Conversion: Magnetizing An Ark

Meh...

So it's been a while since I've actually posted some content anywhere aside from SCW. A lot of this has to do with my drinking habits, promiscuity and, in the last couple of weeks, a video game involving lightsabers and lightning shooting out of fingertips. If I was truly being honest with myself here, it's all about habit. The holidays stopped my constant writing habits whether I liked it or not, and after about 3 weeks of not writing much I continued the habit of...not writing that much. I'm a creature of habit constantly at war with myself to break habits such as laziness and cheese-product. So, here I sit, Silversun Pickups blaring, lights off, cigarette in hand and fully focused on the connecting fingers to keys in a coherent succession. Today I bring you something I completed over a month ago; my magnetized Ghost Ark (and how I gave up on the whole idea.) More after the break.

So I'll start with the long and strenuous journey of finding a way to magnetize a Ghost Ark so that:

A1) I wouldn't break bank using ridiculous amounts of magnets.

A2) I wouldn't have so many magnets that random metal pieces from across the room would fly at my model in the middle of a game.

B) The "rib cage" would facing down when it's a Doomsday Ark.

C) It would be quick and easy to switch from Ghost Ark to Doomsday Ark.

The following was my first attempt at it. First I used D41's for all of the following work, though I would recommend D41-N52's for a little extra oomph. For the "throne" portion of the Ark, I pretty much built the whole thing, then had to shave down the inside pegs of the two peg-hole-things to get the magnets to fit:

For the other end of the "rib cage" I had to do quite a bit of drilling/shaving to get another magnet to fit in there at exactly right right depth:

The Ghost Ark cap and Doomsday Cannon required no effort; just glue and magnet:

Now for the tricky part. I need to be able to flip the Gauss Flayer Array weapons on the sides willy-nilly, but I don't want to use forty magnets to do so (4 magnets times 10 Gauss Flayers.)

"Onward! To Idea Town!"

The previous month before the Necron dex came out I purchased a bag of random metal stuff which included a rod at the perfect size for my idea in mind. A little greenstuff to cap the ends with magnets and it looks like it'll work:

"Giggity."

Simply put each section of the "rib cage," unglued, in between each Gauss Flayer:

Until you have either the Doomsday Ark or Ghost Ark:

However...

This thing is annoyingly fragile. Not so fragile that you can't play with it in a game, but fragile enough that transportation of the model is a joke and the wrong bump on the tabletop will result in your opponent waiting several minutes while you repeat the phrase "Give me just a minute...sorry about this." over and over.

It's not that the magnets are too weak to hold the thing together, it's that it has way too many pieces.

I Pooped A Little...

Think of it like the lovable family fun known as Jenga:

If this game was made up of two or three giant wooden blocks it would be pretty stable, right? Well, it's not. It's made up of 54 tiny wooden blocks (that's right, I did my homework on this one) and because there's so many pieces it's far less stable; hence the point of the game. The more breaking-points on an object, the less structurally sound it is. With this in mind let's take a look back at my goals for this project.

A1) I wouldn't break bank using ridiculous amounts of magnets. (Check.)

A2) I wouldn't have so many magnets that random metal pieces from across the room would fly at my model in the middle of a game. (Check.)

B) The "rib cage" would facing down when it's a Doomsday Ark. (Check.)

C) It would be quick and easy to switch from Ghost Ark to Doomsday Ark.

Another problem sticks out like a sore thumb; the more pieces the more time it takes to set up. As I mentioned, transporting this thing in one piece isn't going to happen, so I'll need to spend the literal 5-10 minutes setting this thing up every time it moves from one place to another.

Lastly, with all of this taking apart and putting back together business, what will become of its eventual paint job?

Essentially What Your Ex Did To Your Car's Paint Job.

With all of these problems glaring at me, it was time to look back to my list and sacrifice something. Sure I could add more magnets making things snap together far more easily and quickly, but I planned on having multiple Ghost Arks and didn't want to fork over the cash to do this to each one.

So, with a heavy heart, I decided to give up on B) The "rib cage" would facing down when it's a Doomsday Ark. The process was pretty simple. I eliminated the metal rod and the magnet that connected it to the "throne" and put plasticard in place on the end "rib" to place a magnet on:

Glue the rest together and there you have it. A Doomsday Ark or Ghost Ark with only three parts to trade out. I'm saddened by giving up on the upside-down ribcage for the Doomsday Cannon, but in the long run this is for the best in my opinion:

So there you have it folks. Questions, comments or criticism goes in the box below.