled to shape or a piece of plastic rod chucked into a drill and shaped like a lathe would give you a more of a production look and then a gear of sufficient size slipped over the end. I look forward to seeing what you do.

Mike, not really over engineering things here as that is not my forte. I have plenty of pics, so I know how they were made and that their intention was "to put the hurt on somebody" . My original question was one more of scale based on a desire to not have to go to the LHS a dozen times for a stupid dowel. Failing finding a convienent gear/cog R/C bit thingy, I have plenty of wire to make spikes/studs. I realize that the majority were of this variety, but the kind like I posted just look cool. Anyway thanks for the post and look for pics soon.

Matthew I have PM`d you

Steve

Here's an actual photo of the type I'm thinking of scratching up

OOPS here's the pic

You might be able to use a properly sized brass gear or something like that to do the "business end". Failing that, plastic card, a well cut metal guide to ensure the notches of the gear head are the same size and several nice sharp scalpel blades...

All the best,
Dan

Thanks for the tip Dan. After PMing with Steve Readie (the sculptor), have decided to use a 1/9th German stick Grenade for the handle/haft of the club and I am off to the LHS to see what they have in the RC section, I'm sure they have all manner of gears,cogs, and bits.