Stream Replay: Magnetizing Joints On Mechs | Battletech Miniatures

[@andrewamann2821]

A handy tip from one modeller to another: Xacto makes different types of blades for different types of cuts. A steady hand and a chisel blade is excellent for cleaning up saw cuts after the fact. They're also excellent for deleting details from large, flat surfaces on larger models, without spending a lifetime and a half sanding or filing them off.

[@CamoSpecsOnline]

Great tip!

[@christophermavromatis7724]

Fanjoy lives dangerously with that cutting towards oneself, but enough ribbing thanks for the tutorial and moonlighting for B1.

[@heavygauss]

It has become habit, and I didn't realize I do it that much until we were editing the video. Safety first!

[@christophermavromatis7724]

it is what it is, not faulting you; have had my share of exacto pokes and drill bits torqueing out of ones grasp

[@heavygauss]

I had a particularly gruesome mishap back in December, so this might be evidence that I don't learn my lesson well.

[@Brigand231]

Fanjoy... why does that sound familiar. Wait, THE Dave Fanjoy who's been customizing 'mechs since Battledroids? Nice to know he's still at it!

[@joekehr4269]

If you don't have a jeweler's saw, use dental floss. Tie one end around a table leg (or something similarly stable), put the floss around the joint you want to cut, hold the mini with one hand and hold the floss with another hand. Works like a charm, takes less than a minute, doesn't take much material off (basically none) and you can leave arms etc. on the mini if you don't want to deattach them. With the tubing... just putting magnets in the hips and the torso ("glued" in using green stuff) works for me.

[@heavygauss]

Interesting.... I haven't tried the dental floss trick. Most of my techniques come from working with metal miniatures, where a saw is a must.

[@john88benson]

Great tutorial, I've never considered using bushings for this. A trick I saw for maintaining polarity was to actually just build a dedicated magnet on a dowel. That way you can be consistent across all your projects which can be useful if you want to swap parts.

[@joekehr4269]

Yeah, maintaining polarity to swap parts (Dire Wolf with Urbie legs...) is fun! But I just used the torso/lower body of the previous mini as reference without a dedicated magnet. I then mark the side of magnet (dab of color, etch a bit with a blade, sandpaper it) that is supposed to go towards the inside because they are small and you might drop them, turn them, etc.

[@michaels8940]

@John Benson that's a good idea thanks for sharing

[@ironelemental9367]

Making a dedicated 'tool magnet' for that is smart! I usually stick all my magnets together into 1 long chain, and have 1 end of marked with white paint. Making a dedicated tool is a more failsafe version of this. Gonna glue me some wood to that 1 magnet now😀

[@rmdcade1717]

This is a much simpler process than I imagined it would be. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@mechghost5742]

I wish I could still do fine detail work like this. I’d do every mini like this.

[@zraal3759]

Just found your channel. Nice work. Having tex there at the end caught me off guard.

[@CamoSpecsOnline]

Welcome aboard! Yeah we like having a bit of character in our videos and Tex helps us out with that.

[@porthosduvallon5301]

I do this same thing to my mechs! Glad to see others doing it as well!

[@michaels8940]

Fantastic work sir. I very well may do this to most of my mechs.

[@cfox7811]

flipping amazing. Great post !

[@lilchinesekidchen]

I would give so much money if catalyst game labs could would sell their minis in a disassembled form in plastic sprues

[@tommymclaughlin-artist]

This is an excellent tutorial. Question: Do you generally recommend doing this before painting a mech, or is it a big deal to make this customization on a painted mech?

[@CamoSpecsOnline]

Nearly everyone would suggest doing this before painting if you care much for the paintjob. If it's something you feel you can easily touch up or perhaps just a painted mini that you want to experiment with, then it's not an issue to do after painting, but there will be some chipped and damaged areas from the cutting and drilling.

[@MrCasper1271]

This is an awesome guy. Thank you very much. I can't wait for my Solaris 7 beginner box to come in because I'm definitely trying this on that rifleman!! Just a question in your experience, does the same size tubing work for the later and smaller medium max? Or do you need to step down in the tubing size for the smaller units?

[@heavygauss]

Hmm, it depends a lot on the mini. I try to keep to the same standard size because it greatly simplifies the tools and supplies you need to have on hand, and those magnets are a good strength for all sizes of mech minis. However, some joints on some minis will likely be too small. I haven't been inclined to try to magnetize something really small (eg, a shoulder joint on a Kit Fox), but yes you could do it by stepping down in sizes. You just need 2 sizes of tubing that fit into each other, and a magnet that fits into the smaller one. Very small rare earth magnets are available, and should be able to hold a small mech arm.

[@Khaine8]

you could use polystyrene tubing as well, its probably a lot easier to work with, you can cut it with your knife. probably cheaper. this isnt a industrial build, i seriously doubt metal is needed for the wear of playing a few times a month at most will do on the model.

[@heavygauss]

That's true, styrene should work as well if you can find some of a good size. At my local stores, I wasn't able to find a pair of sizes that fit smoothly in each other, so I went with tried-and-true metal.

[@ColonelSkills]

Great vid. Would you be able to post links to where you got these supplies? The magnets and bushing pipes especially?

[@heavygauss]

Thanks for watching! I get most of my supplies from brick-and-mortar stores, including everything in this video. Any hobby store that carries model railroad or RC supplies should have them; a good online retailer in the same should work as well.

[@ColonelSkills]

@@heavygauss cool, thank you. I will have to try this with a few models. Might be harder with anything with an elbow joint but this should work great. Thanks!

[@heavygauss]

@@ColonelSkills Of course you can do this anywhere, but as a matter of practicality I consider this technique primarily for torso twists and flip arms. There's a lot more to consider for other applications like omni-mech loads, and fully articulating things like knees and elbows on a gaming mini seems silly. Well, maybe for a one-off art project...

[@Rigelwhalen]

Very cool! Which 2 sizes of magnet did you use for this project?

[@heavygauss]

I had 3/16" and 1/8", but really you just need to size them to the tubing you get: the bigger one the same diameter as your larger tube, and the smaller one so that it fits in the smaller tube.

[@heavygauss]

(and to repeat what's in the video, the tubing I was using was 3/16" and 5/32")

[@ryandehaas2884]

Do you need to use rare earth magnets because of how small they are? Or can you get away with regular magnets because the sleeves helps hold it in place?

[@heavygauss]

That's a good question, and it probably depends. I started using rare earth magnets because the strength is needed to keep the parts firm on metal miniatures. On plastic miniatures, regular magnets would possibly suffice. If you try it, let us know how it works out!

[@VetsDream]

Where did you get the rifleman?

[@heavygauss]

It's from wave 1 of the Battletech Kickstarter. They'll probably be hitting stores soon. Ish.

[@cannibalnoises4896]

Great video.

[@craig83cg]

What's the song in the background?

[@CamoSpecsOnline]

Some of the old mechwarrior 2 game tracks.

[@neboskii8756]

Cool

[@basecoat1966]

He sounds a lot like Ivan Maisel.

[@Jayrrific]

get a small hand bit