Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I just bought one of the new tau broadside kits and while looking at the spure it looks like you can build both the rail and missle pod arms. I want to magnetize it but not sure how I should do it since the arms attach To the body with a ball joint. Any help tips or links will be greatly appreciated

I've been contemplating the same problem. It might be easier to just pin the arms.

I was thinking of just sticking a small 1/8" diameter magnet in the end of the ball joint, and using a pin to keep the arm from rotating down with gravity.

Alternatively, you can put the magnet on top of the ball join, but I'm not sure a 1/8" magnet could support the weight of the arm to keep gravity from pulling it down.

Just for the record, it's totally doable. I magnetized mine last night. It was a bit of a pain, but it works just fine. Well worth the time to save $150 on 3 Broadside kits.

You could also trim the ball down to a flat surface, stick a normal magnet to it and then fill the socket in wtih GS to give you a flat surface to stick the other magent to. You would have to choose your arm position in advance, obviously, but it would solve the rotation issue.

Hi MadmanMSU,

Would love if you have any more details on successful magnetisation. Where you placed them, if / how you trimmed the ball sockets down

Thanks

lucasbuck wrote:
Hi MadmanMSU,

Would love if you have any more details on successful magnetisation. Where you placed them, if / how you trimmed the ball sockets down

Thanks

For those that are curious, I did exactly what Flinty suggested. I trimmed the ball joint down to a flat surface and stuck a magnet on it. I actually tried drilling a hole in them first, but it didn't go like I wanted, so I just took my sprue snips and cut off half of the ball, then filed it down a little bit to make it flat.

For the missile pod arms, all I did was drop a 3mm magnet into the socket with some super glue. It fits snugly. You might have to push it in with the end of a paint brush, but there's no way that magnet is coming out.

For the Railgun arms, I had to drill a hole at an angle. You have to line up the magnets so they will be flat together on contact, but the resulting position will have the arm pointed at the right angle. It's a little tricky, but it's do-able. To finish, I also magnetized the point where the right gun arm and the left gun arm meet on the gun, so it holds them both together.

The resulting look I got was less of a huge mech holding a giant gun like a sniper rifle, and more like a giant mech holding a gun like the Terminator would hold a chaingun, which I actually like. Kinda like in this picture:

http://www.figures.com/forums/attachments/news/1323d1254947668-necas-terminator-2-series-2-1minigun2.jpg

You could do it so the gun was more "sniper" like, you just have to be super careful with your magnet placement.

Edit: If I remember, I'll post pictures when I get home tonight.

MadmanMSU wrote:

lucasbuck wrote:
Hi MadmanMSU,

Would love if you have any more details on successful magnetisation. Where you placed them, if / how you trimmed the ball sockets down

Thanks

For those that are curious, I did exactly what Flinty suggested. I trimmed the ball joint down to a flat surface and stuck a magnet on it. I actually tried drilling a hole in them first, but it didn't go like I wanted, so I just took my sprue snips and cut off half of the ball, then filed it down a little bit to make it flat.

For the missile pod arms, all I did was drop a 3mm magnet into the socket with some super glue. It fits snugly. You might have to push it in with the end of a paint brush, but there's no way that magnet is coming out.

For the Railgun arms, I had to drill a hole at an angle. You have to line up the magnets so they will be flat together on contact, but the resulting position will have the arm pointed at the right angle. It's a little tricky, but it's do-able. To finish, I also magnetized the point where the right gun arm and the left gun arm meet on the gun, so it holds them both together.

The resulting look I got was less of a huge mech holding a giant gun like a sniper rifle, and more like a giant mech holding a gun like the Terminator would hold a chaingun, which I actually like. Kinda like in this picture:

http://www.figures.com/forums/attachments/news/1323d1254947668-necas-terminator-2-series-2-1minigun2.jpg

You could do it so the gun was more "sniper" like, you just have to be super careful with your magnet placement.

Edit: If I remember, I'll post pictures when I get home tonight.

if you dont mind could you tell us the size of magnats you used? i plan to order some magnats soon and would like to add them to the list

Pretty sure it was 1/8 inch by 1/32 inch. Smaller might fit better, but the 1/8 have a nice hold on them. I just ordered some smaller ones for doing the support systems and weapon add ons, but the 1/8 work fine for doing the arms.

I would recommend a 3/16 by 1/32 for doing the gun part though. I used a flat 1/2 inch, which works fine, but is probably too big. I'll swap that out tonight for a smaller one.

I've just finished magnetising my first broadside, also to note, this is my first magnetisation ever!
all went quite well, i used the same technique as above, filing the ball shoulder sockets down and using a 2mm x 1.5mm magnet in the ball sockets / arm shoulder pieces / back armour gun mounts / back armour weapons and special items as well as an addition one on the hand / gun socket on the rail rifle.

3 pictures attached of sockets and 2 different configurations
very pleased with this all round.

lucasbuck

Here are some more shots of the suit with arms / weapons on
apologies for the bright flash of my phone cam + crap all over my desk in the background

Probably going to try this tomorrow. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble.