Land Raider + Magnets

I am finished with yet another model. I've had this one in a box for a while, and due to focusing mostly on my Tau forces, I just never got around to assembling this monster of a tank. Here it is though, and Land raider Redeemer/Crusader. I put the slash in there because it really is both. The guns are magnetized to fit both flamer and bolter mounts. This wasn't at all an easy thing to magnetize and to some degree I regret having done so. So let me start with the magnets.


Ideally, I would have liked to have the actual doors magnetized, meaning, you'd just plug in the bucket you want and be done with it. Seeing as I could not find the bits to do this on Ebay or ANYWHERE [if you do find them, tell me.] I had to find another solution. So I drilled a hole in the center column, then holes in both pieces for each gun, and prayed they all went together well.

They do, but, it's a hassle. More than I'm willing to put up with kinda. So I must find another way to do it next time. Here are some photos to demonstrate.

 So, as I said, I drilled holes in all sides. That worked out "ok." I did find using an actual power drill to be useful. Prior to now, I've literally been using my bare hands to grip, twist, and drill the holes manually into my plastic pieces. I don't recommend this, it hurts after a while and the bigger drill bits are just painful. Use a power drill. Use a power drill with a pressure trigger! Start slow, then work your way up. It's plastic, and as long as you work from a small bit up to the large bit you'll not need a lot of spin to get it to drill the hole.

 Now this is tough. They don't look like this now, I later had to go back and use some green stuff to make them stick. I find it often very useful to use green stuff to super glue your magnets in. The green stuff will create a great surface for the glue to stick. The only magnets I don't green stuff so far are the ones on my tau battlesuits, as the space is tight enough to grip the magnet and the super glue. So ya. Use it on bigger items like this and especially if you drill through to an empty space in the plastic. It will save you a lot of hassle.

Also, it's raised up a bit for a reason. You'll see that next.

 There's only one magnet in the arm here. That's all you need. The socket is nice because it helps keep the weapon where it needs to be on the arm. This I have found might be debatable though. Doing it this way also makes it harder to change equipment when you need too. It might be easier if the magnets were flush, because then you could just slide in the bits you need and be done. Lesson learned.

Finally, I also magnetized the top gun so I can use a multi melta, rocket, or storm bolter as desired.

First I drilled and put a single magnet in the arm.

And in the gun pieces I put a magnet on each side to hold it to the arm. This works out very well and nearly exactly as if it had pins in it.

Now for the paint job! The easy part!

I learned much more about my spray gun yet again. For one, I think when spraying on washes I'll stop adding water to the mix. This did some weird things to the paint, and in the creases it would dry white instead of the green color I wanted. Yuck. On top of that I find that I really do need to learn patience. Spray and cover the model evenly and then wait. Return again to do another coat. Spraying on coats of paint is so easy that it really shouldn't feel like a chore, so just take your time.

This time around, gold was the real doozy. The undercoat for gold is the tin bits, and has been for all my Salamander units so far. It makes the gold look a little more solid to me, and the dark overtone is great. It really makes eyes or crevices stand out.

Then you put on the gold. Gold is as bad as White I find. Holy cow is it thin and liquidy. I used some matt medium to help with this, but when you're putting on the gold it really doesn't feel like it's having any effect. Be patient, while you might see the brush strokes and lines through to the tin bitz beneath, it will work out in the end and becomes a much more solid color.

If anyone is curious, I use a wash of purple on the gold suggested by a friend. It really does make it look that much more ornate than anything else. You could use brown, I did for a while, but I was really impressed with what purple actually did for my gold model pieces. It's amazing. Try it!

Everything else about the model is pretty standard. As far as the construction, I'm well aware that I'm screwing myself about 1.5 inches of flamer space by having the gun buckets in the back. It's sad really, because I like the buckets being in the back. It adds more balance to me in the way the vehicle should be moving forwards and needs the weight in the back. It's sad that game wise, they'd be better up front. Oh well! Maybe the next guy. If there is a next guy... I'm kinda focused on Tau after this one.