it's all about attraction

...or how to get two vehicles out of one.

let's face it, miniature wargaming is not an inexpensive hobby. i'd be lying if i ever said that "i don't spend too much on toy soldiers", or "i've never hidden a purchase from the sadie."

i'm a gamer. of course, i've spent too much money on games, and i have a man-purse for a reason: it's big enough to hide all but the largest of purchases.

this...

...does not fit inside of this.

there are smart ways to game during an economic downturn, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to make sure that your vehicles are flexible when it comes down to their weapons.

i picked up the new forge world mark1c "deimos" pattern predator at gencon. it comes with all the bitz to make both the destructor and annihilator versions. 

drive closer...

...i want to hit them with my sword!

you'll notice that both the main weapon on the turret and the sponson mounted weapons are different. thanks to the wonder that is rare earth magnets i can easily change between an anti-infantry bloody smear maker, and a lascannon toting, tank killing, sumbitch. 

the key to mounting rare earth magnets is twofold:

1. planning planning planning
2. knowing your polarity

planning planning planning:

when it comes down to magnetizing a vehicle the more time you take to plan your assembly, the better off you'll be. my assembly plan for the turret was to drill a small hole in the barrel assembly just like i was going to pin the barrel to the turret. i then simply inserted (not glued!) a pin into the barrel, cut it just shy of flush with the mantlet, aligned it with the turret slot, and pressed firmly using the pin to scribe a mark in the turret resin. 

i then used the scribe mark to drill a hole in the turrent, inserted (not glued!) a pin into the turret, cut it almost flush with the turret slot, and used the turret to mark the other barrel assembly. then i used that scribed mark as a starting point for the hole for the rare earth magnet.

here you can see the magnet glued into place after i used a larger drill bit to widen the hole.

knowing your polarity:

once you've mounted the magnet, it's important to test the polarity of the magnets you're using. if you don't, there's a 50/50 chance that you're going to glue the second magnet down facing the wrong direction, and then you've got to drill that bastard out. you will get frustrated and you will use profanity. so save yourself the stress, test and mark your magnets.

for the turret here, i simply connected a magnet to the one mounted in the turret, and used a sharpie pen to mark the side to glue down. then i simply glued it into the barrel assembly.

if you could see the other side of the magnet, you'd notice a blue "x".

the connection is a solid one, and it also allows me to easily remove destroyed weapons. Eventually I'll scratch build a blasted and burning mantlet that i can stick on during a game.

for the weapon sponsons, i did something a bit different. since my magnets were too wide to mount into the body of the weapons, i had to use a ferrous material to work with the magnet.

you can see that i simply widened the hole on the bottom part of the sponson and mounted my rare earth magnet flush. then i simply drilled several small holes in the bottom of the weapon, mounted several cut pieces of a paper clip into the bottom of the weapon, and filed it flush. the attraction is enough that the weapon is held securely, and easily rotates.

that's all there is too it! the biggest challenge is planning your build well, and knowing the polarity of your magnets when you're ready to glue them down.

if you've got questions, leave them in the comments section, and i'll help you anyway i can!

horus heresy boardgame is property of fantasy flight games.