Dealing with The Pale Spear of Alpharius

Crunch time for Alpharius' weapon. Do I stick with the little nib of a joint to attach the tip of the Pale Spear of Alpharius to the main haft of the weapon, or do I drill it to make it that bit extra secure? In order to determine the answer, I looked very closely at what I would have to do if I drilled it. The image below shows the situation.

The drill that I am employing here is about the diameter of a paper clip. Look closely and you will see how finely it matches the tip of the pale spear (upper resin part) and the main haft (lower resin part).

Now, I am no fan of the "nipple joint" (if I may call it that) at the bottom of the pale spear. There is precious little strength in such joins. Hence my immediate thought to drill the bits and pin them together.

In the image, it is possible to see that the tip of my drill bit is only fractionally smaller than the end of the pale spear. It is a close and tight match with almost not margin for error. By this, I mean that if I am going to drill it, I'd better be dead-on horizontal with my drill going in to the tip of the spear. The hand at the lower end of the haft is not as great a worry as there is more diameter to work with in case I drill at a slight angle. But for the tip of the spear, it has to be right.

Given my previous work (some masterworks even) over many decades, I figure that I am comfy giving this a go. Even with this previous experience though, it is a case of measure and line up three times and drill once. I look at it from all angles to check - constantly check - that I am drilling as horizontally as I can get it. Even a small deviation will cause the drill head to poke through the spear's side.

The photo below shows what can be accomplished with patience, accuracy, and constant vigilance.

The head of the drill bit is sunk by almost 10mm in to the tip of the pale spear. This is more than sufficient to create a quality pin for the model.

Below is that final pinned model. The only extra work I did here was to start the drilling on the haft of the pale spear by shaving off the nipple and then drilling in to the fist. Again, the depth was about 10mm. 

Although there is still a little bit of work to do here in straightening out the length of the pale spear, I am very happy with this pinning result. A very fine and delicate operation that took the best part of an hour to plan out and eyeball up. I don't recommend this operation for beginners at all though -- there's far too much scope for even a slight error spoiling the model. 

Good going thus far with Alpharius here though!