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I just got my Kingdom Death: Monster box in the mail this week, and I'm super excited to start playing it. My dream when I bought the game was to have each weapon and armour set be fully interchangeable. After looking at a few of the sprus I think I can do this. I bought 400 2mm x 1mm N40 rare earth magnets, 200 1mm x 0.5mm N50 rare earth magnets, and a bottle of fine grain iron shavings. The plan is to use the bigger N40 magnets for the torsos and legs and the smaller N50 magnets in the limbs and wrists, and then adding the iron shavings to flesh colored paint for the hands and heads.

I know this will be a challenging and have a heavy time commitment, but the end result should be awesome. I know that there are some limitations to magnets and I will need to glue certain things like necklaces other accessories (quivers and ammo will be difficult, but I'm hoping a solution presents itself as I get to those items). But I think that is ok for a project like this. I'm going to start with the unarmoured armour set because I don't like the models as much as the other armour kits and I have the starting 4 survivors I can use if I royally mess up and need to abandon the project. I am now just waiting for the magnets to show up in the mail, and I will hopefully be posting pictures and progress once a week. I am a graduate student, and so hobby time is not something I have had a lot of for the last few years, but I think I should be able to update this blog periodically.

I have watched a few videos online of a guy magnetizing his KD pinups, so I know it is at least possible to do it with varying results.
Getting some input while I'm still in the planning stages would be very useful. So if anyone has thoughts or input that might help or things I have not thought of I'm receptive to the input.

Best of luck! TBH, I looked at the minis yesterday, and I think it would be easier and cheaper (in terms of time spent) to just buy additional survivors and armor kits (I assume these will be available) every time you want to start a new game, etc. (maybe get your friends to pitch in some cash if you're organizing a campaign) and just glue the stuff on as you go (or maybe just wait until the end, that way everyone gets a finished custom survivor mini to take home and paint to remember the game by.

Thanks chaos0xomega. I thought of that option, but the total cost of the magnets and iron shavings was $65. On the kickstarter one armour kit is $25 or $50 for 5 of the same kit. The real cost will be in the time spent, and I have no idea how much longer it will take me to magnetize everything compared to just gluing it. But I'm hoping I will be able to do an armour kit a week.

fair point about the cost, maybe poots will release a package deal for like $100 containing 4 survivors and one of each armor set or something. As I understand it, its unlikely for a group to craft more than 1 full set of any of the various armors anyway, so given whats included you probably don't need that much anwyway.

I'm waiting for my KDM preorder still so I'll be looking forward to what you come up with! I've thought about magnetizing things but I think it depends what could realistically be needed in the game - e.g. what's the minimum amount of magnets needed to cover the biggest range of common options.

How much experience do you have with magnetizing? I think I'd go for max 2 magnets per model to avoid getting overlapping fields on such tiny/thin models and parts, it will drive you crazy. My one bit of advice would be to check your poles are correct, nothing worse than doing all the little arms to find your torso magnet is the wrong way round....

Also getting smooth paint jobs will be harder and probably something that will put me off too many magnets. Giving so much variety is a clever marketing trick, I think if my friends like playing we will probably end up with multiple kits!

I had forgotten about overlapping fields. I will make sure to keep an eye out for that. My plan to make sure that my poles are correct is use the stack of magnets like a pencil and color one end of the stack with a red sharpy. That way, when I add magnets to the torso I should always see the red end. Then I will attach a magnet to the torso that is mean to sit in its opposite groove. That should keep everything consistent across each armour kit. Also the hands and heads will have iron paint so polarity is a little less of an issue. Does that make sense?

Personally, I'm just going to be building my favorite versions of each survivor. They're not going to be strict WYSIWYG, because that's way too much effort when they can re-gear at a drop of a hat.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Personally, I'm just going to be building my favorite versions of each survivor. They're not going to be strict WYSIWYG, because that's way too much effort when they can re-gear at a drop of a hat.

I think I'll see what happens during my first few games, maybe some trusty blutac to start with.

I've not actually held the models so not sure how much contact surface there is as they seem quite delicate.

The red sharpie is a good idea I've seen others use, just make sure each magnet is glued and dry before adding the next. Trying to do the torso in one go on thin models tends to flip some of the magnets (same poles are facing using red sharpie method) if the glue isn't dry or the holes aren't snug or just pulls them out of the holes and onto the one you're trying to place. Adding a small bit of green stuff helps pull the magnet off the stack and stay in the hole. Also only using a small amount of superglue helps avoid sticking your entire stack together!

I'll be interested to see what you come up with! =)

Oh, yeah, I generally don't do magnets.

I would, however, recommend that you glue the one magnet into the hip / shoulder / wrist, then check other magnet on the torso / arm / hand before you glue it.

I took some pics of my magnetization process.



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You'll want to include a magnet on the back for the Lion Cape or extra weapons, and also a magnet on the waist for weapons, bone darts and frenzy potions or other accessories.

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Here is some detail on the hand, what drill size I used and how I put the cut wire from hardware cloth into the hand. It's superglued into the hand and only slides in and out for easy change up into the arm socket.

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Those look really good! Thanks for the tip for the back and the side. I will make sure to do that. All my magnets just showed up in the mail yesterday! I will hopefully begin working on the unarmoured set tonight or tomorrow.

Wow, thanks for sharing the pictures. That's some good work.

However, the joints are making this look more and more like I want to do traditional modeling, just to GS the ball-socket gaps.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Wow, thanks for sharing the pictures. That's some good work.

However, the joints are making this look more and more like I want to do traditional modeling, just to GS the ball-socket gaps.

Most of the Shoulder sockets fit so nice you can't tell. I'll have to show more pictures as the guy with the bow and arrow isn't the best example. There was a small learning curve and I did have some casualties. Let me get some more pictures for you guys, will be up tomorrow.

Here is a sample of the weapon rack customization I am making for each armor kit. This will make it easier to find what I need at a quick glance. I drilled holes to fit the hands for mounting and added more magnets for the torsos. The rack itself was made from the kingsman sprue.

Glad to see i'm no the only one trying this. All my friends (some who also have KD) angrily insist i'm waisting my time and that it wont be worth it. Then I show them this....

good inspiration to show you that the amount of money you spent on 1 game isn't wasted when it turns out as cool as this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e36YhrtopqU

I agree. It's going to be epic once it's all assembled and painted. Only 9000 more hobby hours to go!