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I am in the middle of magnetizing the arms of a number of my old metal terminators and was wondering if anyone had any tips for keeping them from rotating

Pins are out becaus I would like them to be easily interchangeable

Use two magnets.

use 3 small magnets, they must fit right, but should work (same principle as nails)

Is there a way of doing it without doubling the work.cost of this project? I have 100 terminators ahead of me and was hoping for something a little more time and cost effective than multiple magnets.

Stronger magnets, multiple magnets, or a small pin are the only easy ways I can think of.

You are magnetising all 100 terminators? Why?

Pinning would be logical.

Have 1-2 pins sticking out of the body (or the arm, though I think body might be easier here). Have holes that match up to the pins on the other part, yhe magnet holds it in, the pin stops it moving.

flonky wrote:
You are magnetising all 100 terminators? Why?

Maybe to swap between assault and tactical terminator squads, attach cyclone launchers, chainfists,power fists, lightning claws, storm bolters, heavy flamers thunder hammer/shield and assault cannons in any combination possible.

Call me crazy but I would guess that this is the reason.

HairySticks wrote:

flonky wrote:
You are magnetising all 100 terminators? Why?

Maybe to swap between assault and tactical terminator squads, attach cyclone launchers, chainfists,power fists, lightning claws, storm bolters, heavy flamers thunder hammer/shield and assault cannons in any combination possible.

Call me crazy but I would guess that this is the reason.

Yeah, you nailed it. They are chaos terminators and I have 6 arm options for each side that can be equipped in any combination. I'm tired of buying more terminators so it's time to make all the arms interchangeable.



I would love to do pins but I don;t think I will be able to line them up well enough to fit on every model.

Hrmm.. I may have to go to bigger magnets... but that creates different problems. hmmm

Any more suggestions? Thanks to everyone so far!

Two magnets.

My SM dreadnoughts all have magnetised weapons.

Each arm has two magnets in it (on either side of the socket).
The mounting pins on the body have steel washers (so the arm still fits onto the peg, and the magnets grab the washer).

My dreadnoughts are ALL the 2nd edition metal version (metal version of 'current' design which was done by Jes Goodwin prior to 2nd edition) and even the rather heavy metal arms don't move with this treatment.

With terminators, either an off centre magnet and a central pin - OR two magnets are your options. Otherwise the weight of the arm is enough to make it droop.

hrmm. If I can get all te existing arms to come off clean I may be able to use the existing pin and a single magnet offset.. hrmm

I wonder..


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I have 1 of those dreads and I am fully aware how heavy those massive arms are

Two magnets as said, but I'd reverse the polarity of the second magnet (have one magnet NS and the other SN). This way the magnets cannot rotate or slide at all because any torque applied is countered by the repulsive force from the second magnet. I found this helped with some heavier bits or bits with odd centres of gravity (like tau plasma rifles).

Have you tried putting tape or something over each magnet, a tape witha bit of texture or something, like masking tape or grip tape, just to increase the friction between the two parts? (higher friction = less chance of it rotating, depending on what you use to create the friction.)

If I have an arm or something that just loves to turn I usually end up pinning it. I usually drill holes at the 12o'clock positions of both the arm and the body and add the pin to the body side.

Magnet and pin, To make sure there all universal and swap-able make the first model with pin in body at the center of where the magnet will go and where the actual pin will be, then press each arm into that body giving you 2 marks, one for the pin hole and one for the center magnet hole, once all arms are marked you can remove the second pin from the body and put the magnet in its place, you will now have a magnet and pin in the body, and a magnet and pin hole in all of your arms and they will all be in a uniform location for easy swapping.

Yeah I reckon magnet and pin is the way to go if there's enough space to do it. The magnets usually have enough strength to stop the arm coming off, then the pin just locates it and stops it rotating. I'd just drill the pin hole right next to the magnet to keep things simple.

Magnet and Single Pin is easiest yes.