April 03, 2011

Magnetized Space Marines Pt.1

By no means is this a full blown project. I could see it being one, but it would require a fair amount of time to construct an entire army in this manner. For the time being, I’m happy just hobby away at the models I have now and not look at this as another army. 


 
Long story, short… I really liked the way the magnets worked out for my Raiders. So, that got the old gears turning and inspired me to grab a box of the new Blood Angels Death Company. After a good old dig in the Bitz box, I was ready to build some marines.


It takes about 2 hours or so to build one guy, between scratch building the base, deciding the final pose and equipment layout. There are magnets embedded in the torso and in the back as well. The models base is also magnetized. The arms and backpacks have been lined with a a very thin sheet metal cut down to size. I figured it would save me on some magnets in the long run. I’m waiting to put heads on them till I can find something different then the standard/boring Mk. 7 helmets. 

 
 After I did the first one, I had to get some stronger magnets because the all parts would spin around and that annoyed the piss out of me. They still move a little bit but it's not nearly as bad. Other than that set-back, I’ve enjoyed the project so far.  The one pain I have encountered is getting the Bolters to line up properly, but I think that has to do with how far the magnets are drilled into the torso. 

 
These are just the first two and I’m pretty happy with them.  If I can settle on a paint scheme in the near future I’ll get started on painting the one. It’s been ages since I focused on a single mini. I think it will make for a nice change of pace.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Neodymium magnets are addictive! I've gotten into the habbit of magnetizing everything that has an option, even if I don't ever really intend to change it.

A super handy trick is to create a "control" base for the polarization, choosing one pole to be the universal "turret" side and the other to be the "gubbinz" side. I took an old Mk1 rhino faceplate to be mine, and glue one of each size magnet down on it with the same pole to establish that "turret" base value. It's great for Eldar heavy weapons and the like, and also lets you do goofy things when bored like arm a warwalker with twin-linked scowling heads }:-]