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I magnetized the wings on a bloodthirster and I have come to a big problem, the magnets don't have enough traction to eachother to the wings keep sliding down, not down as in the magnets are coming off each other but down as in they are pivoting on eachother I need some help I tried a thin layer of superglue to maybe give it some traction but that diddnt help

Bigger magnets or a pin or two, only glue the pin on one side so it can still come apart.

The bigger magnets is out of the question as in I can't get the previous magnet out so how would you do the pin


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Maybe a paper clip inserted into a hole?

Exactly right. A paperclip length glued in a hole will give you a good pin.

Alternatively, you could use an additional magnet in another location, to force the magnets to only align in one configuration, but if they are shifting around, a pin like that might be much easier and more likely to work.

There is no other place to put a magnet so I will try the pin tomorrow thanks

Green stuff really helps with magnets!

Sounds like you might be out of luck. Especially if they are now stuck.
The magnets sit flush right?
Got pictures?

IF there is enough room to the side of the magnet on both sides for a pin but otherwise if there is no space there wont be much you can do.

I've managed to get magnets out by digging at them with a metal toothpick. It caused some damage to the surrounding plastic but if you're putting in bigga magnets then that won't matter

To get incorrectly - or ineffectively - placed magnets out, your best bet is drilling carefully from the other side. I used a 2mm thick nail to push. This allows applying more force than the glue can provide.

There are two options for avoiding that a magnet joint rotates. The first is already mentioned - provide a stop, for example a paperclip wire glued into one side and inserted into a correctly positioned hole on the other part.

My preference is to deliberately space the magnets about 0.5 to 1 millimetere apart, by inserting them with a spacer. That means that the magnets pull the two parts together rather than resting on each other. The painted plastic parts themselves will have much more friction than the chromed magnets.

To get a magnet out... drill a hole along side it, and lever it out with a paperclip.

Itle leave a slightly damaged hole, fill that with putty as you reset the magnet, or drill a bigger hole etc.

A single pair of magnets often has this spinning around problem, as they have no pull in the direction to stop it. Are round themselves, and polished up nice and smooth too...

The only way to stop it is magnet + a pin or two pairs of magnets in many situations.
Ive got a Marine that can hold a battle standard pole, or a sword magnetised at the wrist, and his banner suffers with this quite badly no room to pin along side either.

There is no good place for a pin so what if I put two small magnets on one of the larger magnets? It will be a little raised but I can fix that with green stuff

If you're having rotation problems you'll often get better results if you use a smaller magnet and key the joint in such a way that it locks in only one position. So use a smaller magnet and fit a pin in the side, or even just when you greenstuff around the magnet make one side have a slight groove/slot and the other side a slight protrusion that fits in to that groove/slot.

You can also stack multiple magnets to give stronger pull. I wouldn't put a smaller magnet on a bigger one, as the problem is surface area and friction... though I guess you could put a smaller magnet on the bigger one and use the extra space to key the join, I guess that would be slightly stronger than simply using smaller magnets to begin with, though usually the pull strength isn't the problem with rotating parts.

Ok. You're asking about friction. Not traction. If you increased the magnetic force, the wings won't pivot but you can't do that presumably. So, try to use a pin vice. Place a pin in the wing (or body) adjacent to the magnet. Glue the pin in. Then drill a corresponding hole into the opposite piece. Viola. No pivoting.


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gak. I should've read the thread. Give us a picture?

If you can see the hole on the body that is where I drilled the hole for the pin to go into but when I was doing the other hole I found out that there was not enough material to drill into

Here is the wing and I had an idea what if I used some green stuff to make a bulge in the base of the wing so that there was enough space for a hole? I have never used green stuff so i don't know how that will turn out

So my out of the box thinking is this,

Ditch the magnets on the Torso and get some 2mm square metal rod (preferably a metal that is magnetic or it will fail, but not necessarily a magnet) point, it doesn't have to be a magnet for a magnet to stick to it.

As the wing magnets appear to be recessed fairly well, File or even with a hacksaw blade make a groove into the wing to match the width/depth of the metal rod. Lay the metal rod in the groove and then cut this to size, or a fraction smaller, so you can fill the cut that shows on the model with green stuff at the end.

When you're happy that metal bar fits in place attach the metal piece to the model in position you want the wings set at.

A pin is good in theory but it's more of a permanent fix to stop things becoming misaligned, by the time you've tried to plug the wing in to a hole that small 5 or 6 times or you catch it in play the tiny amount of resin surrounding it will crumble and you'll be here again.

This Creates a kind of ridge and groove, locking mechanism far much better for non fixed heavier jointing will naturally pivot as it has 2 points locking it in place (4 if you want to make a X)

Hope this helps someone, If not look forward to your negative comments =P

Iike that idea do you have an example of this? And where do you suggest I get the metal rod? I can remove the magnets on the torso pretty easily

Is the problem pivoting or sliding? (Not quite sure from your original post)

If the problem is pivoting, as a last ditch- nothing else works- measure, you could join the two wings in the middle. This would arguably need some creative sculpting to look decent.

 Alienoid wrote:
Iike that idea do you have an example of this? And where do you suggest I get the metal rod? I can remove the magnets on the torso pretty easily

As I'm not from your neck of the woods my only suggestion for getting would be E-Bay, you could try a google search for K&S Metals, though as an afterthought you could use the same kind of approach by attaching a couple of notches from plasticard or sprue to the torso magnets correspond with the grooves on the wing.

I don't have any current examples but you want a shape representing the UK London Underground logo. (Circle with a rectangle through it)

If you can Imagine the wing socket as a Screw Head, and the Torso mounting as a fixed Screwdriver that's kind of what you're after =(

Sorry I can't be of much more use to you in the way of pictures, I personally know it works through FW building but it's my word against anyone who hasn't tried it =P

Again failing this, Bridge the wings as suggested above.

I think you're making this harder than it needs to be. The problem is the wings pivot around the magnet due to their weight, yeah? They're not falling off, just pivoting?

Just cut a chunk (slot, groove, whatever) out of the resin next to the magnet on one side of the join. On the other side of the join, place some sort of protrusion that will fit in to that groove, thus stopping the wing from pivoting while the magnet holds it in place. This could be a blob of greenstuff, it could be a pin (you don't have to have an actual hole the pin slots in to as if you were pinning a heavy joint for gluing, it just needs to be something the pin will catch on, in fact I'd recommend NOT using a long pin and a deep hole you'll probably accidentally snap it off, a small hole maybe 1mm deep or a groove for the pin to slot in to will be sufficient) or you could even just superglue on another small piece of resin.

From the pictures, the joint you are having troubles with is actually rather simple as there's a lot of meat around the magnets that you can play with in order to create a keyed joint that won't pivot.

Yes my problem is pivoting and I think I found a spot that I can make sort of a "stop" on the torso so the wing won't pivot past a point

Thought I'd check back and see if you had managed to solve the problem =)

Not yet haven't had the time to do anything I have around five 3 page essays I had to do