Aquiring magnets for arm/hand swaps

[T14]

I have just put in a(nother) large Bitz order from GW with lots of arm, and handswapping in mind.

I am rehauling my army (again) and want each squad to have full access to all weapon options through the use of magnetetized arms or wrists.

 

I have done quite a bit of magnetizing of vehicle parts using radio shack rare earth magnets. But these are far too big to use on PA marine arms, let alone hands. Searchy turned up This, but it is too general for what I need.

 

I need input on three things:

1) Who has tried magnetizing wrists, did it work, and if so what were he magnet size used?

2) What is the appropriate magnet size for arm swaps? would the wrist ones work?

3) where is a good place to buy about 50-75 magnets of the sizes mentioned in (1) & (2)?

 

Thank you for your help

cheers

-t14

[todmaerin]

3) where is a good place to buy about 50-75 magnets of the sizes mentioned in (1) & (2)?

 

Check this out:

 

http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/SearchRe...s=Disc&All=True

 

100 .125" x .063" disc magnets, $7.99 -- that's half the size of the common REM's you can get at Radio Shack. I've never dealt with the place myself, but the local game shop speaks highly of them.

 

-Tod

[asmith]

.125" may well still be too big for wrists. I usually just use a pin glued into the hand and with a fairly long section in the arm. If you drill the hole exactly the same size as the pin you can swap them easily and it will hold well.

 

The .125" diameter will work well for shoulders though. I found it easier (and cheaper) to just put the magnets in the torso and then use the head of a nail for all the arms. This way you don't have to worry about polarity etc. Plus the nails are easier to attach firmly to the arms. The magnets tend to be highly polished making them difficult to mount firmly.

 

Forcefield

 

has .062" x .031" magnets if you really want to magnetize the wrists.

[Yamez]

yet another link...

 

 

I use the smallest ones, they're good for almoast every space marine joint, with banners being the only one that I've ben unable to magetise.

[Einstein]

I used KJ Magnets (didn't bother to make a link) and I got the smallest and next-smallest (sp?). It worked well, I've used the bigger ones for termie arms, and the small ones, I believe, will fit into a wrist (might try it tomorrow).

 

If you're in Denmark (Jubii, en landsmand), they'll send it here too...

[splayedpaintbrush]

I used magnets in the wrist of one of my terminators so i could change between combi weapons from the commander sprue and a storm bolter.

 

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c57/d_o_c/Project%20Deathwing/magweapon1.jpg

 

These are 2mm x 1mm neodymium magnets. Two are inserted into the hand, and three into the arm. They are probably strong enough to hold just using one magnet in each part, but i drilled the holes too deep, so i thought i may aswell make sure they stay on ;)

 

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c57/d_o_c/Project%20Deathwing/magweapon2.jpg

Thats an end veiw of the arm and hand so you can see how much room there is to spare, or not as the case may be.

 

I have also used magnets on the shoulder joints so i can have interchangable assault cannon/heavy flamer/powerfist/chainfists.

 

I used a larger magnet which i think was 4mm x 1mm, putting one on the torso side of the shoulder and one in the arm. You loose the option of some dymanic posing, but gain abit of flexibility in weapon loadouts. I intend to do this to my lightning claws and thunderhammers/storm sheild armed terminators too.

 

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c57/d_o_c/Project%20Deathwing/magweapon3.jpg

 

Hope that is helpful for you.

[T14]

cheers for the input so far gentlemen.

 

will the very small wrist magnets hold plastic arms (or even metal arms) too?

 

I assume that most people do deal with 2 magnes to a join, and therefore must deal with polarity issues.

is it "just" a question of sinking each magnet into the plastic ecough to sit flush, or are there any "tricks of the trade" that I should know about?

 

And @ Einstein: I have spent about equal time in Scandinavia and the States in the last 6 years or so. (I'm stateside ATM) My bitz box spans two continents ;) (which is rather annoying when you KNOW that you own that particular bit you need, but it is thousands of miles away ;) )

 

Edit:

 

@ eggz

 

VERY Helpful friend. :angry:

 

I am tempted by the wrist approach as this does not sacrifice posing potential.

 

May I ask where you got your 2x1mm magnets?

 

Cheers

-t14

[splayedpaintbrush]

There are no tricks as far as i am aware. With the terminator arm in my last post the hardest bit was removing the orginal hand with out causing too much damage. :angry:

 

The magnets are just placed in holes so that they sit flush as you have already said, i suppose the only thing you could screw up would be the polarity issue.

 

But seeing as you are aware of it would make me think you will triple check which way round they should be before gluing them in place. ;)

 

Keep your first model as a polarity baseline model to always check against. That way all your weapons should be interchangable across all your magnetised models, with out any arms etc only fitting some models because the polarity was the other way round.

 

Last thing, using a stack of magnets increases the magnetic field so they can hold more. For instance in the terminator arm above there are 3 of the small magnets stacked up in a deep hole. I think for plastic weapons and arms you will get away with just using one magnet in each component.

 

For metal components i am not sure how many will be needed to hold them together, sorry.

 

Oh nearly forgot, I got all my magnets from that wonderful (and addictive ;) ) modelling resource....... EBAY!