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I have been looking for method to use the GW rare earth magnets to magnatize my drop pod doors- can anyone point to resources about this as I can not find any. Seems it may be nearly impossible to do.

Thanks,
Ted

Yes its really easy.

Drill bit, Superglue and magnets. There are hundreds of tutorials online and loads around.

Heres a starter for 10, first result on google "how to magnetize space marines"

http://masterdarksol.blogspot.com/2008/09/magnetizing-your-models.html

MunkeyKungFu wrote:Yes its really easy.

Drill bit, Superglue and magnets. There are hundreds of tutorials online and loads around.

Heres a starter for 10, first result on google "how to magnetize space marines"

http://masterdarksol.blogspot.com/2008/09/magnetizing-your-models.html

No really. I searched youtube for "Magnetizing drop pod doors" and got a striping tutorial. I swear, the search engine gods hate me.

Is there anything specific to drop pods? This will be my first project using magnets. Seems like it is going to be difficult, as you need to place 4 magnets per door?

First off, find the spot with the most contact between the doors and the chasis. I don't have a drop pod, but I imagine this would probably be were the tip of the door touches the central turbine.

You don't need to place four magnets per door, one stronger magnet would do, it really depends on how much give the hinges have. If you're magnets are really strong, they don't even need to touch to get a good attraction.

****ing magnets, how do they work?

ClosetRoller wrote:First off, find the spot with the most contact between the doors and the chasis. I don't have a drop pod, but I imagine this would probably be were the tip of the door touches the central turbine.

You don't need to place four magnets per door, one stronger magnet would do, it really depends on how much give the hinges have. If you're magnets are really strong, they don't even need to touch to get a good attraction.

****ing magnets, how do they work?

Don't know if you are being sarcastic here, but I will assume you probably were. That said, let me clarify this for you.

The drops pods were traded. They were used.

Now, I don't know if it is GW'as crappy models, the difficulty of the build or the guy that originally put them together, but some of the doors do not meet the central turbine. Most of this I compensated for with some filing however it isn't perfect. The doors still do not stay shut on their own- they fall open. I have seen this with well built models before though so I am not making any assumptions about the reason.

Even given that, the tip of the door where it meets the turbine is split. Looking around the interwebs, I am searching for tutorials that specifically addresses magnetizing drop pod doors. Not one to be found. All about the weapons. Leads me to wonder why this is so- is it because there isn't enough meat to mount the magnets (doors are two pieces sandwiched together), or is it not needed on a well built model, or maybe it just can't be done? I don't know, but I would think some aspiring modelers or folks with a ton more experience than I either knows why or has done it themselves, so I posted here because I don't want to go drilling holes willy nilly into my $30.00 models.

I hope that brings things into focus, but I didn't think that if I just asked if anyone knew of a tutorial online that demonstrated that it could it would save the trouble of giving my recent life history of drop pods. But yeah, I know how "****ing magnets, how do they work?"- north pole, south pole, sticky sticky. I just don't know if I can mount them, is all.

I don't have a drop pod either but if you took some pics of the doors maybe we could help you a little better

TedintheShed wrote:

Don't know if you are being sarcastic here, but I will assume you probably were. That said, let me clarify this for you.

First of all, I wasn't being sarcastic (you american's really need to work out what sarcasm is) - ''****ing magnets, how do they work?" is a meme. Secondly, you probably should have included all that info in the original post, how was I to know that your drop pods were ropey quality? And thirdly, as I said in my post I don't own a drop pod so I don't know how they fit together.

Next time I'll save my advice for someone with a sense of gratitude.

BloodDrop101X wrote:I don't have a drop pod either but if you took some pics of the doors maybe we could help you a little better

Sure, anything specific you wish me to focus on? I will get them this evening.

Yes just the outline of where the door rests when its closed and the back side of the doors to and I will see what your best options are

ClosetRoller wrote:

TedintheShed wrote:

Don't know if you are being sarcastic here, but I will assume you probably were. That said, let me clarify this for you.

First of all, I wasn't being sarcastic (you american's really need to work out what sarcasm is) - ''****ing magnets, how do they work?" is a meme. Secondly, you probably should have included all that info in the original post, how was I to know that your drop pods were ropey quality? And thirdly, as I said in my post I don't own a drop pod so I don't know how they fit together.

Next time I'll save my advice for someone with a sense of gratitude.

Look at my previous posts here. I have a sincere sense of gratitude to those who give their advice sincerely. Many here have been of great assistance to me, especially since getting back into the game from an almost decade long absence.

Please, save your advice when it is sincere. Then perhaps you will receive that sense of gratitude once you do.

Meanwhile, I will refrain from any "You Brits" references. I have a great deal of disdain for any such sweeping generalities and stereotypes. I prefer to judge folks on their individual merits and not their country of origin.

I was going to magnetize mine until I actually built the thing and the doors all stand up on their own. But thats my build.

However, when I was planning on doing it, I think the perfect place to put a magnet is along the side of the pedals (where all the small circular indents are) and along the fins at a corresponding height. The side of the pedals fit flush against the fins if the pod was built correctly.

I also agree that you probably only will need one magnet per pedal, especially if your using rare earth magnets.

BloodDrop101X wrote:Yes just the outline of where the door rests when its closed and the back side of the doors to and I will see what your best options are

Thanks.

I have some running around to do in town, but when I return I will see if I can get what you want in the gallery.

I know it's a bit late and it isn't a tutorial, but here are some early pictures of my 'actuated' Drop Pod. I made it a couple of months ago and actually works really well. Sadly I don't have any more pictures than these.

The central cilinder houses two magnets with reversed polarity. In the neutral position the doors are held closed by the attracting magnet. The central cilinder can then be pushed down along a clear rod of plastic; this the pushes the other magnet in front of the door-magnet which repels the door slightly outwards. Gravity does the rest.









This of course has no bearing on your question, but perhaps you could use the pictures . The Drop Pod you have is just badly built (which is not very hard with these fidly models) and just should be taken appart.

Here is a link to the magnets you will need. I use the smallest size for SM arms/heads/backpacks. One size up should be fine for what you are wanting.

You can magentize with nothing but a modeling scalpel to shave the socket area, but IMO its better to remove a larger amount of plastic, then do a GS fill and shove the magnet into it. Then LET IT CURE OVERNIGHT. Magnet might come out of the GS housing, but its really really easy to superglue the thing back in place.

As for a tutorial on how to do drop pod doors....trust me, you don't need one. Magnetizing is one of the easiest and more "ooohhhh ahhhhh" conversion techniques.

http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/c-9-disc-magnets.aspx

Thanks guys for the info- I will try it out!

Enginseer, that is a really sweet set up. Thats got to look really great "auto-deploying"
To the OP, what size magnets are you using? That can have a large effect on your placement, and how close they have to be to get the desired effect.

FWIW, the pod kits are a bit of a trial to build, and it's hard to get a good fit. I took the excessive amount of time required to get a good fit, and I also magnetized mine.

If you look at the pics already supplied in this thread, you will note that there are two rectangular depressions flanking the lower magnet. On the door there are two nubbins that fit into those depressions.

I used very small cylinder magnets, and drilled a hole into the depression and nubbin, put a magnet in each, and it worked relatively well.

I also magnetized the weapons inside, so you can swap a Stormbolter out for a Deathwind.

You'll note that the kit only comes with one mounting bracket that's shared by the Stormbolter and Deathwind. I made a RTV mold and duplicated it for my four Drop Pods. That's a lot more information than you asked for.

Enginseer wrote:I know it's a bit late and it isn't a tutorial, but here are some early pictures of my 'actuated' Drop Pod. I made it a couple of months ago and actually works really well. Sadly I don't have any more pictures than these.

That's a really slick-looking idea. I'd love to see a youtube video of the deployment action. Does sliding the central bit or swiveling the doors rub off any paint?