"Magnetized Models: Got a story?" Topic

I earmarked yesterday evening as "Painting Night", and then spent the whole time magnetizing one model (A Tyranid Hive Tyrant) so I could interchange weapons/arms/torsos.

I may have overdone it a bit, since I'll probably never need to separate the torso from the legs, but things seemed to be going pretty well, so I just powered ahead using 17 magnets (way too many) and making a completely disassembleable-from-the-waist-up figure.

Anyone else have any magnetization war stories?
Things that went well/poorly?
Strange tales of Neodynium?

Hey it's all about the fun! If you had fun doing it and it came out as well or better than expected I applaude your effort. Pictures would be nice. Don't get those 17 magnets too close to your refrigerator or you may not get it back.

Ironic that Major Matt Mason could be tied into a knot and over 40 years later kids have Star Wars toys with all but invisible joints yet we have static models to play with. Pressman did a Ezoghoul that could at least pivot at the waist… am I asking for too much?

I had a magnet glued onto a 1/300 airplane shatter when it 'hit' the other magnet with a little too much force…

How are you getting the arm to stay in place? When I tried that several times, all I got was the arm to rotate to the spot where the heaviest part of the arm was pointing downwards…

I heard someone complaining that they used too strong a magnet and it would either pull minis closer or be pulled toward other minis that had steel washers or other magnets

@richarddisney, you use two smaller magents side by side OR a magnet and a pin to lock it into a certain position.

I'm not finding any of the plastic arms to be a problem as far as sliding goes… but the metal ones (bone sword and whip) certainly do.

I'm either going to have to assist-pin them as haywire points out, or super glue a really thin layer of grit to the magnets so that there's more friction at the joint.

An acquaintance tried basing some minis on thin magnets, insted of washers, for ease of transport.

They were hard to move around on the battlefield.

Hay Wire – the range of these magnets would tend to suggest that your overheard story is a bit urban legend. Most magnets that we will be using have no pull beyond a mm or two