Hi all,
Given the amount of questions I've seen on social media in regards to magnetising a Reaver titan and the different approaches people have suggested, I've decided to throw my hat in the ring and outline what I did. I won't take the credit for it as it was an idea pitched by a friend of mine who I thought had a strange fascination in 3x2 magnets but it turns out that it is entirely justified and worked nicely with the Reaver!
Nice convenient thing about the Reavers shoulder assembly is that it gives you a big pilot hole for drilling. It's about 3mm in diameter at the bottom so it's pretty much perfect to use 3mm diameter magnets and having ones with a depth of say... 2mm... it gives you more to glue to the structure around it, it's pretty much perfect.
The harder bit in my option was actually magnetising the arms:
- You have to drill into a ball
- We don't know if we are getting arms for weapon upgrades or whether we need to use the ones we got with the kit so what do I magnetise?
For point 1 - I have huge hands, and naturally huge fingers so attempting any drilling without a vice was going to end in tears. Fortunately, if you haven't got one, you can get hobby vices cheaply (£9 at Homebase and I am sure you can do better online too - I just didn't want to wait). What I recommend you do is:
- Identify the *top* of the ball - remember the arms are at an angle, the base of the arm where it connects to the gun should be level.
- Put the arm in your hobby vice top up and file the point where you want to drill to reduce the chance of the drill slipping
- Use a crafting knife and a 1mm drill to create a small pilot hole (again to reduce the chance of the drill slipping)
- Drill with a 3mm drill bit so the arm is ready for your magnet
- Glue the magnet in
For point 2 - I didn't take any chances, my arm sections are magnetised top and bottom and the guns are also magnetised. To magnetise the rest of the arm very simply just put the part in question in your vice (drilling surface up) and do steps 3-5. As a bit of a helpful hint as well, I'd recommend using something like an ice lolly stick for ensuring your put your magnets in correctly:
The bit that has "Magnum" on it has my magnet I use for ensuring I have put my weapon magnets in the right way up. The opposite side is for the counterpart magnet so my weapons don't get repelled from the rest of the model. Doing it this way ensures that all of your weapons are magnetised in the exact same way so you can swap weapons between arms as you like!
Oh, and by the way, for all you guys who have lots of 5x1 magnets left over from building your warlords - good news, you can use them to magnetise your apocalype missile launchers!
In total, for each Reaver you are magnetising, you will need:
- 2 5x1mm magnets
- 9 3x2mm magnets (2 for the shoulders, 4 for the arm sections, 2 for the guns, 1 for the close combat arm)
All in all, it took me about 3-4 hours to fully magnetise my 6 Reavers but I did them all in batch which cut down on a lot of time wastage. Like the build for the Reaver, it is worth taking the time to make sure you get it right. I personally feel the approach I took is the better approach to magnetising the Reaver for me but that's more because it falls in my comfort zone - I wouldn't be comfortable removing most of the ball from the arms and or trying to mount a larger magnet in the shoulder socket using green stuff to make the platform for it whereas I'm happy to drill holes just fine. There are a few other tutorials and hints and tips on social media so if you aren't so happy with drilling through the shoulder then you probably can find a different approach that you may prefer on Facebook.
Until next time,
Hector Cephas
