Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Happy Fun Time With Magnets

Happy fun time dealing a fist full of death that is... and doing it with options makes it just that much better. So here's my latest project - a Landspeeder for my Genesis chapter of Spacemarines. I couldn't decide if I wanted the Heavy Bolter or the Multimelta. So I decided on both and to try my hand at using magnets.



I used 1/16" diameter by 1/32" thick Neodymium magnets. Better known as 'rare earth magnets' even though they're anything but rare. I bought mine from a local PA company K&J Magnets. Just $6.00 landed me 100+ of these things.

It didn't take much to do really. I used my pin vise with a 1/16" bit to drill a small hole and pressed the pin in. Surprisingly it didn't need glue as the magnet was pretty snug despite the magnet and hole having the same diameter. One thing I learned the hard way... be sure the magnet polarities match up before pressing it in.


10 comments:

  1. The magnets sound a good idea, it's good to get the option that you want.
    If i do some magnetizing i'll make sure to watch out for the polarities, thanks for the warning!

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  2. Excellent point about the magnetic poles - and one that is certainly easy to overlook.

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  3. One day I'm just going to pony up for a handful of those magents and join the revolution.

    Nice work.

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  4. Easy way to avoid the polarities. Mark opposite ends with a sharpie before putting anything in with glue. Sharpie-marked sides go inside.

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  5. @Master Darksol - That's actually what I ended up doing once I got the darn thing back out. It's one of those mistakes that once you make it, you make sure to never repeat it.

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  6. The Polarities can be a bear. Also, make sure that if you do multiple projects, all the 'base' magnets are aligned so that any of the 'weapon' magnets will grab them. Nothing like having say, three speeders and having to use trial and error to see which guns stick to which vehicles!

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  7. heh heh heh, they look like there playing on the xbox or something in the top pic :P

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  8. Very slick magnet work. Now I know what magnets to buy for myself when I start putting together my speeders!

    Did you magnet it up for Tornado upgrades? I'm considering that as well!

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  9. @Cawshis Clay - Unfortunately it's the landspeeder from the 3rd edition box set so I don't have the bitz to make it a tornado pattern. What I'll most likely end up doing is glue one of the larger 1/8" diameter magnets I got into the inside front cavity so I can upgrade later.

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