"Magnet Mod of SST Exo-Suits" Topic

I'm modifying several boxes of Mongoose Exo-Suit troopers by counter-sinking 1/8" Nd magnets into the arms. I'm installing two magnets per arm so the weapons don't spin out of alignment. On the Grizzly units, I'm also adding magnets to the shoulder "hardpoints" as they can mount weapons on that location too. The Cougar models come with two alternate weapon loadouts with one total carried. I went ahead and did both arms so I can have a few "leftys". There are as many as three choices of weapons for the Grizzly suit, but these can carry two total weapons of any combination. The Grizzly suit is where this mod shines, with the combination of any two of three different weapons mounted on four different locations, either on shoulder hardpoints or arms or one of each. This also allows for a house rule "Rambo" option of spending extra for the weapons and mounting up to four weapons on a model, creating a "pocket battleship" trooper . Of course, I have to counter-sink pairs of magnets into the weapons, but the small size of the magnets allows for these to be attached flush to the weapons. As I get these painted, I'll post updated pics, but this is a good start:

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[IMG]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c385/SSTforumpics/Projects/Magnet%20mounts/exosuit_mod_A.jpg[/IMG]

I rolled a dud on the second link, so try this so as not to have to copy/paste-

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I like thte game a lot, but I confess I gave up on the models – the MI especially just had to many darn parts. So I'm using their Warrior bugs, but other figures for ym MI…

EC, you'll be a perfect setup for the new PPMs. Even the Bugs will be easier to collect. I plan to combine the collections and pick and choose from the kits or the new "pre-assembles" that should be out in a few months.

Very nice – thanks for the pics, too. I've seen this done for GW Tau Crisis suits, it's a great setup.

And those Exosuits are just beautiful.

The Exo-suits are one of the few things I want and don't have yet for SST. This conversion seems like it might be fun to do on the new painted models. THanks for sharing. Whose magnets are you using?

Wow that looks like a lot of work with the Dremel tool!

You are welcome, nvdoyle!

Goldwyrm, I've also thought that as soon as the PPMs from Mongoose are out that some will be hacking at them to do something like this .

Crewchiefmodels, you'd be surprised! To answer Goldwyrm's question, I'm using 1/8" Nd mags from kjmagnetics.com (part #D21). There is a 1/8" hole already provided by the Mongoose sculptor that is intended to mount on a "button" pin, which I just drill out using my Milwaukee cordless driver (sort of a 'slow' dremel, lol). With a metal drill bit I can control the process and it won't slip on me. The metal is not hard to work with at all. Pacer CA zap-a-gap sets the magnet well, but of course you need to pay attention to consistent polarity placement when gluing. By using a sharp bit and slow drill speeds it isn't bad at all.

I did a similar thing with Full thrust space ships, I put a magnet or a small piece of rod in the space ship and I made 20 thin rod stands and a couple of bigger rod stands for the capitol ships the flight stands were themselves magnets so you only needed x number of stands made and it makes it eaiser to store the ships.

I intend to do the same with the crisis suits that were bought for me for christmas. The trick is finding the right size magnets for what you want the US suppier looks great one Uk one is:

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another uk supplier is an ebayer I've bought of before called 3711dave
nice chap who can order different sizes and amounts other than whats on ebay.

Oh what I also forgot to mention is a nice picture Scifi Gamer showing how to place the magnets.

Paul '66'

Thanks for the idea and the pics.

Wasn't the atlas rig on the grizzly intended to provide more stability so 2 instead of 1 weapons could be used? I thought weapons placed on top were just parked there so the guy in the exo suit could use his hands to get personal with some bugs.

SciFi Gamer, Thanks for the quick answer. Now I'll just have to try and remember that for when Mongoose releases the new stuff.

doublesix66, I'll be able to 'boast' here without much contention that I have probably used more magnets than anyone on this forum or perhaps even the world (quite a claim, eh?). Besides these SST mods, I've done similarly what you did (good idea you have btw, heh) by mounting magnets to several dozen custom made clear acrylic stands so that any of my several hundred scratch-made 1/1200 starship miniatures can "fly" around the floor-

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These are several of my hundreds of 1/2400 scale magnetized ships (showing a DD docked in a space drydock)-
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I embedded a small magnet inside of the larger ships, but the small ones have theirs exposed on the bottom. I did these years ago, before I found Nd mags.

Here is a 25mm Old Crow lander painted as an SST dropship proxy, with a double-sized scratch-built troop pod. The pod has a magnetic lid as well as magnetically attaches to the lander-

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Here, I made up some modded stands for the Litko clear box prototypes that I assembled for Ad Astra Games for their miniatures for Attack Vector Tactical and Saganami Island Tactical Simulator-

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Before these were available, about the only other way to use ships was to use the provided cardstock "box minis" or to use miniatures with magnets.

I made these scratch-built ships for AV:T, but now Ad Astra is selling official minis of their own-

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I came up with this idea for true 3D miniatures mounting and if interested you can pick up Ad Astra's Nexus Journal 1 for the article. It's the next best thing to a hologram-

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How I can 'boast' about using possibly more magnets than any in this hobby was just after Hasbro released heroScape, I mounted an Nd magnet under the hollow of each hex tile in a dozen sets. I could then stack the hex tiles in a way that Hasbro never thought of. I could create terrian objects over a foot in height that otherwise would fall over. A made up skybridges, rock spiral towers and "terrain trees" where their eventually offered trees are used as the very top piece of my game-functional spiral trees. By the way, I used over four thousand 3/8" x 1/8" neodymium magnets…

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MUAhahahahha!
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FritsK, you are correct. It had been a few months since I last read the details (oops!), but it seems my house rule might be out. It was a bit greedy, I'll admit. Maybe an upgrade to the Atlas Rig might eventually be allowed for greedy players, heh. Here is the info from Mongoose, which describes the shoulder hardpoints as "parking spaces" for the heavy weapons-

Designated the M4A1, the Grizzly was the original exosuit, though it came into service later than the Cougar. The Grizzly is the largest true armoured suit a trooper can wear, with any larger designs instead being classified as piloted vehicles, such as the Marauders. The Grizzly is identical to the Cougar except for the mounted Atlas Rig – a collection of suspensory gears, armour plates and hydraulic systems fitted over the shoulders and chest which brace the wearer, allowing him to hold and fire two huge weapons at the same time.

It is this devastating firepower for which the Grizzly is renowned and feared. The Atlas Rig allows one weapon to be mounted on each arm, though they can be retracted to cradles behind the shoulders when not in use. Despite this incredible array of weaponry and heavy armour, the Grizzly still retains the powerful jump jets common to other suits and, while not as mobile as the Cougar, it certainly does not suffer from lack of speed for all its bulk.

Oh, and make sure to see Hyun of WeeToySoldiers' topic "Dremel in action – a video report". Where he probably more intelligently used a Dremel I instead used a cordless 1/8" drill. As it turned out, it worked fine.

I wanna play at SciFi Gamer's house…

Awesome stuff – very inspiring!

Sorry nvdoyle, as I have no more room for people, lol.

I'm going to be magnetizing my next Warlord titan for Adeptus Titanicus soon. In the past i've use two magnets. What do you guys think about a small piece of metal and a magnet instead? What would you recommend for a round ferrous metal to go into the size holes on the Warlord's arms and missile launchers?

Four magnets, for strength and direction-keeping.

If you want the gun to rotate freely around that point, you probably need 1/8"(3mm) diameter magnets, the thicker the better. Or 2-4 thinner magnets in a stack on each side of the joint.