Painting Miniatures Figures Made Quick And Easy
Magnets 101
This is a quick overview of rare earth magnets, why you use them, and where to get them. However, I won't really go into HOW to magnetize your stuff since I'm still kind of new to this.
Why Magnetize?
I, like most people, am not independantly wealthy. I have to consider mundane things like feeding myself, keeping the electricity on, and yes, buying more figures. Even if you are independantly wealthy, you might not want to paint up every variant of Crisis Suit, just in case. It's much more efficient to take a little bit of extra time to magnetize your models, where it makes sense, and get the most bang for your hobby dollars. Magnetizing makes the most sense where you have expensive kits with lots of options that you might conceivably play with. Some that come to mind are the Tyranid Carnifexes, Tau Crisis Suits, and all manners of tanks. For example, the Baneblade kit comes with the main gun for both the Baneblade and the Hellhammer. Why spend another $95 and the time it takes to assemble and paint another tank when you can simply magnetize the main gun and make it swappable.
What Are Rare Earth Magnets?
From Wikipedia: Rare-earth magnets are strong, permanent magnets made from alloys of rare earth elements. Rare-earth magnets are substantially stronger than ferrite or alnico magnets. The magnetic field typically produced by rare-earth magnets can be in excess of 1200 milliteslas, whereas ferrite or ceramic magnets typically exhibit fields of 50 to 100 milliteslas. Because rare earth magnets are extremely brittle, they are usually nickel-coated to protect them from breaking and chipping, hence their typically shiny, corrosion resistant nature.
What this means in practice is that you can find small sized magnets that are very strong.
Where Do I Find Them?
There are a number of on-line retailers who sell a wide array of magnets. I've always bought from K&J Magnetics, but here are a few more that other people have suggested. A lot of local game stores have started carrying rare earth magnets too, but they tend to be considerably more pricey than buying them on line. If you can club together with some friends, you should be able to order in enough bulk to get some really nice discounts.
Which Ones Should I Order
I mostly use disc magnets in one of three sizes:
- 1/16" x 1/32" disc magnet (D101-N50)
- 1/8" x 1/32" disc magnet (D201)
- 3/16" x 1/16" disc magnets (D31)
The smallest ones are good for magnetizing Crisis Suit weapons. The medium sized ones work well on the bottoms of bases for those of you who cart stuff around in toolboxes and are perfectly sized to magnetize a variety of sponson turrets and vehicle accessories. If you need stronger magnets, you can also double up a pair of D201's instead of buying the 1/8" x 1/16" magnets. The larger magnets work well for items that will bear a bit of weight like dreadnaught arms, main guns, etc.
So, How Do I Magnetize My Stuff?
I did say that I really wasn't going to cover this, but I'll offer up a couple of thoughts. There are two ways you can do this. First, you can superglue magnets to the surfaces of the appropriate pieces to be mated. This works really well if they're recessed already and no one will ever see them. I did this with the lascannon turrets on my Baneblade and this will probably work with the sponsons. If having the magnets mounted on the surface won't work, then you're going to have to commit to drilling a recess for the magnet to set in. If you have to do this, either find a dremel tool or a drill bit that matches the dimensions of your magnet. Drill your hole and then test fit your magnet. Chances are, if you did it right, it will be a pretty tight fit, so don't force it in. Once your satisfied with the fit, put a little bit of superglue in the hole and push the magnet in. Do the same with the opposing piece.
WARNING! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! Be sure you match polarities. Not only will rare earth magnets attract powerfully, they will repell powerfully if you orient your magnet pairs incorrectly. The easiest way I've found to ensure polarity is correct is that I take my stick of magnets and stick it onto the one side that's already been glued in. That tells me which side should NOT be glued. A little bit of extra caution will pay off in spades as it is a pain in the butt to remove an incorrectly mounted magnet.
Tips and Tricks
The most important thing you can learn is how to keep your polarities straight. One trick that helps me, is keeping a stack of magnets attached to a finished piece. In this example, I'm magnetizing the wing weapons on a Valkyrie and have left a stick of magnets attached to a the finished magnets. As I prep the second pylon mounting spot, all I have to remember when gluing, is to pick up the stack and insert it the same way (e.g., the attached side). When I prep the magnets for weapons, all I have to remember is to pick up the stack and insert the free side into the weapon.
One easy trick to make magnets line up is to glue your component to the magnet vs. the other way around. Here's an example from a Valkyrie I magnetized. Instead of gluing the magnets to each piece and hoping they line up, I've glued the first magnet to the backing piece and then stacked up two magnets on top of it.
I then apply some superglue to the topmost magnet and glue the weapon onto it. First, this ensures the polarities are correct and second, it ensures both magnets are properly lined up.
If you are magnetizing components that can be attached to either the right or the left of a model, you need to be especially careful that all 4 magnets line up. You can use the same technique noted above with a slight modification to the sequence. For the nacelles, I glued the magnets on one nacelle then flipped a finished gun over and used that magnet for the other side's backing piece. Once the backing piece was finished, I went a head and magnetized the last piece, which was a targeter.
Another simple trick to finding the corresponding spot on the opposite piece is the paint a little red dot in the middle of each magnet and then press the two pieces together while the paint is still wet. When you pull the two pieces apart, you'll see some red paint that marks where you need to drill.
Be careful when test fitting magnets in the drill holes. The fit is tight, so when you test fit, you might not be able to extract the magnet, especially the smaller ones. Therefore, either use a thin probe to test the hole depth and/or always check polarities as if they were being glued in.
Regarding the drilling of holes, I've found that an incremental approach works best and gives me the most control, even though it takes a little longer. I start off with a scribe to mark the center, then I use that as a guide for my 1/32" drill bit. I drill a guide hole, then expand it using a 1/16" bit. This is large enough to check hole depth and if I need to make the hole even larger, for the D201 magnets, then I further expand it with the 1/8" bit. This incremental approach helps improve bit control to keep my holes centered and of the right depth.
Notes
| Last updated | 5/23/09 |
| Author | Michael Kan |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Related Articles |