Magnetizing a Rhino / Predator

Friend of my son needed help magnetizing a Predator. I've never built a Predator, may never have done one on my own, so this gave me a chance to give it a try. Not to mention, it was a great excuse to procrastinate instead of hitting the paint pots. Though much of what I did has been seen before, I thought I'd show how I did it. I already had magnets, mainly in sizes 1/16" x 1/16" and 1/8" x 1/8" cylinders, so I concentrated on using these. I actually came about having the 1/16" cylinder magnets by mistake, and often wondered what I was going to do with 500 of them. They've actually been quite useful.

I started with the side sponsons, as I figured most of the work would be involved there. First I drilled out the normal attachment holes on both sides with a 1/8" bit, and glued in the magnets here. I used the 1/16" magnets on the sponson arm, as the arm's width wasn't wide enough for a 1/8" magnet. To ensure a good hold, I doubled up the 1/16" magnets on the arm, both side by side and lengthwise to fit in the arm. You can see the before and after pictures above.

To the right is my method of attaching magnets. Once I glue the sponson arm magnet in place, I put a piece of wax paper over the magnet and let the weapon side magnet attach on, holding the wax paper in place. This way I can glue the next magnet and know it will line up perfectly. For gluing magnets, I often use a metal epoxy called JB Weld. It's magnetic so will surround the magnet as it cures giving a good hold. Wax paper is essential though, as you don't want it surrounding the magnet and bulking up any surfaces you want to keep flat.

Below are the finished pieces.Next up is the turret set up. This is very straight forward, as the pins on the weapon barrels are exactly 1/8", so no drilling on the turret is required. You do want to add some green stuff or glue sprue pieces inside the turret to keep the magnets from being pushed too far in when you glue them in place. For the weapon barrels, simply remove the pins and drill 1/8" holes. Important here to line up the magnets in the proper direction. I actually did not use the wax paper trick on this one and regretted it. I had not inserted the magnet far enough into the turret hole and had to pry it out because there wasn't enough room for the barrel piece to fit in.
For the back of the turret, I used one magnet here. I've seen a lot of folks use two, and that's fine, but as long as you don't use too much paint between turret and box/power pack, one should to be strong enough. My magnets are N50s, which are almost the strongest magnets you can buy, so two may be better if weaker magnets are used.

You can see here and above how I've added magnets to hold the hatches in. Another fairly straightforward magnet application. On the closed hatch and in the turret hole, a piece or two of sprue is required to build it up so the magnets meet at the right spot. I used the SM gunner as the basis for placing the magnet. I wasn't quite happy with the location, as it wasn't quite center. They still rotate, but I made the mistake of using the SM gunner when I lined up the magnets in the hull hatches, so the other fill-in bits don't marry up quite right. You can see what I mean in the Predator top shot, I hope. The right hull hatch hole is centered, so fits everything well. The left hull hatch hole is set back a bit. While the hatches work fine, the other fill in circular bits sit funny, as their magnet is centered. Minor annoyance. The bottom of the turret is what you see here. Filling the hole here is a piece of sprue with a magnet it in. It attaches to either of the two magnets seen on the sprue bits crossing the main hatch. While the hatches themselves have magnets on them to hold them in place, the turret top bit does not. The strength of the turret magnet holds the two sided top bit in place so you can use it either way. If I had the bits to make a Razorback turret, either of the three vehicles could be made from this set up.

The side door and sponson parts are also magnetized. I couldn't figure out a standard way for a single set of magnets to hold both the door and the sponson, so I used different magnets for each. The sponson uses 1/8" magnets in a single location, while the doors use 1/16" in three places two at the top and one at the bottom (bottom not shown). I actually placed the bottom magnet after taking all these pictures because, as you can see in the rhino picture at the top of the page, the bottom of the door hung out. Once painted, the magnets will hardly be noticable.

The back hatch uses 1/16" magnets at the upper corner of the door. The 1/16" magnets are perfect for these doors. They are small enough to fit in the narrow plastic part, and strong enough to hold the lightweight doors in place, but not so strong that you have to struggle to open them. The only bad part is there is little room for error; you need to be careful where you drill.

Nemesis Force Blade Scratch Build

So as I mentioned in my last post, I've been working on some Deamonhunter allies for my son's Imperial Guard force. I just heard a rumor that the "allies" part of Deamonhunters may disappear with the new codex. I'm hoping that's not the case, as I like the excuse to paint some of these figures up. They give me a good excuse to break from painting up Imperial Guard. What you see in the first picture is the latest addition to the group, namely a standard Grey Knight with Nemesis Halberd. The difference here is that the figure was received second hand and lacked the fighting end of the halberd, so I had to recreate it.












I regret that sometimes, like this time, I get wrapped up in the conversion and I don't think of taking WIP shots until it's too late. I hope with this one though, a picture and explanation may be enough. So in the close-up picture above I've broken down the parts.

I started with the blade, which is simply two pieces of plasticard glued together. You could use a thick piece of plasticard, but I didn't have that. The important thing here is that it has to be thick enough for drilling pinning holes. You need pinning holes for the spikey bit on top, and for attaching to the halberd pole. I used a stock Halberd for sizing up the blade.

Once the blade is finished, shape the edge and build up the pieces at the base of the blade. The spikey bit on top is made from a piece of sprue filed down and pinned with a nail brad. A nail brad is stronger than a paper clip, and strength is needed here. It is also thicker, so some caution is needed so you don't split out the side while you are drilling. The spikey part on the bottom is not a separate piece, but file down after building up with very thin pieces of plasticard on the halberd base. Another piece of sprue is used to make the transition from blade to hand guard. The handguard is simple a thick piece of plasticard. Not seen in the picture, underneath where the purity seal goes (purity seal fell off for the pic), is a round transition piece. In my case, I used a piece of copper wire wrapped around the pin, but a hollow rod could just as easily work. Copper wire from old phone cord is used for the power line.

Here is a side by side comparison picture. This is not the blade I used for sizing up my scratch built blade. The figure was chosen for its more similar pose. There are four different halberds, and I evidently chose the largest size when I sized mine.

Inquisitor Lord Solar Macharius

I've had a Solar Macharius mini sitting around in my box for some time. Recently, my son decided he needed Inquisitorial allies to add a little punch to his IG force. I found some Grey Knights which are coming along nicely but still currently Painting in Progress (PIP). He also wanted to have an Assassin, and I happened to have a figure that made a good Callidus stand-in. Trouble with adding assassins is, you need to have an Inquisitor Lord in order to field them. Out of the box came Solar Macharius.

Lord Macharius, a great looking mini, came to us as part of an E-Bay purchase made a while back. He was poorly painted and became a victim in my how to strip minis experiments long ago. On that matter, I use Simple Green to start, for the really tough metal minis I use undiluted citrus cleaner. The citrus cleaner proved to soften plastics, and I never got around to trying it diluted. Regardless, Solar was put back together (minus the cape) and took on his new Inquisitor Lord responsibilities with gusto. A couple weeks ago, before I started Skulltaker, I decided he was ready for a fresh coat of paint. So the the workbench he went. The cape was painted separate from the mini, and glued on when all was finished.

This is my most significant use of red, white, and gold on a mini so far. Not a bad experience, and I am actually more happy with the whites. I started with a light grey primer and the white turned out very easy. One thinned coat of white followed by a light grey wash in the crevices, then a heavy white dry brush. Gold is Shining Gold with a Gryphonne Sepia wash and a Burnished Gold dry brush. The red is Red Gore with a Baal Red wash. Not much to drybrush on the red, as there aren't significant red edges thanks to the gold trim. He's not been clear coated yet either, but that will definitely happen before the next game. The right toe sticks out from the base enough to be a problem with the paint rubbing off.

I am impressed with the level of detail on many of GW's old metal minis, and this is no exception. My only issue with the mini is the huge hands. Also, either the face lacks detail, or I was just unable to pull it out with my painting technique. I know I applied more paint than I would have liked trying to make it look good, and admit I need more practice there. I was talking to a guy at my FLGS who had invested quite a bit in Forgeworld DKOK. A comment he made that stuck with me was that he enjoyed painting them because their faces were mostly covered up and he hated painting faces. I'm not there yet, and still think practice will bring me around at some point.

I think he makes a great Inquisitor Lord, so he'll be filling that role for quite some time. He has quite the impressive record on the table already, so far victorious over the forces of Chaos he's faced upon the field of battle.

Skulltaker

So, as some of you know, I enjoy building more than painting, and actually don't play though I do enjoy watching a game now and again. Getting a solid block of time where I could play would be a challenge. I build and paint an hour or two at a time, mainly in the evenings and never without interruption. My oldest son does like to play though, so most of my work does get time on the table. His birthday was a couple weeks ago, and there was food and fun for all. He and three of his friends were joined by my youngest and one of his friends for a 2v2v2 game. I don't think they finished the game, but the party was a success.

So now there are at least three birthday parties following his, one of which was yesterday, and all of them have or will involve playing Warhammer 40K. My son wanted to give one of his friends a painted figure, and asked me if I would paint one up. I said I would, providing I got to pick the figure. He agreed, and I chose Skulltaker.

For the base, I borrowed the idea given by Ron over at ++ From the Warp ++. In his post on Bloodthirster base painting, step by step, he showed how he makes bases so they look like they have marble tile. I liked this, and decided to try it out for myself. About the only thing different I did was to not thin the washes as much as he recommended, and I followed up with a thin wash of Gryphonne Sepia toward the end of the painting to tie it all together. Also, painting Skulltaker was not completely done when I attached him to the base. I needed him attached to the base because I used the base to hold the model while I finished painting. You can see in this picture the rubbed-off primer on the sword, which is what I had been holding on to most to this point.

Not having a lot of time to get it painted before the party, and not having much experience with painting red, I also decided to borrow the ideas of another blogger. In this case, I followed pretty closely the Painted Skulltaker tutorial posted by Master Darksol. I like the way he lays out his tutorials, which include a picture a most every step, including the paint used.

The main difference in my effort was that I used light grey primer instead of black. Can't really tell in the finished product. Some other differences are from not having the recommended colors, so I substituted. I also combined a couple of the Heavy Devlan Mud wash steps. There was a point where my way of painting would have painted over a wash, then reapplied the same color wash, so I combined the two wash steps after painting the two areas. When I took these pictures, I noticed I had not done the eyes or teeth yet, and I forgot to take a picture of the finished piece.

Two great tutorials helped a lot here, with a resulting success. He received it yesterday, and was very happy with it.

Regimental Advisers

One of the few recent pieces I actually consider finished are these Regimental Advisers. My son wanted to try them out in a game, so we got a set and I painted them up. I liked the looks of the Master of Ordnance and Officer of the Fleet, but I wasn't sure about the Astropath. In the end, that was simple and the one I enjoyed painting the most. After applying white primer, I washed the outside of the cloak a couple times with GW Asurmen Blue, and highlighted with a Vallejo sky blue. The inside of the hood and the sleave cuffs are Bleached Bone with a wash of Gryphonne Sepia. The Astropath has had a sealer applied; I'll seal the other two this weekend.

Painting the medals and outer accouterments on the two officers was an interesting challenge, especially the white gloves. Between those and the uniform, I don't think I've painted that much white on a single mini before. To make things easier, I painted Master of Ordnance's backpack separately, gluing it on right before taking these pictures.

Vets WIP

Over the last couple months, I've kind of haphazardly been putting things together. One thing I did was to take the "roads" I showed in my Holiday Basing Ideas Post and use them with another vet squad I'm putting together. You can see the WIP here. One odd thing about using these Christmas Village roads is they are very pliable, not rigid like plasticard. While I could cut them with scissors, filing them smooth with the base edge wasn't as easy as I expected.

The squad was put together using SM scout legs, cadian torsos, and a mix of scout, cadian and catachan arms. The flamer is intended to be a heavy flamer version, and connected the new flamer with the back back using red wire from what's inside interior telephone wire. You may also notice there are 10 heads missing here. Once these are painted up, I'll be using the heads I showed in my review of the Games Workshop Head Sprue.

Vendetta Conversion

Here's a WIP of my version of a popular conversion, a Vendetta. For the wing-mounted twin-linked lascannons I've strayed from what I see is the norm by using a razorback turret lascannon. This is an extremely easy conversion as, other than the cable, there is no significant cutting or trimming required. There's already a left and right side lascannon, they're made to fit together side-by-side, and both sides are flat and almost the perfect size for adding a lascannon power supply. Except for the magnet (and nail, explained later), all parts are shown here in the right picture. The finished lascannon in the upper left is how it looks with all parts in place.

For some reason, I was trying to reduce my magnet consumption when I came up with this conversion, so my attachment method may seem odd. However, it does show another way to get it done and, if done correctly, it's quite sturdy. I drilled magnet holes in the wing pylon coming in from the front and back. You can see here they are flat sides to the front and back. Once I glued the magnets in I drilled two other holes straight in and deep. The difference in my method is that I glued a nail in the lascannons, missiles and missile pods, and that guides it and helps hold it in place. You can see the finished result in the picture to the right. The nail pieces fit into the holes and are held in place mostly by magnetism, but also by friction. This not only keeps them in place, but also makes sure they are hanging straight.

I've done it with the other weapons as well, so they can be swapped out at will. There's more involved with this method, but it's a good solid hold and I'm more comfortable with the fit. I made two mistakes while figuring this method out that I would change for the next time. I should have gone with a longer nail, as that would have made for a more solid fit. And, I didn't measure the width between the two holes on each pylon. This leaves me with two sides that are not interchangeable; the left side only works on the left side, and the right only on the right.

The hull weapon conversion is pretty straight forward, using a magnet on a piece of plasticard in the hull nacel. I went ahead and purchased extra hull weapon bits, added to the order during another bitz buy. Minimal work this way, and I still can have a single lascannnon mount, as well as a twin link version. WIP effort pictured here as well. I have some thoughts for the other bits that came with the lascannon bit, but am not sure when I'll be getting around to working that idea. Hopefully that won't linger long.

I need to finish off the crew, and work out some bugs with the way my heavy bolters connect, then the Valkyrie will be ready for final painting. More to come on this, hopefully soon.