Magnets - How Do They Work?

(With apologies for using a played-out Internet meme as a title)

...so I've been sitting on three Land Raider kits for a while now - I finally got a chance to build one, and decided to magnetize it.

(Quick explanation for my non-wargaming friends who follow my blog:  Model kits often include several different weapon options that you can use.  If you glue the model together, you're stuck with that weapon (no pun intended).  Cheap-@$$ wargamers figured out a while ago that if we use magnets to attach the weapons, we can swap them out at will, rather than having to buy a whole new model kit to have different weapons.  Got it?  Okay.)

Step one: build a Land Raider, but don't glue on the weapons.  (Sorry, I didn't document the early stages of building.  It was uneventful anyway).

For this model, I bought the Black Templar hatch & doors from a bitz seller.  I usually glue the doors down for simplicity's sake, but this time I decided to magnetize them so I could paint the cool interior details behind the hatches.

I started by drilling a hole at the top of the hatch:

Then I mixed up some Green Stuff:

I grabbed my neodymium magnets - these are 1/8" x 1/16".  (I bought these a long time ago on eBay - I don't think the web site on the label is even active anymore).
 

Then I drilled a corresponding hole on the door - first I used a small drill bit and drilled about halfway through the door, then I used a large bit to open up the diameter of the hole, to make a "pocket" for the magnet to sit in:

Then I used superglue to attach the magnet to the door:

Then I squished some Green Stuff behind the hole on the Land Raider:

...and pressed a magnet into the Green Stuff from the front (making sure the right pole was facing out!)

After everything is dry, the door fits securely:

The other side received the same treatment:

Next, I magnetized the Assault Cannons - there's no real reason to magnetize these right now since no alternate weapons are included in the Crusader/Redeemer kit, but I might happen across a set of Heavy Bolters someday.

Next, I started on the rear hatch - this was trickier, because in order to get the magnets to line up with the turrets correctly but still remain hidden, one had to be in centered really close to the edge of the hole.  I started by drilling the holes where I needed them:

Then I opened them up with one of my files:

I squished some Green Stuff underneath the first hole and inserted the magnet:

I added some Green Stuff underneath & to the side of the hole that was on the edge of the opening:

I inserted the magnet, then used a toothpick to smooth it a bit (this was after I absent-mindedly tried using my metal sculpting tool, and the magnet ripped out and attached itself to my tool - d'oh!)

Next I attached magnets to the Meltagun:

Then I built the gunner option:

He received a Black Templar head & shoulderpads:

After the magnets were attached:

Next, I wanted a "plain closed hatch" option - I don't expect to use this much, but I wanted to have the option anyway.  The problem was, I didn't have any more of the turret rings - I found these parts left over from An Ork Battlewagon sprue:

I "de-Orkified" the turrent by shaving off the triangle-shaped edging, then kludged them together into a hatch assembly:

I had to trim away one edge of the bottom of the assembly, since it wouldn't clear the magnet properly - this won't be seen when it's attached:

It doesn't look fantastic or anything, but I'm betting once the model is painted it won't stand out much.

The Flamers

I did build the Flamers that came with this kit:

However, I didn't magnetize them right now for several reasons: First, the easiest way to do this would be to have a whole second set of the hatch inserts & sponson mounts.  If you check around with the bitz sellers, a set of these is going for around $15, so I'd have close to twenty bucks in it after shipping costs, and that still wouldn't include the exterior armor plates.  That's starting to not be a good value - I have three Land Raider Crusaders, and by the time I gathered the parts for all three, I could have just bought another model.  While I could magnetize just the vertical sponson supports & the armor plates, I feel this would be way too fidgety.  Also, since I'm a bit of a fluff bunny, and these Land Raiders are for my Black Templar army, I really can't see myself not running them as Crusaders, since the Templars were the chapter that originated the design.  But, maybe I'll come across the parts I need on the cheap someday, so I thought I'd keep 'em around.

Next, I finished drilling out all the weapon barrels & cleaning up mold lines:

Then, I added lots of Templar-y goodness:

Forge World brass etch:

...and this cool decorated armor plate from Scibor:

With all the magnetized accessories:

With common load out:

Threatening my in-progress Freebootas!

I'm pretty happy with how it came out - the magnets are almost completely unnoticeable when the weapons are attached.  I may not get around to building the others until after I get back from Adepticon, so I might have to look for additional bits while I'm there...

What Do YOU Think: Verdigris Bases

...so my Freebootas have the lips of their bases painted with metallic brass, like so:

... I went with brass because I felt it had the most "nautical" feel.  One thing I considered doing with the bases was a verdigris effect - verdigris is "...the natural patina formed when copper, brass or bronze is weathered and exposed to air or seawater over a period of time".  Most of you are probably familiar with the appearance, even if you haven't heard the term - here's an example from Google:

...I tried recreating the effect with washes, but was unsuccessful.  I found some excellent tutorials on how to paint verdigris, but to be honest I didn't want to invest that much time (my Freeboota army is 100+ models).  While I was browsing around for something else entirely, I found out that Vallejo makes a Verdigris Glaze in their Model Color range:

I ordered a bottle and grabbed a base from the spares I had painted for my Freebootas:

I applied a few intentionally blotchy coats of the glaze:

...and here's the finished base, side-by-side with a plain one:

(Click to embiggen)

...so I decided to ask you guys - what do you think?  Is it obvious what I'm going for here, or does it look like a mess?  I should probably mention that I'm planning on adding more details to the bases (treasure chests, rum barrels, cannonballs, etc) to really play up the "pirate / nautical" theme...

Goodbye To The FLGS

So as I briefly mentioned before, my FLGS has closed down.  This is especially a bummer for several reasons: it was the closest game store to my house, it had the friendliest environment of all the stores in town (in my opinion), and the owner was a personal friend of mine.  The good news is that the closing isn't out necessity - the store was operating in the black, but he simply felt that the time he had to invest in the game store vs. the financial return wasn't really worth it anymore.  (He has two young children that he wants to spend more time with, and he hasn't taken a vacation in over five years, so I can't really say that I blame him).  The other good news is that he's going to keep the store's Internet forums active, and the gamers that called the store home are going to try to form an informal club that will occasionally get together for games & tournaments. 

I stopped by a couple of weeks after he made the announcement, only to find him packing stuff away - it seems someone made an offer to buy out the majority of his inventory that he thought was fair, and he said "If there's anything you want to buy, you better get it today").  I picked up a few things that I had my eye on for a while:

A Witchfate Tor. Tower of Sorcery - I've been drooling over this model since it came out, and almost talked myself into it several times, but couldn't really justify it since I'm new to Fantasy, and my Fantasy army is a long-long-term project anyway, but it was still in the store that day, so I grabbed it.

An Ork Boss Snikrot - this model must have come in after I had bought most of the stuff I needed for my Freebootas, as I don't remember seeing it on the shelf before - I wasn't really planning on running him, but the mechanic of Kommandos coming in from any table edge just sounds too cool not to try out.  Now I just have to get some Kommandos...

A Man-O-War Shock Trooper for my Khador Warmachine force - I actually need three of these, but I picked up the only one that was left.

...and a whole stack of White Dwarf back issues.  These were going for 50 cents each, so I grabbed one of every copy he had in stock.

He was also selling off the fixtures & gaming tables - I might have picked up some other items that may make an appearance in the dedicated gameroom that I'll be building someday...