HOWTO : Magnetizing Exocrine/Haruspex Head - With Pics

[Remalis]

Hi there hivers,

With 8th edition out and a massive changes to our army, one of the units now seeing some table time is the Haruspex.
But wait! The Exocrine is also a solid unit and all this new found viability is making me uncomfortable and sad. What to do? 

Like all the really important questions, the answer is magnets.
If you've never used magnets before, the Exocrine/Haruspex is the perfect place to start as one of the cleaner simpler options to magnetise.

This tutorial is will only demonstrate how to magnetise for head swaps. For magnetising shovelling claw/talon swaps, the process is the same as any other weapon swaps and tutorials can be found in the forums.

thetyranidhive.proboards.com/thread/49622/help-magnetizing-carnifex

 

The magnets I've used are 6mm N55 field strength. I use 8 in total for the head swaps. I double stack the magnets for every location to provide solid connection when they hold.

Let's get started. MAIN BODY:

1) First of all I drilled out holes through the thin neck plate. Lower hole between the two little divets on the bottom of the neck plate. This will align to the exocrine head.

2) Second hole is drilled dead centre of neck plate. This aligns to Haruspex head.

3) Assemble the lower body and tail section with neck plate.

4) Using milliput or greenstuff, pack the area behind the neck plate to add enough thickness to contain double stacked magnets.

5) While milliput is still soft, use a line of magnets to push through each neck hole into milliput behind until the second magnet is deep enough to be flush with neck plate. remove magnets and allow milliput to dry hard.

!!! Kids, it's very, very important that you give enough time for this to properly set, otherwise when you try to add both sets of magnets into neck, they will pull through to each other.  
Go do your chores while you wait - paint some gaunts.

Ok. All dry?  Good. Lets continue.
PROTIP:  Before you add any magnets ENSURE YOU HAVE THE POLES MARKED SO SAME POLE FACES OUT OF MAIN BODY CONSITENTLY AND IN HEAD or LIMBS CONSITENTLY.
This will save you much pain and anguish in all your magnetising efforts.

6)  Run some two part epoxy thinly into first neck hole. add a single magnet, add some more epoxy on the face, add second magnet and seal in with expoxy. Let this dry completely before repeating for other neck location.

End Result will look like this:





Note the super professional sculpting of milliput inside the body...
 

[Remalis]

Next we sort out the Magnetising the Heads:


This part is super easy.

1) Assemble lower part of Haruspex Head. I Leave the top head section off for easier painting.

2) Behind Lower Haruspex Head is a cavity. Stuff it Full of Milliput/Greenstuff.

3) While still wet, dig some milliput out from Centre and push in magnet stack two deep.

4) Remove magnets, and while milliput is still wet, add a thin layer of expoxy into hole. 

5) ENSURING POLES ARE RIGHT WAY ROUND TO JOIN TO MAIN BODY, add first magnet. add layer of epoxy, add second magnet.

6) sculpt wet milliput over edges of magnet to seal it in place and let dry.

7) Once Milliput is completely dry, add a final thin layer of epoxy.

For Exocrine head follow the same steps above starting with stuffing the cavity behind the actual head (not the gun) with milliput/greenstuff.

End result should look like this:






I don't actually have top carapace glued in place and gap-filled yet.. it's just sitting on top to show you the fit of the heads.
 





And that's it folks.  Once it's all dry you have magnetised heads that hold solidly and swap easily.

cheers, thanks for reading and hope this helps. 

[jimmyp]

Lovely stuff mate!!

[blackrainbow]

A great starter for such a mandatory part of the hobby. I still get a little giddy inside when I look at my box of arms and heads and see little X's in marker. Folks, dude and dudettes, young and old, friend and foe, please magnetize your bigguns.