Magnets and Magnetability

I'm taking a momentary break from the Deathwing, simply because I don't seem to be able to put a large enough block of my time into getting any real amount of painting done, so I'm farting around with Assault Marines right now.  


I have 20 of them still unprimed, with no backpacks attached.  I was just planning on attaching the backpacks after I'd applied the shoulder decals, as the backpacks sometimes get in the way. I hate cutting up decals to fit around stuff as I tend to ruin them, which doesn't make me smile.  I like things that make me smile. 


I'd read some nifty stuff about running 10 Assault marines in a Land Raider.  LR trundles up and does it's shooting.  Next turn the Assault Squad inside  jumps out with their chaplain and go nuts on anyone who happens to be nearby.  


DA Codex, page 34: Assault Vehicle; Models disembarking from any access point may launch an assault on the turn they do so.


See? I like things that make me smile.  A friend of mine said to me "Why don't you just use Terminators?"  Well, I could, but five Terminators with lightning claws, and their Interrogator-Chaplain cost 360 points. I'd get 19 attacks on the charge, and Litanies Of Hate to re-roll missed hits on the charge.   An Assault Squad of 10 Marines (Sarge has Power Weapon) with their Interrogator-Chaplain would cost me 370 points, and I'd get 25 attacks on the charge.  Okay, the Termies get a better armour save and an invulnerable save. Big whoop. Five extra models to spread wounds among is more gooder.  Also, Lightning claws get to re-roll missed wounds.  BUT you have to hit them first. There are checks and balances, but I honestly like the chance of having another round of combat to go in my favour more than losing five terminators in a really bad roll of Yahtzee...

I started looking at the ways to magnetise.  I have 3mm x 1.5mm magnets from KJ Magnetics.  They are a good size and fit well in this scenario.  I decided to place one in the marine's back, and one in each of the backpacks.  I have to be very careful in this process to ensure that all 20 marines and all 40 backpacks have their magnets oriented correctly.  One magnet the wrong way round will ruin my day quickly.  


3mm is just a bit smaller than 1/8", which is about the size of the holes already in the backpacks.  I cut the button off the back of the marine, smoothed it down and drilled a hole into the back of the marine, about 2mm in. 

Sorry about the blur, a shaky camera moment!  I also had to drill down into the regular backpack to make the hole wide enough for the magnet all the way down.  Then I inserted the magnets into the assault jetpack and the back of the marine, covering them with greenstuff.  When the greenstuff is dry, I will sand it flat. That will help to prevent the magnets from pulling each other out.  I couldn't drill down far enough for the regular backpack magnet to be greenstuffed in, so I just superglued it. 

Once everything is dried I'll sand it all smooth and hopefully the results will be seamless to the naked eye of the everyday tabletop player.  Definitely not worthy of a Slayer Sword or what-have-you, but it'll save you some money and give you more scope for what to do with that Fast slot on your FOC.


Links to related subjects
Space Marines Part 1, Part 2, by All Things 40k
Rare Earth magnets by Dwarf Mine
Magnetic backpack/jump packs at Heresy Online

Life is what happens when you're making other plans...

Oh.  Mygod.   The Paint Or Die project is officially a failure.  Life really did conspire to trip me up on this one!  BUT, I will carry on with the project, and perhaps just rename it Paint Or Not.

The Terminators are making progress, or rather I should say that I am making progress with them. Worked on the first coat of red on the red bits.  Red Gore, which will be followed by a diluted purple wash, drybrush and highlight of some kind.

The Ravenwing is still in the box, waiting for the first coat.  Since I just got a Ravenwing tray from Battlefoam, That's to one side for a while until I can get other projects finished, then I'll build a second set and paint them all together. .

The other thing that's getting in my way is... Warhammer 40,000. Very odd, yes.  I just took over the running of a private gaming club called A Club.  That's the logo I came out with, redesigning an older version.

We have gaming space in a warehouse that`s been decked out specifically for the purpose.  Many tables, TONS of excellent scratch-built scenery, a big ass TV and blue-ray player, a hot dog machine and good camaraderie.  Visitors note after spending an evening that they notice no rules lawyering, no arguments and no bad feeling.  And that makes me glad because people just come to have fun, play a game and enjoy the company of other like-minded individuals.  I think that a lot of that comes from the fact that we only allow members over the age of nineteen. N-n-n-n-n-nineteen.

What else do people like when they come to A Club? Thor's 65000 point mechanised Guard army.

Enough said.

Line and Lineability

Yeah, alright. I changed the scheme again.  Well... I tweaked it. I realised that I do have a slight shake to my hand when I do fine work, especially when it's repetitive.  I couldn't imagine lining 30 Terminators with brown ink and having them all neat and tidy, so what I ended up doing was doing the brown lining then dry brushing with Deneb Stone for the rest of the army.

Don't get me wrong, I'm satisfied with the way the first squad look, I was just playing it safe. I mean - who wants to go and re-do 30 Terminators? Not me! lol.  But seriously folks, painting this number of troops at once is kind of tedious to me, as much as I will love the finished result, and what the finished result will do to my opponents mwuahahahaha!

Here is Belial from the back with the Forgeworld vehicle icon that I applied, with the Deneb Stone drybrushing also.  The icon's not too big and it will help to pick him out of a crowd - he is just a Company Master and not a freakin' Primarch so fancy isn't the name of the game here.

So once I spent four evenings lining and drybrushing, I've started on colours that aren't brown.  I'll be showing Belial in his various stages as I go, and other stuff just as I do it.  You won't always see progress on the same model, but they'll all be at the same stage.

So for the flexible joints in the armour, "hinge points" and cabling between the back of the greaves and the pauldron I'll be painting in with Boltgun Metal then washing twice with Devlan Mud.  I MAY go and do a wash of thinned black afterward.  Dunno yet.  Comments and suggestions welcome!

The hammer head and the shield detail are Chainmail, as will be blades on Lightning Claws.  I'll explain guns when I get to them and have photos available. I'll wash this with a thin blue, then a thin black to bash it down, then highlight with Chainmail and Mithril Silver. I don't like to go for the funky power effects - I'm too busy dammit!

Farting around with Deathwing insignia, Belial is the test subject (after all why put your men through something if you won't do it yourself?), and I've started with a red gore undercoat, which will get a thin purple wash to lay down the shadow on the FW stuff - being VERY careful not to get it on the bone paint. I'll have to get some purple wash tomorrow and go at it.