Friday 20 May 2016

Magnetising a Dreadnought Drop Pod

How do,

So here its all shut, with battle damage started and real blood fx...

Full disclosure. There is nothing more I hate to build or paint in this hobby than drop pods, and the dreadnought drop pod fills me with an unending and burning rage. I hated this thing. Now I am sure that some people will get one that goes together fine, and the hinge attachment don't just shatter under the hefty weight of the door... BUT everyone I know that has one has had exactly the same issue with those bits breaking. 

This is less a guide, more showing you where I put the magnets and the strength these things have in holding this beastly bastard of a drop pod together. I used 5mm x 2mm magnets and needed 18 in total, 6 per door.

Now I am not supporting that bottom door at all, it is JUST held up by the magnets. If you new how sodding heavy these doors were you would be impressed. I think they would make excellent improvised weapons during a break in...

Here you can see 2 of the magnets that hold the door closed in the up position. You'll notice green marker on the top magnet, I use that to make sue I glue them in the right way!

You can see the magnets also inhabit the door hinge area. Yes there is blue tack in there, I ran out of green stuff and if you use a little and lather it in good super glue it holds fine...


These two show the corresponding magnets in the bottom of the door. This requires you to shave off a nub of resin so that it fits into the slot for the door. These nubs would normally make the hinge but the resin they pull against just isn't thick enough to take the doors immense weight!

Finally you can see all the doors folded down looking swish. 

Anyway, this was just to show that if you are having trouble with the doors like I did, then crack out the drill and some magnets and get to it. This makes the pod easier to paint and battle damage and will probably make transporting easier as I can wrap the doors individually and stuff the centre with bubble wrap (which is incidentally a protected term). 

Peace out,

Rob

7 comments:

  1. Definitely gonna have to do that when I start picking those up. Thanks for the heads up!

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    1. Yeah I'd recommend it even if the one you get holds together, the thickness of resin given over to the hinge just doesn't seem anywhere thick enough for the weight of the doors.

      Drop pod for Khorne?

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    2. Nah, these will be for my Space Wolves and Crimson Thunder. Chaos Dreads just ain't worth it these days, even at their best, but Ironclads, Siege Dreads, Furiosos, and Murderfang can be really nasty coming down in one of these.

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  2. Thanks for warnings, I need one for a future Leviathan with CCW

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    1. Are you thinking of claw or drill as CCW? Irritatingly the shoulder come with the main body not the arms and the claws at least have cabling that attaches to the shoulder which makes magnetising alternative arms tricky. I have ended up just casting extra shoulder pieces for mine so I can just flip options on and off.

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  3. Just got my first one mostly done. I found I didn't need the magnets at the top of the doors, as their center of gravity is solidly inside the support unless I'm really tipping it.

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    1. Glad to hear it! I really buggered up the struts which was why they wouldn't sit up properly :(

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