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Second thread in 40k within a couple of days, forgive me but why wait a few weeks to post another question i really think is interesting and really want to know what large amounts of other players do.
magnet

I don't use magnets at all because i simply don't like the idea of "magnetizing" my models, i really like the idea of a model/miniature being just 1 material through in and out with out having bits you can attach etc, i guess i feel i like the idea of it being more "solid" and less susceptible to parts falling off in what ever situation ( e,g worse case scenario major major earth quake ). And another reasonably big reason is the first time i went to the GW, there were a two people having a game with i think they were "titans" or renegade knights or some thing. Any way every time this guy moved his "knight" the whole thing would be a wobbly mess with all the arms and just all the magnetic areas sliding around, and if i remember right a arm fell off. I assume they would use the same strength magnets everyone else uses, so that's another reason i don't like them.

So i feel its fine to not use magnets and instead 2 or 3 of the same model with different weapons/gear. But my mind could easily be changed i'm noob as heck still.

I use magnets on some models but not all - mainly for cost effectiveness and to save me time painting.

For example, I have magnetised my Ghost Ark where I can swap in the gun and use it as a Doomsday Annihilation Barge.
My Swarmlord has all his arms magnetised so I can use as a Tyrant (including flying)
My Annihilation barge is magnetised so I can use it as a CCB

In contrast however:
My Space marines are 80% unmagnetised (except or the Sarg and special weapons)
Almost all my Tyranid troops are unmagnetised as it's far, far too fiddley

For me the general rule is this - if the unit has lots of viable options and it's easy to magnetise - I do. Otherwise I glue.

Sumilidon wrote:
I use magnets on some models but not all - mainly for cost effectiveness and to save me time painting.

For example, I have magnetised my Ghost Ark where I can swap in the gun and use it as a Doomsday Annihilation Barge.
My Swarmlord has all his arms magnetised so I can use as a Tyrant (including flying)
My Annihilation barge is magnetised so I can use it as a CCB

In contrast however:
My Space marines are 80% unmagnetised (except or the Sarg and special weapons)
Almost all my Tyranid troops are unmagnetised as it's far, far too fiddley

For me the general rule is this - if the unit has lots of viable options and it's easy to magnetise - I do. Otherwise I glue.

Interesting, yeah fiddly is a good word to describe how it looked when i had seen what i described.

I magnetized the carapace and shoulder mounts on my knights, but didn't do the arms. I don't use magnets often, bit this seemed to be easy enough that it made sense.

I magnetize my vehicles, but not my infantry.

A Leman Russ, Chimera, Hell Hound, etc are too expensive per unit to not magnetize in my eyes, and it gives me freedom to switch things up without resorting to the knife. Plus, magnetizing most tank vehicles is pretty easy.

That said, I don't think I would ever bother magnetizing each individual guardsman. That road leads to pointlessness and insanity (and pointlessness as most of them just use lasguns).

Large vehicles yes. Anything else? No.

I've magnetized my Tyranid warriors and larger models, they're fairly easy to do and the magnets are quite strong so as to not worry about them falling apart.

I also did my heavy weapons marines from Calth, but haven't done any other infantry - it's too fiddly to fight with the small magnets.

If you're magnetized bitz are sliding around uncontrollably/falling off you're doing it wrong.

I use magnets on some of my models:
*knights - I'm not buying a knight for every single build. That'd be a colossal waste of $, storage/display space & be really hard to transport. I WILL invest in the enough extra weapon bitz via EBay to make any combo I desire though.
*my wave serpent turret weapons,
*some of my dreadnoughts,
*Tau suits,
*some of my later built Russ sponsons,
*some pieces of big, otherwise awkward to transport, models - like the wings on my hive tyrant,
*the gun/throne on one of my skull cannons,
*all of my juggernaut riders - the demons are really light & spindly & spikey and loved falling off at the slightest touch - but gluing them wastes an incredible amount of transport space....
*my panes/helicopters & flight stands for Flames of War (15mm WWII) - again, transport reasons,
*tank turrets in Flames of War - especially on the current plastic kits. The plastics are very light & if the pin that holds turret to hull ever snaps off then the turrets act just like those juggernaut riders. A few extra moments during assembly solves that permanently.

ccs wrote:
If you're magnetized bitz are sliding around uncontrollably/falling off you're doing it wrong.

I use magnets on some of my models:
*knights - I'm not buying a knight for every single build. That'd be a colossal waste of $, storage/display space & be really hard to transport. I WILL invest in the enough extra weapon bitz via EBay to make any combo I desire though.
*my wave serpent turret weapons,
*some of my dreadnoughts,
*Tau suits,
*some of my later built Russ sponsons,
*some pieces of big, otherwise awkward to transport, models - like the wings on my hive tyrant,
*the gun/throne on one of my skull cannons,
*all of my juggernaut riders - the demons are really light & spindly & spikey and loved falling off at the slightest touch - but gluing them wastes an incredible amount of transport space....
*my panes/helicopters & flight stands for Flames of War (15mm WWII) - again, transport reasons,
*tank turrets in Flames of War - especially on the current plastic kits. The plastics are very light & if the pin that holds turret to hull ever snaps off then the turrets act just like those juggernaut riders. A few extra moments during assembly solves that permanently.

I don't really think though that they assembled them wrong. I think its the way he was handling them when moving them, i think they were gripping the top sort of a thing. Any way i think if you grabbed a fully magnetized titan or what ever, and held it by the base and gave it a reasonable shake it would be quite unstable, but if you only have a couple of parts magnetized i guess it might not matter so much


So maybe i questioned this whole thing wrong forgetting most people probably don't magnetize as much of their models and instead only a couple of parts of the model. But this one i saw seemed like it had a few, either way it almost came apart in some places when simply moving it forward.

I don't because it seems like a bunch of effort and the only benefit is the ability to change a models wargear. While that's probably really useful for most people I'm a person who builds around lore more than winning so changing from edition to edition doesn't matter as much.

I've only used magnets twice- and that was to aid in securing my Storm Eagle to its flight stand and to have the AOW Nurgle herald guy be able to be swapped onto a Palanquin. That's it.

I don't tend to use them as it makes the minis feel more like toys ("Look! They have movable parts! Excitement!") and not display pieces, which they are for me between games.

When I still played, I would magnetize my models to be able to swap wargear, ie scouts between shotguns and sword/pistol.


Same with vehicles.

Since I don't really play anymore, I don't bother with infantry but I still do with most vehicles. A hedge for the future, I guess.

I magnetize larger models for two reasons:
A ) It allows me to multi-purpose a model so I don't fill my home with 20 different Hive Tyrants of various degrees or 60 different Eldar Jetbikes(20 of each option) because I like running 20 of them in a game.
B ) On many models it gives me the fun ability to pose the miniature a bit.

I also magnetize the bases more and more so I can put them into metallic containers for transport.

Ultimately I just like saving space and money while indulging in a hobby that has me buying too much plastic crack.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Any way every time this guy moved his "knight" the whole thing would be a wobbly mess with all the arms and just all the magnetic areas sliding around

That just sounds like they don't know how to properly use magnets. You are supposed to use the right magnet for the job and take other measures if required. I magnetized my two wraithknights with large magnets, but I also made a small pin hole for a pin that is next to the magnet so I can keep the thing on in a good pose.

Guess in the future i will be magnetizing some areas of some models.

I like the theory. I have magnets. I have models. They just haven't got together yet. The first magnets I bought were far too big. I got smaller ones, but I haven't yet got round to hacking.

For medium size models (tyrranid warriors, terminators) I've found that simply using the arm spike and not gluing it or (the horror!) blu tack works.

I love working with magnets.

Assembling models is one of the top parts of the hobby for me, and magnets add a whole new dimension to that.

My favourite project to date was the Octoblade - a Baneblade magnetised for all 8 variants. So much fun to put together!

On top of all that, I enjoy playing about with the different configurations. Buying 8 Baneblades is totally impractical for me, so magnets just give me a ton more gameplay options, and just switching the model around is in itself fun for me!

I also have a fully magnetised Carnifex. Can be regular, Screamer Killer, or Thornback, with all weapons, carapaces, tails, and head options swappable.

For me personally, using magnets is all upside.

 Stux wrote:
I love working with magnets.

Assembling models is one of the top parts of the hobby for me, and magnets add a whole new dimension to that.

My favourite project to date was the Octoblade - a Baneblade magnetised for all 8 variants. So much fun to put together!

On top of all that, I enjoy playing about with the different configurations. Buying 8 Baneblades is totally impractical for me, so magnets just give me a ton more gameplay options, and just switching the model around is in itself fun for me!

I also have a fully magnetised Carnifex. Can be regular, Screamer Killer, or Thornback, with all weapons, carapaces, tails, and head options swappable.

For me personally, using magnets is all upside.

Cool, i will in the future magnetize, but still, i would rather it was not a thing ( i will probably like it once i start doing it ), like i had never herd of this back in the days, when did it become a thing?

Depends on the application, honestly, I know some people who magnetize like every special weapon in their marine list so they have one guy who's just a torso you can put whatever gun on...that seems silly to me, but hey, it's all good. I play casually enough that I don't particularly feel the need to rebuild all my models when the meta shifts.Some people want to maximise the odds that they still have a top tier model when the game changes. It's all preference.

For big models like my Lord of Change, who has the two swappable weapon arms and that's the only thing that differentiates the two builds, I made him with magnets. If you construct them carefully you can make them very solid. I have encountered people who had "floppy knights" and I agree it looks very stupid. I used greenstuff to build a "lock and key" system with my lord of change, so the arm can't rotate and the magnet only disengages when it's pulled directly outward which is a deliberate motion. you can knock him over onto the weapon which I have done before and his arm does not fall off.

I magnetize within what I consider sane limits. So for me that's been

Tyranids
Warriors and anything larger with multiple weapon arms. Mostly I stick to the arms the core bodies of many can be magnetized but it gets a bit more tricky on some and can be a lesser quality result with others. The arms are the most variable option for tyranids - a warrior can be a close combat specialist, artillery, ranged support, a mix - it all depends what arms one chooses. Furthermore what's legal to take can vary from edition to edition. So it not only gives one variety but also future-proofs against codex changes.

Adepticus Titanicus
Warlord weapons - yep again allows for variety of weapon choices rather than having to buy dozens and dozens of warlords for choice.


You can magnetize infantry weapon arms, but for me that's going a stage further than I want to do when assembling my models.

Only on my AT Warlords. They benefit the most from complete interchangability of weapons, in my opinion.

Reavers and Warhounds can make do with blu-tak or similar, as their weapons are much lighter.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Only on my AT Warlords. They benefit the most from complete interchangability of weapons, in my opinion.

Reavers and Warhounds can make do with blu-tak or similar, as their weapons are much lighter.

Same goes for 40k Imperial Knights IMO. So many weapon options, seems silly to me to limit it to one build.

I generally only magnetize weapons on big stuff and the weapons platforms my guardians use. I do use them to attach my jetbikes to the flying bases though, so they take up less room in my case than they would glued in but don't fall off mid game like unglued, also quicker setup than unglued cos you can just wave the bike over the base and it attaches itself.

I used to. I do not anymore.

I actually only do it for models I don't want to get damaged in transit.

I find spindly stuff like Canoptek Wraiths and units with spear like weapons tend to get unwelcome pressure in a busy foam case and are far more secure in a magnetic container.

I use them on most models, tho many are on the bases for magnet racks. All my Wyches special weapons are magnets, all my MC (thats like 20+) for nids are, just units like Gants/Genestealers, Kabals, etc.. dont have them.

Only on things which will need weapon swaps or are likely to get damaged if glued. Not going to bother to magnetise Marine weapons, but would magnetise a Dreadnought.

 Valkyrie wrote:
Only on things which will need weapon swaps or are likely to get damaged if glued. Not going to bother to magnetise Marine weapons, but would magnetise a Dreadnought.

Yeah, this is the reason I didn't click "I use magnets on all models". I'm not magnetising a bolter tactical marine!

Poll options should probably have been worded a bit differently.

I did magnetise a thousand son's backpack so I can take off the icon of flame though.

I do not often magnetize most infantry. a space marine will be modeled with a bolter or special weapon and stay that way. my ork boys are slugga choppa or shoota, no need to magnetize there.

larger models will sometimes be magnetized for ease of storage or wargear options in some cases. most vehicles I end up magnetizing as well.

examples of for modeling and storage. my imperial knights are magnetised at the waist so the break up to 2 halves. I also have a magnet up top for carapace weapon options and the arms are magnetized so that they can be either.

a modeling for space alone is my Custodian bikers. the lance arms are magnetized so they can be dynamically posed as they fly around but fit neatly in a smaller area. ditto all of my planes, my ork dakkajets are magnetized at the wings, and the storm ravens are magnetized so 2 fit into the box of 1 storm raven in space. ditto for my helldrakes,

an example of equipment is my morka/gorkanaught is magnetized to accept all weapons and wargear options and stand in as both models. it also breaks down intho 2 pieces for space

a wargear only case is my allorus terminators where at $50 for 3 models I want to choose my weapons options and so I have them magnetized at the haft of the weapon and magnetized to swap in spears, axes, or banner depending on what I want to field the model with for that list.

another war gear only one i highly suggest for orks is the meganobz kit, magnetise the body to allow the kustom forcefield on or off, and for imperial players I did the same for cyclone missile launchers on my terminator squads.

Only infantry I magnetize are Deathwatch. I do magnetize most larger expensive models like knights, dreads, etc. I even magnetized my dunecrawler and I want a second but I'm kinda dreading it because it's a PITA lol. Kinda like the Knight warden, GW made a couple weapon configurations require some clever modifications to enable all options.

The more varied the model data sheet equates to how much magnets you use.

Personal findings:

Tau: All the larger suits have multiple possible weapon layouts and each one is a very different look. Magnets let you quickly change the layout to match the data sheet you are using.

Necrons: A few vehicles have two different ways of playing them, and have different looks for each. All the Arks the Barges and the Flyers each can use magnets to change the single model into one of the other modes.

Daemons: Bloodthirster has three different ways of equipping it, magnets at the right spots lets you change them out.

Knights: Again, weapons are each different and varied and good strong magnets help a lot. Also, with the size you can put a good magnet setup to break it down for transportation.

Overall, you need to get the correct size and strength will let you have the look you want to go with the datasheet you are using.

Example: the knights I built, I replaced the plastic dome at the waist on the leg side with a metal cap (can't remember what it was called, found it for less than a buck at Ace Hardware looks like a metal top hat it was the perfect size for that round area), and a 13 pound pull N52 magnet, it does not come apart until I pull it apart.