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My first attempt at Magnetizing Arachnids


DavicusPrime

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So my first crew is Ramos and his happy little creepy crawlies. And with the whole swarm thing the little guys can do, there's really only one way to go and that's magnetizing!

I'm waiting on a blister of 30mm bases to hit my doorstep, so I haven't jumped in with both feet just yet, but here's the beginnings of my first magnetized swarm...

So the first arachnid on a 30mm with scratch built brick work. The crescent shaped bit of the insert is magnetized. I found that the the crescent shape gave enough room to mount the miniature AND three of them fit nice and snug on a 40mm.

MagnetizedArachnidsWIP1.jpg

MagnetizedArachnidsWIP2.jpg

MagnetizedArachnidsWIP3.jpg

MagnetizedArachnidsWIP4.jpg

MagnetizedArachnidsWIP5.jpg

I plan on doing a little color coding on the underside of each crescent so it's easy to know which mini goes where when the arachnids decide to swarm.

So there you go.

-DavicusPrime

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Loving the idea.

Might be an idea to work on the larger base so the other cobble inserts all match up with that and then make the bases for the other two so they line up as well?

That is the plan exactly. Problem is I need to wait for those 30mm's to get to my door so I can match drill the holes for the magnets. Once that's done, I can go ahead and get the layer of cobble stones added so that they match each other on the 40mm base.

-DavicusPrime

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While I wait for the UPS man, I assembled and based my Steamborg. These large based models are great for testing out ideas.

SteamborgBase3.jpg

SteamborgBase2.jpg

SteamborgBase1.jpg

My next personal challenge: trying to replicate the manhole cover and/or curb on one of my three part arachnid bases.

-DavicusPrime

Edited by DavicusPrime
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  • 3 weeks later...

The following is the text from a question and answer exchange via private message. Seemed the answer might be good for everyone to see if they intend to do this themselves...

Hey! I love your crescent design for magnetizing the arachnids and am trying to replicate it. What material did you use to create the base crescent?

Thanks,

Tom

I used a couple layers of Poster board glued together to make the crescent and the base for the Arachnids. It works out to be about 1mm thick which fits my magnets perfectly. I chose that material because it's easier to cut out the curves with scissors on the card. I was worried that it would have warping problems but the "brick work" is done with 1mm Plasticard which added a good amount of rigidity to things.

I am using 1/16" magnets which is perfect as I just so happen to have a 1/16" hole punch to put the holes in the card (another reason to go with card over plasticard). I glue a thin layer of printer paper over the crescent after I punch the holes before I install the magnets to give them something to bond to.

Here's a picture of the pattern I came up with for the 40mm insert design.

MagnetizedArachnidPattern.jpg

The 30mm inserts are 7/8" circles. The 40mm inserts are sized by just tracing around a 30mm base onto the card. Any gaps or oddities between the crescents and the rest of the fillers is easily hidden beneath the layer of texture you put over it.

After you get the crescents and the filler bits sorted out for the bases, it's just a matter of drilling out the holes, adding the magnets and adding your desired base texture.

One hint on the drilling of the magnet holes... After you put your holes in the base material for the crescents, use them as your drill template for making the holes in the base so they line up perfectly. No extra measuring or guess work is required that way.

-DavicusPrime

---------- Post added at 10:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 PM ----------

Here are a few closer pictures of the second set of arachnids...

Swarm:

MagnetizedArachnidWIP10.jpg

Individuals:

MagnetizedArachnidWIP11.jpg

And the bases without the Arachnids:

MagnetizedArachnidWIP12.jpg

-DavicusPrime

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  • 11 months later...
... but this blue color on the edges IMO don't match :P

Not a fan of the blue trim...

Yeah... That's my bright idea to paint the edges the faction color (haven't decided how I'm going to deal with dual faction models yet). I originally had them painted a darker blue but I decided I liked the brighter color. What you see above is the entirety of my painted models, so changing my mind won't be a huge hardship at this point. For now, I still like the blue.

One problem I had was once I got paint and a coat of varnish on the bases, the crescents began to not slot nicely on the swarm base and/or once in, was so tight a fit that getting them out again risked pulling the mini off the base. To fix that, I shaved a little off the edges of both the crescents and the swarm base until all the "sticking points" had some clearance.

This has lead to me going to the other two sets of spiders I haven't painted yet and preemptively fixing their "sticking points".

-DavicusPrime

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