Magnetized a Forgefiend

Sidenotes

  • Use Superglue (Secondelijm in Dutch, I used the Gel variant, not Liquid), not Plastic Glues on the magnets.
  • To make sure that magnets polarities are aligned properly I did this: Glue one magnet to the model, and let dry. Attach another magnet to the glued one. If it sticks, the polarity is right. Use a permanent marker (sharpie?) on the side that is visible to you. Let the ink dry. When you're ready to attach that second magnet, put it on the model WITH THE MARKED END DOWN.

Couple of weeks ago I purchased a Forge/Mauler Fiend 2nd hand, which turned out it had it's front leg glued to the rear leg sockets, the body assembled and glued and it's "shoulders" already in place, limiting it to its shooty variant instead of being able to swap out the melee loadout.

As I want to use it as a weapons platform anyway (I don't have Havocs yet, and I would like to have SOMETHING to be able to shoot into the sky...), I didn't intend to magnetize the "shoulders/body", but the "shoulders/weapon arms".

The setup after partial assembly

Here's an image after I "restored" the legs to the original position. I had to apply a fair amount of force to break the legs from the sockets, and on one of the legs the "orb" broke, resulting in a filled up socket in which another "orb" had to be placed (and thus removed from that other legs), and a leg without an orb which no longer aligned to the socket... I managed to get them assembled anyway, being a bit precise, using a hacksaw and a file to make it matching again.

Anyway, the magnets I first tried were too weak. I used a scalpel to flatten the orb, and tried the 4mm x 0.5mm magnets, putting 2 on the shoulder part, and 2 in the socket in the weapon itself. As the mounting point is not in the middle of the weapon but at the end, it turned out to be too heavy... So, I swapped to the stronger 8mm x 1mm. For this I needed to remove a LOT more of the shoulder part, as the surface of the magnet is twice as large, it's twice as thick, and it cannot be planted as deep in the socket on the weapon and I still wanted the weapon to have an overlay on the shoulder. I will have to revisit the right arm "orb" again, as in the end it turned out I didn't take enough off (can be seen in the following image, on the left hand side):

magnets on shoulder and weapons

For the other side I took a small hacksaw and just removed half of the orb. I put a tiny piece of excess plastic (from a sprue) behind the magnet in the socket, so it would be placed crooked, and make the weapon point a bit inwards, instead of them both pointing straight ahead.

For the head: Yeah, easy. I used the 4mm x 0.5 mm magnets. With a scalpel make a flat surface on the neck "orb", place the magnet on there. For the heads (it has 3) themselves, just put a drop of superglue inthere, put the magnet in, let it dry.

The end-result

Hades Autocannons with regular head:

Hades Autocannons with regular head

Ectoplasma Cannons with cannon head:

Ectoplasma Cannons with cannon head

I haven't glued the neck to the body yet, because it still has to be transported and painted.

Cheers!

Jimmy

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