How to magnetize an Eldar War Walker-the wicked easy way.

There are two basic principles at play here.

1)      I am cheap and hate having my options limited. I also like WYSIWYG for my models as much as reasonably possible, but don’t see a reason to buy two or more models just to have different weapons on them.

2)      I don’t have a ton of time. Like most dads, my life is busy and the little free time I get, I want to play. Don’t get me wrong, I love painting and modeling, but I just don’t have time to do it for hours. Life is full of choices, and if I am modeling, I am not playing, etc. Like with my models, I like choices, so simple, fast magnetizing is the way to go.

 

Materials

War Walker

 1/16 by 1/32 size magnets (14 per Walker)

CA glue

1/16 size drill bit

Old hobby knife blade.

 

 

Managing your magnets

Okay, there are lots of ways to do this, but what I do is put my stack of magnets on a spare tool or whatever is handy and LEAVE them there. I pull them off one by one, so I know the polarity direction at all times. I know a lot of people mark them or scratch them but for me the marks always rub off and are you really going to sit and scratch 100 or more 1/16 X 1/32 magnets. Really now, who has that kind of time. If you ever forget what the polarity on the model is, just take some of the magnets off the tool, test them against a magnet that is already glued in (and dry-or it will pull out) and now you have your polarity again.

 

 

This is major league easy-the easiest model I have magnetized. Everything is pre-sized and you will only drill into the slot and tab that are already there.

1)      Take the shoulder pad and drill two small holes in each end of the slot that the weapons tab would normally slide into. This is almost the right size already, so there is very little to take off.

2)      Next, drill similar holes in the same place on each of the tabs. Since it is presized for the slot, there really is no measuring needed. Just go to the two ends and it will match up close enough.

3)      Now it is time to glue in the magnets.

a.       So this is how I do it. I take an old hobby blade (you won’t be cutting with this again after it gets glue on it). I use the blade to slide between the first two magnets.

 

Now you know that the upside on the magnet on your blade is the same as the upside on the stack. I then slide it to the tip of the blade if needed. If that is the side that goes “down” into the hole you just put it there, wait a couple of seconds and slide (don’t lift) the blade from the magnet. If you need the upside to be the one facing out, then slide it off of the blade to it’s hole. IF you ever lose track of the polarity (the magnet flipped or whatever) just drop it back on the stack and it will reorient.

b.      Place the magnets into the shoulder slots. Make them all the same and if you are doing mulitple models this will enable you to switch weapons between all the models.

 c.       Place the magnets into the weapons with the opposite side down.

 

Be careful about polarity in these two steps as it is hard to pull them out. IF you do flip them it is much easier to get the magnets out of the slot than trying to dig them out of the drilled hole in the tab.

 

I had two war walkers and two heavy weapons platforms and after magnetizing all of them, I have four of each weapon type ready to go. Mixing and matching is easy now.