Kosh's Korner - Wargaming on a Budget

Why Magnetize?
In the long run magnetizing your models could save you money and a lot of trouble. For instance, with a 10 man Chaos Marine Squad you can change the options on four of your marines. You can have an Icon Bearer, an Aspiring Champion, and up to two marines can have different weapons. My squad currently has an Aspiring Champion with a power fist, an Icon Bearer with the Icon of Chaos Glory, a marine with a Flamer, and a marine with a Meltagun. Let's say after playtesting with this squad I want to change the Icon to a Slaanesh Icon and change the champion's power fist to a power weapon. If I had glued them on this would be difficult, yes possible, but with magnets very simple.


How to Magnetize?
First of all, check out this tutorial by Hyun over at Wee Toy Soldiers. Hyun is the man, I've learned so much from his blog in such a short time. This does take some special equipment such as a dremel. The type Hyun uses, a MiniMite are very inexpensive. I use a Dremel Stylus myself that I bought a while back, they run about $60. Of course, you'll also need magnets. I bought my magnets from Amazing Magnets. You can get 100 1/16" and 100 1/8" for $12.50 + shipping, that's a lot of magnets that should last a while.


A few things to remember. Mark the poles on your magnets. You don't want to try and put the wrong poles together after you've already super glued the magnets. I used a permanent marker to mark two magnets that were stuck together. This tells you that the marked side goes down into the hole you drilled. Another thing, don't magnetize every available optional weapon right away. Just do whatever you need for your army right now. If you decide to go back and change something, say a Flamer to a Plasma Gun, magnetize the plasma gun then. This way, you know which model you're going to put it on and you can put a magnet on the existing shoulder socket magnet to get your poles correct. One last thing, don't worry if you drill in too far (just don't drill all the way through) and your magnet isn't flush. You can stick some green stuff down in there or just go with it if it's not too bad, the magnet should still be strong enough to hold. It takes a few tries to get the depth correct.


That's about it. Don't get discouraged, a couple of people told me not to worry about magnetizing because I'm new to the hobby and may not be ready for it yet. You can read about doing things and watch tutorials until your blue in the face, but you're not going to really learn anything until you try to do it yourself. Remember, "What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing." - Aristotle.