There seems to be a general trend lately of moving to Land Speeders to provide mobile firepower for Space Marine Armies.
However with 6th Edition looming in the far distance like a fat shadowy enigma, it may be better to magnetize everything these days to take full advantage of any new rules changes.
I made a few Land Speeders up recently and had a blast magnetizing pretty much everything, lol.
First off I grouped up all my weapons and got out some stacks of magnets. I used 1/8″ for the main weapons, and 1/16″ for the crew manned ones.
To attach the chin mounted ones I carefully drilled a 1/16″ pilot hole first, then used a 1/8″ drill bit to enlarge the hole for the magnet. Drilling pilot holes first gives you better control (smaller bit), and reduces the chance for error with the bigger drill bit as it’s doing less work.
With the new speeders the chin mount for the weapon kinda fits in like a jigsaw to the bottom of the hull, so make sure you line that up before you drill your first hole.
Then I drilled out holes the same way in the weapons for the chin, and attached magnets into the holes using superglue and kicker.
Make sure as you are gluing the magnets down, that you check your the polarities of the magnets! You don’t want your weapon to shoot off into space because you glued a magnet in wrong.
I usually just put a dab of glue in the hole, and then sink a magnet into it that has been doused with some kicker. Keeping the magnets attached together in a long shaft also makes it easier to control as well.
Drilling a pilot hole really came into play with the Typhoon Launchers, as every surface of this bit is frail, and will break. I managed to nail it but had a few close calls.
Drilling the hole for the Typhoon mount is a little easier, but that door is very frail- so use care.
The crew weapons were pretty easy to bore out. I didn’t use a pilot hole on these because of their small size, I already had a lot more control. You can see the magnet locations in red above. Even being as small as they are, the weapons stay attached very well. Magnets: it’s almost cheating.
Checkout the weaponized pictures below, feels like a Transformer, lol.
Hit me up with any questions, and if there are any other kits would you like to see a feature on magnetizing? -MBG?
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About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.
Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of LostSouls.
With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.