October 28, 2009

Magnetize Your Hoveration..ism...ocity..

Three posts in 1 day? Yes, I'm that bored.

Still can't find my USB cable, so I've re-shot my Hover tank conversion and support. First, we'll look at the Wave Serpent and its turret on top. This thing, if left as GW instructions advise, will annoy someone to the point of them creating a religion, gaining the trust of a large portion of high school graduates and convincing them to commit mass suicide along his/her side. And that's just a waste of time... Instead, let's find a quick solution to this nice looking turret.

Wave Serpent
What to use... What to use... Magnets! Of course! More specifically, the 3/16 x 1/32 magnets, again. First, take a 3/16th drill bit and manually carve a small indention in the turret and where the turret will connect to the Wave Serpent. I suggest doing this manually as you REALLY don't want to dig too deep as you could puncture the plastic and end up going through it. This will make placing a magnet solidly into position very hard. So you don't cut or irritate your hand, wrap a paper towel or something of the like around the drill bit like so:


To get rid of the peg on the Wave Serpent I found a wire-disc dremel bit works wonders:


Once you have a good indention, place and glue your magnets:


And that's it! You should now have a fully functioning turret that won't fall off/over every time someone breaths. Next up, the Fire Prism:

Fire Prism
Holy mother of skateboarding Jesus is this model's production annoying. A fully plastic model with 2 ridiculously massive and heavy metal additions on the top/back. Why, Games Workshop!? Why!? Logical questions aside, I think most will look at the massive Prism Cannon and assume it's not modable. To this thought I say, "Ha! Ha ha ha! Ha! Giraffe!" Don't ask.

Because the Fire Prism comes with the parts to make it into a Falcon, as well, I forced myself to find a way to make it convertible from one to the other. This thing is completely magnetizable, it just requires a bit of effort and planning, but I'll take care of the planning for you.

First thing you'll need is a heavy duty dremel bit I've labeled as "The Grinder":


This is what you'll use to grind into the Prism Cannon so you can fit two 1/4 x 1/16 magnets snuggly within it. I really wouldn't bother doing this with the "feeder" gun on the other side of the turret as it looks fine without that work put into it. You may worry about the magnets holding these 2 monster guns in place, but the magnets I linked are VERY strong and hold everything in place very well.

After you've applied your magnets you'll hopefully have something like this:

(Click on the picture for a closer look at the Prism Cannon)

Next, apply your magnets on the turret so they match up correctly:


Apply magnets to the Falcon weapons in your Fire Prism box as well, and you can convert this puppy whenever you want. I left my Falcon weapons at Eric's house, otherwise I'd give you a snapshot of this as well, but I assure you it looks snazzy.

Hover Bases
Lastly, we'll look at bases, for both. Bases are a touchy subject with me in general (a rant for another day,) but hover bases with large vehicles are even more of sensitive spot for me. If you leave them unglued, they wobble and fall over, especially the Fire Prism. And with time, the hole that your pole goes into will get bigger and bigger (That's what she said.) And I, myself, refuse to glue them. Reasoning being; if your HOVER tank becomes wrecked, the thing should no longer be floating in mid air. Not being able to take your tank off of its base and place it on the ground is something that annoys me to no end. More so than my vehicle actually being wrecked!

I'll give you 1 guess as to what my solution for this is...

Hey, good job, guy!

Once again we'll use the very strong 1/4 x 1/16 magnets. First, clip and shave your base's pole and glue down a magnet:


After this has dried, I suggest applying a ring of glue around where the magnet and pole meet for some extra durability:


As for the vehicles, magnets are best place on the Wave Serpents center of balance, here:


And the Fire Prisms, here:


And that's it! You now have 2 Eldar vehicles with so many magnets applied to them they should be kept at least 40 feet away from any and all electrical devices at all times:


Until next time!

2 comments:

  1. Nice tutorial.

    I got lucky with my Falcon/Prisms... I had a couple extra unbuilt Falcons floating around back when the Wave Serpent kit released. So I ordered a couple WS sprues, added it to my Falcons and ended up with two extra turrets. A quick magentization of the and my normal Falcon turrets lets me swap between with minimal fuss.

    On the flying bases, how do you find they hold up? Any problems with shearing of the stem or the magnet breaking off? I just use brass rod cut to length to rest against the inner top of the vehicle.

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  2. That's a great idea, I never thought of going through the tank. The magnets work great. As for the stem shearing, I was just gentle with it when shaving off the top, didn't have any issues.

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