Magnetizing your nids?

[captainnako]

Hey just wondering if you guys know of any good tutorials or step by step guides on how to magnetize your units as I've been hearing people are doing it more and more.

[gigasnail]

May 8, 2018 16:40:22 GMT captainnako said:

Hey just wondering if you guys know of any good tutorials or step by step guides on how to magnetize your units as I've been hearing people are doing it more and more.

There are about a billion tutorials. Google searching this will be your best bet. There are lots of posts in this subforum on it but some of the threads are really long.

[guy]

May 8, 2018 16:40:22 GMT captainnako said:

Hey just wondering if you guys know of any good tutorials or step by step guides on how to magnetize your units as I've been hearing people are doing it more and more.

Magnetizing is a lot of work and shouldnt be undertaken without caution.

You'll find tons of videos trough google for the "how to".

Here are my personal advice from magnetizing :
- dremel is a must, but a powerdrill can do the job, altho you'll need to be extremely cautious not to destroy the plastic. Hand-piercing is the way to go for smaller magnets i find
- for the bigger models, you need to fill up the body with plastic putty to create a strong base for the magnets to hold in. Don't use greenstuff, it's too expensive (altho very good). buy milliput: www.amazon.fr/dp/B007SLC372/ref=asc_df_B007SLC37252345608/?tag=googshopfr-21&creative=22698&creativeASIN=B007SLC372&linkCode=df0&hvdev=c&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=link
- glue the magnets in, or they'll pop out
- sometimes you dont need to magnetize, you can pin

1) Models worth magnetizing fully :
- Hive Tyrant all slots
- Carnifex all slots
- Tyrannofex Acid Spray/Rupture Cannon
- Harpy/Crone weapons
- Exocrine/Haruspex head and claws (altho you'll never use the haruspex)
- Tyrannocite/Sporocyst

2) models not worth magnetizing fully :
- tyranid warriors . What i did : glued a deathspitter on all warriors, and glued one arm with a bonesword. The only magnetized arm is the one to swap out between boneswords/lash whip. I went the route of full magnetizing at first but its not worth the hassle and very annoying to pierce holes in the tiny arms, as you'll only be using deathspitters, and boneswords are cheap enough that you won't consider rending claws or scything talons.
- Hive guards/Tyrant guards. Sure, "tomorrow", maybe GW wil make tyrant guards worth it. My opinion is that since you have all the tyrant guard's bitz from building your hive guards, then all you need to do is find cheap bodies. Then just magnetize the weapons on the arms.

3) dont magnetize (not worth the hassle, just buy more models) :
- termagants, genestealers, raveners
- trygon / mawloc, just buy one/2 more models cheap on ebay, or build trygon/mawloc hybrids. my motto on this model "those who care don't know, those who know don't care"
- swarmlord / old one eye  : just build 1 and be done with it forever

If you need advice on magnet size, just ask.

[gigasnail]

it's really not a lot of work unless you're doing something intricate, like magnetizing every option between a trygon/trygon prime/mawlock. and if you want to do that, check out bloodtyrant 's thread:

thetyranidhive.proboards.com/thread/20431/hive-fleet-black-mercury-project

the vast majority of things you're going to magnetize are far less complicated.

[guy]

May 9, 2018 5:44:09 GMT gigasnail said:

it's really not a lot of work unless you're doing something intricate, like magnetizing every option between a trygon/trygon prime/mawlock. and if you want to do that, check out bloodtyrant 's thread:

thetyranidhive.proboards.com/thread/20431/hive-fleet-black-mercury-project

the vast majority of things you're going to magnetize are far less complicated.

It is, if you think it's easy at first (i thought so) and have 4 carnifex, 3 tyrants and 9 warriors to magnetize on the table, never did it before, you'll make some mistake along the way, and (please do not swear) up a few weapon options, and be discouraged by the sheer number of holes to pierce and magnets to glue.

That being said, after you did the first model and know what's going on, it gets better.

[gigasnail]

lol you'll make mistakes the first time you do anything. that doesn't make it hard, it just means you didn't know what you were doing.

anyway OP go and check one of the literally hundreds of videos/guides/tutorials on this, you will be fine.

[captainnako]

Thanks everyone this gives me good insight on what I should and shouldn't do and if it's worth it. So far from what you are saying it's only really worth doing it to the bigger models which is what I would only do it on anyway but this helps. Another topic you mentioned was a dremel, would you mind telling me the bits you used. Further more what is pinning I haven't heard this technique yet.

[gigasnail]

i use a 1/8" router bit or 1/8" drill bit, and about the same sized magnets for most small applications like space marine arms.

for larger things like fex or tyrant arms i use the 1/8" router bit and just widen out the hole.

pinning is for large pieces, like wings or long arms that you are worried will rotate during gameplay. you will put a rod and a magnet on one piece, and the rod fits into a hole or slot on the other piece to hold it in place.

[captainnako]

Ah ok that makes sense so hive tyrant would be a great example of something You would pin because the extremities then. Also thank you for the sizes on the bits need to check if I have one in my drill kit or dremel kit. Next question do you paint them assembled (with magnets) or do you do them separated. Reason I ask cause when painting would there not be inconsistency if separate.

[gigasnail]

i dont paint until the assembly and any customization are complete.

[guy]

May 9, 2018 22:05:15 GMT captainnako said:

Ah ok that makes sense so hive tyrant would be a great example of something You would pin because the extremities then. Also thank you for the sizes on the bits need to check if I have one in my drill kit or dremel kit. Next question do you paint them assembled (with magnets) or do you do them separated. Reason I ask cause when painting would there not be inconsistency if separate.

I suggest undercoating BEFORE drilling any hole (which means undercoating directly on the sprue). This way, you wont undercoat your magnets, which can cost you some holding power.

As for magnet size size :

Tyrant body : Upper holes : 1/4 (6mm), lower holes 3/16(5mm)

Tyrant weapons : 1/8(3mm) is the suggested norm, but i found it lacked a bit ot holding power and used 2/5(4mm)

Tyrant wings : 3/16 magnets can fit in but requires careful drilling, you'll be safer with 2/5 tho.

About the wings, i found an alternative to pinning. If you glue the shoulder bitz, the wings will be held in place.

Tyrannofex : i used 1/4 magnets holding 1kg in the body but it was overkill. The tyrannofex weapons will stay upright thanks to the danglings bits below them.

Carnifex : 3/16 in the body holes, 2/5 (what i do) or 1/8 (what the internet tells you) in the weapons.

Be careful about magnet power. Go for N48+ if available.

[gigasnail]

you really don't need to do that. the magnets will not loose effectiveness by having paint on them. mine are generally painted and then sealed over and they work fine, and have for years.

i primered a bunch a stealers while on the sprue trying to speed things up. never again. you'll still have to scrape off mole lines and clean the unit up and it's much more of a hassle than it was worth.

[bolk]

youtu.be/w8Tkw7ttTIo

This tutorial helped me a lot when I started magnetizing.

[Dingbat]

All good advice, though I dissagree that magnetizing warriors is a waste of time. At $50 a pop for three, I want options for the long term.

[Overread]

Warriors are very much worth magnetizing in terms of their weapons and they change a lot in what is viable/good between codex and editions. Because of their size you might glue things like heavy weapons in place on a couple, but things like swords, talons, claws, smaller guns are all very interchangable and thus are ideal to magnetize.


Anything smaller than a warrior is often not worth it; sure you can and nothing stops you magnetizing gaunts, but its often getting to a point where the fun tends to get sapped out of it considering how many gaunts you'll need no matter if you use magnets or not.

Gaunts are also a lot cheaper to bulk up on and, importantly, because they only have one weapon a new codex/edition/update won't invalidate them (at least not the current plastic- I'm aware that in the past there were metal spike rifles and the like so it "has" happened but it was a different generation of tyranids then).