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.

This is an automated message added by the articles system.

A new article titled Magnetising Vehicles has been added to the dakka articles system.

This message thread is for the discussion of content in the article.

If you have anything to add to the article, then just jump in and edit it by going to the actual article page and clicking 'edit' (the link can be found just above the article). If there is no edit link then the article is locked for now, so just add your comments or content to this thread and if they are appropriate then they should eventually get merged in.

If there is something in the article that you wish to debate or comment on, then this is the place to do it. Just hit the reply button and get chatting! You need to be registered and logged in to post in the forums so if you are an anonymous article editor then now would be a great time to register and join in dakka's great forum discussion!

Honestly, for people who play the game and not just do miniatures for model's sake, magnetizing is extremely valuable. You can pay $20 for tiny powerful magnets, or as some friends do, peel the metal magnets off the back of refrigerator magnet displays and break them into small pieces with needle nose pliers. Ether way, you're saving a tremendous amount of money, painting and using every piece in your model kit, and prepared to be compliant with WYSIWYG.

Diesel thank you, you have articulated the argument for magnetisation really well. We can all save a fortune, and still have all the options available in the codex with out having to buy 9 x different razorbacks when you can 3 with 9 different turrets you can swap out.

I have gone as far as to magnetise certain characters like my Chaplain, so he can have a Jump pack or normal backpack. Same with my assault squad with normal and jump packs giving me options.

Realised my article was quite dis-jointed so have modified it and added some more pictures.

In that respect, how do you magnetize your infantry items like different arms and such without the arms drooping around on their magnetic connection? Another edit: To clarify, gravity on things like arms would have the arms swing as low as possible and still be connected.

EDIT: You can look through my submitted images in my gallery to see the magnets I use for my guardian support weapon team, so that I can use all five guns on one base interchangeably.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/156640-.html?m=2

Like your style, that is the 1st time i have seen magnetisation on something other than an imperial vehicle. I think after a while you see the world in terms of multiple usage, I'll always try to build in as many options as possible. If you want to add some bits into my article above, I am not precious about it. I would rather have a comprehensive document that is accessible to all.

How do you keep your dread's arms from sagging?

Use Rare earth magnets they are very, very strong they easily hold the weight of a plastic or resin arm. White metal, well it would have to be an over engineered solution and i don't have any XP with Metal Dreads.

Well, I used the smallest I could find on E-bay for my Eldar plastic heavy weapons crew. They were 1/32" X 1/16" ... TINY. To fit inconspicuously on such a small joint. What I plan on doing with my wraithlord was pretty ambitous. I'm not sure what I would call it... "loose pinning"? I would use a magnet to make the arm cling, and to keep it from sagging use a very fine pinning on multiple locations on the torso and one location on each specific arm. One pinhole to keep stable a magnetized brightlance weapon holding arm, and another pinhole on the sword wielding arm. The arm's pin would be glued permanant, and the torso would be ungluded to be removable by pulling the arm off. That way, with pins in each arm at the right spot, I could interchange arms with them being in the right position to hold a weapon's grip with the off hand or have a fist exposed in the event of a sword. It would be harder to do more than one pinhole on smaller, infantry sized models but I think would work great on many "monstrous creatures." But if you did it right with the smaller ones you may be able to do it by positioning the torso pinhole to work with the spot on each arm that fits at a pinned point to accomodate. I plan on taking pictures of it later. Do you get what I mean? Do you think that would work , if I can do it successfully. Do you know what I mean? Do you think that's a feasible method?

EDIT: I realize that is kind of hard to imagine without a visual aid but if I ever get around to it I will post pics here. But I am basically saying, do as if you were pinning on the arm, and make the pinhole on the torso, but don't glue the pin into the torso. That way, if the weight of the part was enough to make the magnet rotate, the pin on the arm would hold it in place.

Yeah it would work, but only if you think it through thoroughly and plan it well. If you have a good engineering mind and have good spacial awareness and appreciation you can do some very clever models that can swap out and literally no one could tell. I could see that being useful with Eldar units, especially Jetbikes and any units with multiple upgrades. If I am honest I have about 2 different types of magnets. A 1mm thick but 7mm wide disc magnet good for Dread Arms, Predator Turrets, Razorback Turrets and alike. I have smaller thicker magnets, that are 3mm thick and 5mm wide disc magnets, i used them on smoke launchers and Vehicle upgrades as well as Jump packs.

The technique I use, makes use of the magnet as its own pivot, the arm can orientated to any position and it will not fall off as the attraction is that strong. It makes it easy to move the arm and re-position it. I use the technique of "magnet Pinning" which is my own term for it. I drill a 4mm Hole about 4mm into Body of the object and then the other item, I then very gently file out the last 1mm. I dry fit the items so they are flush and then glue the magnets (In the correct orientation) and Zap glue them into the hole. The magnets aren't strong enough to attract to a single piece of wire reliably with enough force to hold an arm upright it would sag.

Problems I have discovered is the magnets are so bloody strong they can unseat themselves as the glue dries so make sure they dry well clear of metal objects. Secondly use cocktail sticks or toothpicks to get the magnet seated remember don't use metal tools! To check polarity without destroying the model or accidentally glueing the magnets together use a sheet of paper. The magnets will attract through the paper, but you can easily seperate them afterwards. (You have no idea how infuriating some of these magnets are once they stick they are a bugger to move)

How do you get around the painting of the magnets? Do you end up painting over them, or do you tape them over to keep the paint off?

In my experience, as long as you don't apply more than just a very thin layer to cover the magnet up, the magnet should work fine. However, if you have the opportunity, your magnets should be embedded into recesses of the model. Either drill a hole to fit the magnet in, or the joint will already be covered by other parts of the model. This way, when the magnets meet, no part of them is visually exposed. If this is not possible, then I would paint it. But be advised that the weaker the magnet, the less thickness of paint you want. Even the weakest magnets should be good to go for a basecoat with detailing, though.

I use rare earth magnets (neodym) for my dread arms & veshicles - I recommend embedding them and putting a thin layer of superglue on top of the magnet to prevent it from getting damaged or pulled out of the hole.
The 4mm x 1mm disc magnets are strong enough to keep AC and LC resin arms of my chaos dreads up without drooping (since those are the arms with the most weight on their tip, I guess it should be alright with other arms as well).
As for a metal dread - one magnet should be enough to hold the arm - but to prevent it from drooping, either use another magnet off-center or a small pin.

I have yet to do it, but I had every intention of doing the magnet/pinning thing that the previous poster Ashrag described. If you do different pinoles in the base model, you can change held positions of the arms, or if a part that goes there must have a pin placed at another angle or distance down the limb or gun, just bore more than one pinhole, one for all of the different placements. I would try to place the pins in such a way that they go into as many common pinholes as possible so that you do not disfigure your main model with a scattering of pinholes.

As it turns out, the joints for a wraithlord are so small, it makes pinning along with magnetizing virtually impossible. I'm still working on it, though.

EDIT: Here's what I've got so far....
First picture shows the finished result. A magnet at the wrist holds to a magnet at the base of the arm, and the pin holds the hand in it's direction without swinging around. Which it did before I installed the pin. the disadvantage to this is that the pin is easily seen. It will have to be painted black or blend in quite with without being an eyesore. Plus the joint is still just a tad wobbly. Without hardly any room for both the magnet and the pin, the hand sits a tad too low on the arm.

Picture two shows what they look like separated.

It works. It may look better when painted. I'm going to try to keep going with it. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

I would drill out the Wrist and arm measure it exceptionally accurately and order some Rare Earth magnets in that size, I wish I was there with my tool box of drills and magnets, I reckon you could magnetise this. It would take a steady hand and some confidence but it is not beyond the wit of man. The Should joint looks perfect for a magnet on the arm, it would take careful planning on the Body and small pilot hole and gentle make it larger and err on the side of caution gently removing the plastic with an ultrafine file.It would be fiddly but the result would be pretty spectacular. The size and variety of rare earth magnets available these days makes almost anything possible, with a bit of fore thought and planning.

Wow, this was a fantastic article, I had wondered why when you searched ebay for warhammer figures, a bunch of rare earth magnets come up!

Thank you for the article, inspiring!

Ok, so I got rid of the very tiny magnets and decided that 3x1mm magnets were the better answer. Much smaller ones fit easily into joints but were too weak to support arms. These are of course hard to disguise but have very good holds. Plus, when painted over will probably look much more natural.

Oh, and mwnciboo, do you want me to post any of this on your article?

Yes please, it will make the Article much better, I might even change its title to Magnetising Vehicles and Characters. Once we get more stuff in it I will edit it and put up all the contributers and your Avatar at the top..

It looks beautiful by the way, they should be strong enought to hold the arms in any position so you will have a very dynamic model, which is great when you have a clash between it and a character you can setup an assault pose etc. I really think this model looks "Smart" and fits the eldar piece perfectly.

Nice tutorial my friend, very informative and easy to follow. One thing though; you can get away with using smaller magnets on your vehicles as too many attachments/detachments will probably result in the magnets pulling loose due to the attraction strength. The turrets especially may work better in the long run with 4 tiny magnets at each "corner."

Keep up the good work though my friend, everyone should know how to magnetise their models

Posted pics and sections based on what I have posted here on comments so far. Just a heads up.

Matt you make several very good points, It is with experience I have discovered new ways and simpler ways of doing things. I will still use large magnets for my Turrets because the magnet rotates freely on top of another magnet. However you are quite right about mutual attraction and unseating the magnets.

I am hoping me and Diesel (plus anyone else who wants to contribute) can add in to this Article. All I ask is that people put up good clear Photos and give some value added advice....

In addition to the wraithlord info I put up on the article, I have just finished magnetizing a Dire Avenger Exarch's arms to the torso so that now I can swap out all of it's wargear. I will be posting pics and instructions on how to magnetize infantry on a day soon.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok it's up.

Thanks for the tips and walkthroughs.

I've been having problems with the magnets popping out when I've been lining them up. I've been doing Eldar platforms and war walkers, and putting a pair of 1mmx1mm cube magnets in them, with a gap of 1mm or so between them.
So, I have been fitting the magnets to the weapon mounts and popping them in a zip-loc bag.
This means that the plastic of the bag holds the mount magnets in, and you can stick the magnets for the weapons to that while shoving the pre-glued weapon down on top of it. Just twist the weapon off the mount, and the magnets hold in place.

And, nice to see the DAs there. I'me about to do my 2nd one soon, and might just have to give that a go.

Lining up rows is tough. I personally don't because of the problem you described. But if I had to do it, I would glue one at a time so you only have to deal with one magnet moving around. Hold it in place with a bit of your sprue tree for a few minutes while you watch a show, so that when it is mostly dry and you let go, it won't move.

This does of course risk gluing your sprue piece to the magnet if you used too much or got any on the outside, but it can be twisted off. Not pulled - this may take the magnet with it. The square face of the other magnet will help your half-dry one from twisting around and off.

You also need to watch out that you unify your polarization, so I would score/scratch all of one side your magnets on the same polarization so you don't accidentally glue them mismatched.

Really is a good idea. i shall return to this page once i have the materials to follow through with ur planz.

One suggestion: Put the magnets just on the body. Put a metal plate on the other part. This prevents the options from ripping at each other, sticking together and pulling the magnets off the options. So for example:

Dreadnought body = magnets
Arms = metal plates

Now, if a part is a hub (It attatches to something, but something attatches to it as well) you put a plate where it attatches to the vehicle, and then put a magnet where the other options attatch. Another example:

Rhino body = magnets
Turret = plate on bottom, magnets where barrel connects
Barrels = metal plates

Hope this helps!