Assault Terminator Conversion

Welcome back to another post that hopefully grabs you like a magnet (/badum). Today's installment is something I experimented with the last few weeks and have almost finished now that I've got the kinks worked out. Here was the lovely process:

Yes, I'm Cheap
The whole point to magnets is to save money. That's really all it boils down to for me. If I'm going to reach the point where I'm spending more on a conversion than it would cost me to buy 2 different models, etc--I probably won't bother. Luckily, with GW's prices, I don't think I'll ever run into that issue. Ha! Hahahaah.... ha..

This set here costs $50 at normal retail pricing. I myself like Assault Terminators with the destructive force of Lightning Claws as well as the survivability of the Hammer/Shield combo. But I'm sure as heck not spending $100 on just 5 dudes so I can have both. Magnets are the obvious solution:

This Bed Is Too Small
My first attempt had me trying the typical infantry magnet; the 1/16" x 1/32" discs:


Alas, Terminators are fatties. These magnets could barely hold the arms up, and I felt I wasn't doing my job as The Magnet Pro to leave a model feeling insecure about its lims. Attempt #2!

This Bed Is Too Big
My next tactic was the next size in diameter I had available to me at the time; the 3/16" x 1/32" discs. These worked well. Really well, actually. Too well... When attaching the arms to the model, the force was so strong for such tiny pieces that I felt eventually this would cause the arms or body to break something off at some point--just too much power. The other issue was carving out the hole for the magnet. As you can see in the picture below, the magnet is only slightly smaller than the model's extrusion for the arm. Because of this, I couldn't simply drill into the model, I had to carve by hand so as to not ruin the model. Needless to say, this took over an hour per magnet.


After 4 magnets, I decided this is not the way to go either. I hopped online and purchased a middle-ground for magnet size.

This Bed Has Anna Kendrick In It (This Bed Is Just Right)
After getting my new 1/8" x 1/32" discs in the mail, I found these to be the perfect fit and by far my favorite magnet as you can probably tell from my last few posts. I could use a drill bit to create the hole and the magnets were strong, but not over powering.



The Final Product
I'm pleased with the results, while I left the larger discs in 1 of the models (I'm afraid I'll ruin the model by tearing them out,) the rest turned out perfectly and I have a 5man squad of Assault Termies with 2 different weapon sets:


Until next time!