Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Defiler Magnetising... Not fun.



Well, it's been a few weeks since my last post, and not much has happened. I have put together some smaller models. Gotten my arse caned at some games days and half ruined my Defiler. Well half ruined my Defiler and my Daemon Prince. The story begins...

I have been using my Defiler as a legless "thing" since I got into 40K. To rectify this, I came up with the bright idea of magnetising the legs on. As anyone who has been on this blog would know, I am a complete noob when it comes to any and all things modelling related. Why would I choose a $100 model as my testing bed of doom and utter failure you ask? The reason would be my triumphant attempt at magnetising arms onto a Terminator.

While the Terminator was quite simple. Doing the same thing with a model that is not only 10 times larger, requires holes and magnets that are 10 times larger. So, I'm drilling away with the trusty cordless power drill (a Pin Vise is far too small), and everything is hunky dory. The body was quite easy as I was using the same size magnets that were used in my Terminators. I got through the ball joint of the leg and the thing is hollow. No problems, I've made the hole smaller than the magnet, it will squeeze in tightly.

I squeeze it in, and pop, it goes inside the joint. Squeeze another in, pop, that also goes into the joint. I've now got two magnets stuck together rattling inside the joint. I may as well squeeze in a 3rd one, that one goes half way through leaving a partial hole. No problems there, it does actually work. Though the leg now sticks straight ahead, rather than to the side like a spider leg.

I gave up and just glued the whole lot on. This was a drama as well. I chose to use Modelling Glue (Revell Contacta being my choice), not a wise choice. I was sitting there holding the legs in place for 10 minutes, and they'd just drop off leaving melted plastic everywhere. I chose to use some Superglue next, and that was a massive improvement with only a 10 second wait time.

Next up is the Daemon Prince. This poor fella has not only been running around without wings, but he also seemed to have misplaced his head! I really wanted to magnetised the wings on, which would allow me the ability of easy moving from home to games. After screwing around, I realised that it was just not going to work.

I had shaved the pins off the wings, which were there to guide the wings onto the body. I had done this with the intention of gluing magnets on in their place. There was enough space to stick the magnets into the body, so I did. What a Forrest Gump moment that was! The magnet fitted like "finger in bum" and that was beginning of the end. The magnet ended up being too deep, which meant no matter what, the other magnet was not going to fit on the wing.

Oh well. Out with the trusty modelling glue, and gloop that bastard on. Yet again, I sat there for ever waiting for the damn glue to set. From now on, larger models will be getting the super glue treatment. It's faster, hardly messy and works well.

Till next time...