"Rare Earth Magnets and conversions" Topic

I have not painted figures in ages. Not sure what the mental block was but this weekend I painted up a box of Tau Firewarriors and a Piranha.

This was the first time I've used rare earth magnets to make it possible to switch out weapons on vehicles. I'm also experimenting with making it so that each weapon arm is swappable on my next set of Firewarriors. I've learned some lessons.

1.) It's easy at first when there aren't a lot of magnets around but once the units start to be built you have to be careful of the magnetic fields as things will animate, literally, and move just when you don't want them to.

2.) The magnets will stick to lots of things. Tools, paintbrush tips, your stack of unused magnets, figures with magnets in them, etc. Keep your supply about 2 feet from your assembly area.

3.) superglue will get the magnets to stick to you easier than to the figures and then everything magnetic will stick to you too.

4.) Settle on one set of polarity and stick with it. Glue on your first magnet and then there after test against this "prime" magnet so that you always glue the opposite polarity down. This means that if you create a selection of swappable weaons you can share them among vehicles and figures. I am working on a Crisis suit now and it can share weapons with the Piranha and will be able to share with future Crisis Suits I build.

5.) before you take a magnet from your supply mark the exposed side with a laundry marker (Sharpie in the US). When you inevitably lose control of a magnet you will be able to tell quickly which side is which.

4.) These magnets come in incredibly small sizes, take advantage of that. They are also incredibly powerful. If you use a magnet that is too big it's field may be more powerful than the strength of your more delicate parts and they may break when you are trying to remove a piece.

5.) There is no end to how creative you can get. The magnets come in many shapes and forms. Once painted up they will look just like they belong on the figure with careful selection and placement.

6.) Look for "Magic Wall" magnetic paint. It does not have a magnetic field but it is attracted to one. Use this as a base coat when you want to make something that normally isn't magnetically attractive able to hold magnets.

7.) For very strong bonds use magnet on magnet. This is an option when Magic Wall is not sufficient.

The polarity issue is one of the first ones you run into! :)

I partially solved this by attaching slivers of metal to the arms/weapons. Then I just put one set of magnets in the figure's shoulders. This cuts down on the number of magnets you need in addition to minimizing the "work" needed to remember which way to align things.

You still have to be careful about the shoulder magnets as they will push arms off the other side if they aren't aligned correctly… :)

Glue on your first magnet and then there after test against this "prime" magnet so that you always glue the opposite polarity down.

If anyone reads nothing else that you wrote, they should at least read that. I have a "control" magnet permanently mounted to to a small piece of wood, with direction arrows for front, back, up, and down.

Glue on your first magnet and then there after test against this "prime" magnet so that you always glue the opposite polarity down.

This advice is invaluable. I learned the hard way! :-)

And they are really strong, the larger ones do a great job of pinching skin!!!

Works great for swapping weapons, and holding them securely in place.

Also, Be careful when handling some of these magnets. Rare Earth magnets like Neodymium are both very powerful, and highly fragile. If you let them snap together, which they like to do, the can splinter or shatter sending small bit of (magnetic) metal everywhere. Most dangerous, to you, is an instance of metal framgents gettnig in you eye(s).

HostileContact

I just made 22 flight stands for my 15mm grav tanks and apc's using rare earth magnets this weekend.

Where was this post on Friday!?!?!?

Actually, I'd read about the "make sure you get the polarity right" part and was very careful about that.

I imagine things can go horribly wrong, if using FOW-style ranges and unit proximity, since the magnets may try to group together on their own, if placed close together, and the magnets are sufficiently powerful.

Just be careful…..

So far everything seems to be working well. I finished a crisis suit with 5 small magnets and 2 big ones (in the base for secure transport.)

The advise about being careful of magnets splintering is a good one. I had one of the larger magnets attain enough velocity to split in two.

I am very glad I mag'd up everything for the Crisis suit as it has allowed me to experiment with various configurations. The one I thought I was going to use turned out to really suck at the role I had intened it for. The other thing I like is that you can experiment with where you put the bits (example the missile pod can go on the arm and the plasma rifle can go on the shoulder.

ANOTHER ODD FACT!
Some of my paints change color either due to the magnetic field or due to some reaction with the material the magnet is made of. Valejo Dark Sea Blue turns a sort of light blue/teal!