Questions about magnetizing

[Slan Drakkos]

Hey everyone. I'm a bit new to the idea of magnetizing models. I'm currently building a Genestealer Cult army and had an idea, but I'm not sure if it's even possible. So, with that bit of background info out of the way, on to the questions.

 

1. Is it possible to magnetize infantry heads? I ask because I want to buy some House Orlock models and would still like to be able to play them in Necromunda when I'm not playing them as Genestealers. My idea is to essentially pop in a different head depending on what I'm playing at the time.

 

2. Is it possible to magnetize Genestealers arms? Has anyone here done that before?

 

3. If it is possible to magnetize heads, what magnet size will be needed?

 

I apologise in advance if any of these questions have already been answered or are especially dumb.

[Fajita Fan]

Short answer: yes.  Long answer: it'll be annoying.

 

This is where I've gotten my magnets: https://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=1 and you can see them come in really tiny sizes.  Some of those have different strengths, I tend to buy N42 as they're strong but not too crazy.  The problem you'll face is that different models use different neck joints, I'm not familiar with Orlock models so I can't tell you if the sockets are compatible.  You'll probably have to shave the neck attached to the head flat and glue on a small disc then glue the opposite polarity magnet into a well attached to the torso.  You can see how my Warhound titan is done, one side was cut flat for a magnet to match a much smaller magnet glued down in a cup.  That's sorta how you'll have to do it.

 

 

Now the hard part: you're going to gluing that on a TINY scale.  You're going to need really small magnets to get into most GW neck joints and if you don't sink them properly you're going to have a head floating up on top of a really long neck and it'll look weird.  If you decide to do any kind of magnetizing for stuff here's a tip: keep all your magnets in a stack and peel them off one at a time as you glue them down.  I use a toothpick with a tiny bit of blue tack on the end to push the magnet down on the superglue so that my fingers don't get down there.  Work slowly and systematically because it's easy to lose track of polarities and glue the wrong side down.  If you have to rip a magnet out you're going to have to chip all that dried superglue out to start the join over again.

 

To be really honest you might find it easier to simply paint your Orlocks and Genestealer Cult the same colors and just mix them in.  People are not going to freak out because some of the models in your Cult don't have the proper facial features, it's really going to be your weapon models following What You See Is What You Get that you need to concern yourself with.  I have a bunch of IG guardsmen with regular helmet heads I built as Cultists before those little conversion packs were released, I don't care.

 

My $.02 on weapons arms: Just buy the Deathwatch Overdrive models off eBay.  I was getting all the hybrid models from box sets for $50-60 and now I've got a bajillion Hybrids and Acolytes.  I just cut the elbows apart and mix and match them around with some scratch built dynamite as blasting charges and some random pistols.  The whole point of a Cult army is they're scavenging what they can find, their weapons really should be a hodgepodge of stuff.  The monopose acolyte models from that Deathwatch box are a super easy way to bulk out your force.

[Lord Raven 19]

Use a pin vice or the citadel hobby drill to make a hole for the magnet first

[Slan Drakkos]

@Fajita Fan: Wow, thank you for the incredibly detailed response. Looks like I'm on the fast track to making my army complete. Also, My first group of Genestealers came from the Deathwatch Overkill box. I split it with a friend and still have a lot of bits left over, so I decided to get some bodies that could fit with the aesthetic. I'm also considering getting some Ork bits to make their weapons look really ramshackle.

 

Seriously though, thanks for the information.

[Arkhanist]

It's good advice, for sure. The only trick to add is that I have a 'master' fridge magnet with the 2 sides labelled 'in' and 'out'. If my mini magnet goes on the inside part, i.e. the main body I use a magnet that matches the 'in' magnet pole, if it goes on an outside part like an arm, weapon or backpack, then I use the 'out' orientation. I check my stack of magnets against the master magnet so keeps my poles always the same, so I can just slide em right off the stack into the hole and know it'll work with multiple part swaps.

 

The other thing I'd add is that ork bitz are quite a lot larger than normal GW human-scaled weapons (which are already huge because of heroic scale), so can look rather cartoonish. There's a ton of 3rd party bits you can use such as zinge or anvil industries; or scavenge bitz from cultists, necromunda or FW necromunda upgrade sprues.

[thewarriorhunter]

I love magnetizing and do it a lot. i put together a tutorial that may help you: https://imgur.com/a/0xFsd

 

As for purchasing I buy whatever size I need from china off ebay. Super cheap as long as you don't mind waiting a couple weeks on shipping. My smallest magnet to date was a 1x1mm used for a Hunter Killer missile so I could remove it when I used it so I'd visually know that I'd used it.

 

If you have any questions let me know.

[Fajita Fan]

Yeah, Ork weapons are gonna look kinda massive.  The cool thing about starting a Genestealer cult as like my 14th army is that I've got tons of bits to work with.  Sadly those Deathwatch Cultists are now $80 on eBay but those were really the easiest way to bulk out your force.

 

You might try magnetizing your Goliath or Leman Russ weapons first to get used to supergluing magnets in there but I think you're going to find magnetizing heads to be more trouble than it's worth.  The arms on Genestealers and Acolytes are possible to magnetize but most of the weapon choices weren't that good last time I looked.  I was going to wait to make 8th edition lists until their proper codex is released, really really hope we can take more than 2 mining lasers in a squad of 20 Neophytes.  Demolition charges on Acolytes are worth kitbashing with some plastic rod or tubing and you won't have to magnetize the arms. They won't survive long in combat against anything decent so they're good one-shot weapons.

 

I was making my own Aberrants with Genestealer upper torsos and Acolyte legs but it looks like they're getting a proper kit.  That gunslinger Acolyte that was shown this summer has my name all over it!