"Help Wanted With Magnetic Basing For Moving Figures Around" Topic

I will soon be on the move with my figures. I'd like to go magnetic for storage purposes – what is the best way of doing this if they are already based up?

The majority of my troops are 6mm metals on 60mm x 30mm floor-tile bases, with a few 15mm and 28mm metals and plastics too.

You need to either stick metal foil under the figures and magnetic sheet in your transport boxes or the other way around. The latter might be easier.

If you cut the magnetic material 1mm short on all sides you tend not to see it. With the size of your bases I'd go for the lighter weight material that is about 0.5mm thick. One bases of that size, if you use the regular stuff, the magnetic pull can be strong enough to put figures at risk of damage when you have to prise them out of their magnetic storage system.

+1 Timmo UK

As a supplier of magnetic basing materials I'm a bit biased but here's my advice.

Use the standard 0.8mm self-adhesive magnetic sheet under the bases. Place them with a thin sheet of paper between magnetic bottom and iron drawer base if that is what you will store them in. You probably won't need even that if you line boxes with flex-metal or the like. The weaker stuff is more prone to lose grip if it is bumped – that can still cause 0.8mm stuff to do so, but it is less likely.

Do not use paper steel, there is too little iron in it to get a good magnetic grip. Use Flex-metal or similar – a vinyl sheet impregnated with soft iron.

I'd advise putting the figure base directly onto the sticky side of the magnetic sheet and cutting round it with a sharp craft knife. That way does use more sheet (and it isn't cheap) but not much waste if you do one base at a time.

Timmo's method works fine and it gives a gap to get your nails into to lift the figure base. The only possible problem is that you have to position the magnetic bit quite precisely and the adhesive is VERY strong and grips the moment it touches – it won't come off again and still be usable.

Get in touch via my website (www.tinytintroops.co.uk) and see the stuff I sell and for further ideas/advice. If you need more than the basic packs I can usually offer some discount.

I have gone the other way -- all of my figs are on metal bases, and I have lined my transport boxes with the magnetic sheeting.

Same as Nick. I use the Sterilite 3 drawer containers which hold roughly 250 1" square bases in the drawers.

I line my boxes with steel paper and put magnetic strip on the figures bases.

Works fine.

I use metal trays and stick flexible magnetic strips (about 1mm thick) to my bases. Regularly transport figures 80 miles over potholed country roads without the figures moving at all- works for all figure sizes from 6mm to 30 mm.
Not sure that I agree with Gildas about adhesive strength- I sometimes find the magnetic grip is greater than adhesive stength and the magnetic strip is left in the tray when I pick up a base. I have to reinforce the glue bond with UHU or similar.

SDave – What material are your bases made of ? I use only MDF and card and only have a problem with adhesion if the MDF is dusty or of poor quality (sadly not uncommon). I have had a bad section of sheet where the adhesive was faulty – ruined a large batch of bases.

What I have found is that plastic bases often do not adhere to the self-adhesive sheets. This particularly affects low-surface energy types of plastic – often what cheap storage boxes are made of.

Bases with magnet added before basing is best – I clamp sets of bases for an hour so the adhesive makes really good contact as it bonds.

Try the paper interleave trick mentioned above – free the base by lifting the paper sheet and you won't have that problem again.

I've been using the business card magnets with the adhesive backing from Staples for many years, and they work well.

pjm

Thanks all for the helpful advice