A while ago, I picked up the new plastic heavy warjack box for Warmachine. The box comes with everything you need to make one of four different warjacks, but only one body. The temptation being, obviously, to use magnets to swap the arms depending on what you need. This is what I’ve done…
The Resources
To do so, I started with the plastic heavy warjack kit and a set of small (3/8″ diameter, 1/8″ thick) disk magnets. Since I already glued one such kit together (as a decimator), I had a small advantage in being able to glue both the destroyer axe and juggernaut axe to individual hands instead of having to magnetize that section. This meant that the only things that needed magnetized were the shoulders and the head.
The Tools
I did a lot of looking for something that would work perfectly (since this would be my first try at such a thing). Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything. A 3/8″ drill bit is slightly too big to find for a dremel (I really looked everywhere for this before giving up) and Cam’s drill gave up the ghost before I got the chance to try using that. Instead, I ended up using a dremel bit that would allow me to wiggle out a space ~3/8″ in diameter to fit in the magnet.
There was a lot of trial and error in making the holes, but I think they came out okay. Mostly, it was a lot of carving out the spot, then checking the magnet and iterating until the hole was just the right size. In many cases, I over-carved on certain areas, but, since all of this is hidden behind the shoulder pad anyway, I’m not too worried.
The results
Okay, here’s what you’ve been waiting for – the pictures:
I’m pretty excited about this for a couple of reasons. To start, it’s my first try at magnetizing a model, so I’m glad that it is even usable. While I’ll agree that the arms don’t look perfect, it still feels “good enough”. The other main thing that excites me is that it gives me some confidence to do some other magnetization works. I’ve been thinking about magnetizing a land raider or predator for a long time, but haven’t had the know-how of where to even start. Since Karl is selling magnets now, I at least have a way to get the magnets I would need, and now I also have a method to inset them appropriately. Finally, it gives me an excuse to get a dremel tool – something I’ve wanted for a long time, but could never quite justify.
Now, for one more mindbender, I give you the following:
Have Fun