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I finally started magnetizing the arm sockets of my Tyranid MCs.  I've glued a magnet in one socket on each side, aligning the polarity such that they should help each other stay in while the glue is drying (ie the + pole is pointed into the left arm socket, and the - pole is pointed into the right arm socket, so the magnets should 'pull' each other through the body of the miniature).  This worked marvelously.

I was planning on having all the left arms going one way, and the right arms going the other way, just to keep things consistent.  However, I have run into a snag.  When I tried to glue a magnet into the second arm socket on the left side, the little bugger not only tried to jump out and stick to the first socket on that side (which I was prepared for), but it wanted to flip around and point its '-' pole into the left arm socket - when I wanted the + pole to be pointing in..

I suppose I should have remembered my first year physics, and realized that the magnetic force lines from the first left arm socket magnet would flow 'backwards' when they're out to the side of the force field...oops.

Question to the dakka modeling/conversion/magnet-lords:

Am I going to have to glue it in 'backwards', and thus have to differently magnet my 'top left' from my 'bottom left' arms for each mini?  Or does someone here know a trick to get both magnets in the sockets on the same side with the same polarity?

If you attach one large, elongated magnet behind both arm sockets, would that work?
Or would that cause jumping when it comes to arm placement?

Hmmm... neat idea. I only have disc magnets right now though. That would also require much more drilling out and greenstuff rebuilding.

I just glued some in the other sockets "reversed", and they seem to be holding (a nail + elastic band helping). It's not so bad...now I have both upper arm sockets with the + pole facing outwards, and both lower sockets with the + poles facing inwards. The distance through the model is about 4x that between two sockets on the same side; so far, there doesn't seem to be significant repulsion through the model. Inverse square law and all that.

You can usually find a nail with the head size the same as your disc magnets. Use those on the body instead.

You can either find a way to hold them in place until the glue sets (toothpick, tweezers, etc) or simply only have the magnets on the arms themselves as asmith suggested.

Either way works. For plastic arms, the second solution is fine. For metal ones, I'd gone with the first.

Hmm...I never thought of only magneting the arms, and just using nail-heads in the body. That would really solve my polarity issues.

I'm leery that the arms will droop though - I'm already gluing a stack of 2-3 magnets into the body, just to get enough force to hold them steady. This seems to work, with only a single magnet on the arm itself. I'm using very small 0.125"x0.03" disc magnets. The only other size I have is 0.25" x 0.06", which require too wide an excavation (wider than the arm socket).

I suppose I could glue a stack of 3+ magnets into the arms instead, if I'm putting nail heads into the body..

I'm wondering if I'd still have to have reversed polarity on the upper vs lower arms, to stop them pushing each other off (or even just pushing each other enough to be loose) with the wacky flow of the force field.

Thanks for the idea - time to experiment on a block of wood!