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Hey All,

Looking to start magnetizing my models mostly bases and arms of regular boys and then army and waist of dreadnoughts.

I have the bases covered with magnet barons selection of base magnets but what sizes should I use for changing arms on Astartes and also arms and waist of dreadies?Any recommendations? Id like to be able to Xfer weapons for war-gear change outs.

Thanks!

I tried magnetizing arms once. for a squad of 5 (puppets of war - crusaders)
And will NEVER magnetize arms again, it was extremely time and labor consuming, and one of the arms is GONE, it fell somewhere and got lost in the warp, cleaned room and never recovered it.
Unless you are working on a stop motion animatic series and need posable miniatures, it is not worth it imho. arms will fall off, and you will lose them.

But, I used 2mm magnets for the arms.

skip magnet baron and use cheaper magnets from eBay, you want 3x1mm, 2x1mm round mostly, but assorted of larger ones will do you good too, maybe some 3x1 Ring type as well for certain joints that require extra strength. I normally wouldn't bother magnetize bases or regular troops, but that's up to you, main thing is to keep your polarity universal throughout your collection, mark 1 side with a marker for + just before gluing.

I use 2x2mm and 3x2mm magnets for most things. 5x2mm for under bases.

 Mothsniper wrote:
I tried magnetizing arms once. for a squad of 5 (puppets of war - crusaders)
And will NEVER magnetize arms again, it was extremely time and labor consuming, and one of the arms is GONE, it fell somewhere and got lost in the warp, cleaned room and never recovered it.
Unless you are working on a stop motion animatic series and need posable miniatures, it is not worth it imho. arms will fall off, and you will lose them.

But, I used 2mm magnets for the arms.

Oh I figured it may be good for tourny stuff if I need to swap wargear for army build. Maybe it is unnecessary. I would want base magnets just for ease of magnets on my cork to paint as well as storage/travel


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Big Mac wrote:
skip magnet baron and use cheaper magnets from eBay, you want 3x1mm, 2x1mm round mostly, but assorted of larger ones will do you good too, maybe some 3x1 Ring type as well for certain joints that require extra strength. I normally wouldn't bother magnetize bases or regular troops, but that's up to you, main thing is to keep your polarity universal throughout your collection, mark 1 side with a marker for + just before gluing.

Am I looking for a certain type of magnet? I just figured the baron ones were super strong but I am not a magnetologist.

Have a look at puppetswar
https://puppetswar.eu/accessories/hobby/magnets.html

Their magnets seem to be much cheaper. 100x 3x2mm is 13,95€ on Magnet Baron but just 5,60 € on Puppetswar. And I assume there are even cheaper options out there.

On the magnetizing topic: I never did single arms (as a IG collector that would have been excessive), but I did weapons options on sentinels which should be comparable to Dreadnaught weapon options. For those I would recommend 3x2mm at least, larger if you can fit them in there. I don't have the best experience with magnets smaller then 3x1mm or 2x2mm, because anything smaller is extremely fiddly and oftentimes to weak to avoid loosing parts as Mothsniper wrote.

For magnet I would recommend Amazon. I got 100 5mmx2mm for some scenery stuff for £7

I usually get my magnets off MagMan, very cost effective.

As for magnetising - I would highly recommend it. Even just for future proof, even if a particular option is 100% the obvious choice now, who knows what 11th or even 12th edition will bring? And the ability to just swap in a new gun is gonna be great compared to having to buy and paint a whole new kit (and then to just have the old one gathering dust and taking up space). After a few editions I've started magnetising some places that don't even serve a purpose, it's a great fallback option for a future edition where new options get added.
Magnets can also making storing/transporting models a lot easier, and it can reduce damage in the case of a droppage (as parts will pop off rather than break off).

Once you get some experience magnetising stuff basically ceases to register as effort tbh, it's very easy. The only downside is really that it can look not-as-good on the tabletop as arms swivel around and stuff.
But there's three ways to deal with that. Firstly, just deal with it. Secondly, add a tiny drop of superglue between the magnets, effectively you've just glued the miniature but in such a way that swapping parts is very easy. Thirdly, add in a locating pin and socket along with your magnetising to stop that rotation, this is more labour intensive and I rarely do it, mostly just for centerpieces.

So that's my sales pitch.
In terms of actually magnetising, I generally recommend going larger. I use 3mm magnets for arms and backpacks usually. Recently I've started boosting that to 4mm. I've used 2mm before and it just wasn't strong enough. I've only used 2mm for holding like pistols on at the wrist.

 OrkbitalStrike wrote:

Oh I figured it may be good for tourny stuff if I need to swap wargear for army build. Maybe it is unnecessary. I would want base magnets just for ease of magnets on my cork to paint as well as storage/travel

Fair enough, Maybe it is worth it, give it a go for sure! I do not pay the games, or transport the minis, so my experience might be irrelevant for your case.