Thursday 11 March 2010

Rare Earth Magnets

I've just bought some small but very strong Rare Earth Magnets for use on my model tanks. For those that don't know they are excellent for holding the turrets in place while still allowing rotation. I recently used a pair of these magnets on my Panther model and they work very well despite their diminutive size.

I was going to write a full article about these but I have since found some excellent articles on other sites and decided to link to them from here instead.

There is a great article all about using these magnets on the Flames of War Website. The piece discusses how to use them in your modeling projects and provides an excellent guide to Rare Earth Magnets for those of us that have forgotten most of our school physics lessons.

The Blog Adventures in Miniature Gaming also had an interesting article showing how the author used these small magnets to excellent effect on his plastic Tyranid models.

I bought my first pack of 100 magnets from the EBay Seller Power Magnet Store. The type I bought are small disc magnets just 1/16th Inch thick and 1/8th inch diameter. This sounds small (they are tiny) but they are more than strong enough to hold on a turret on a model tank. At just £4.99 for 100 they are excellent value for money. Other Sellers do similar deals and there are a wide variety of shapes and sizes available.

4 comments:

  1. I got some magnets in my box of T-34/85's from Battlefront. Is that a standard thing for them?

    Also, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard are doing a deal from Friday 19th to Monday 22nd March: If you have a PO postcode entry is only £5. Incase you know anyone in this area who would be interested.

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  2. According to the FOW site they are starting to include these magnets in their new box sets, but anything older won't have them. The Panther I just finished came with two magnets and a hole for them to fit in. I guess this will become the norm for future boxed set releases.

    I've got a couple dozen older vehicles that need to be 'retrofitted' so at least half the pack of magnets I've just ordered will be used immediately. One of the advantages of battlefronts tanks is most have resin bodies and are therefore easy to drill. It should be easy to make a small depression for the magnets to fit in.

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  3. I havn't put my tanks together yet, been focusing on Warhammer 40k too much lately. I can't wait to get them done though, such nice models. I have to admit that I'm being drawn towards magnetising my 40k models for alternate weapon builds. Time consuming but efficient!

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  4. Thank you for linking to my article on magnetizing my Tyranid Warriors.

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