Next up is my Vanguard Veterans. They can have loads of different weapons options, and because I’ve got 10 of them, I wanted to be able to run them as a squad of 10, or 2 squads of 5 (although in the end, 2 of them ended up as a captain and librarian, so I can’t split them into 2 units now). Depending on what I’m up against, how I feel, what else is in my list etc, I might want them to have the option to shoot, or be totally close combat. Basically, I want lots of options available to me.
Enter the magnets…
Take this guy as an example, I could have him with a power fist and lightning claw:
Or with power sword and bolt pistol:
I’ve got a lot of models like this, where the arms detach at the shoulder. This is because the power fists and lightning claws are a single piece from shoulder to hand, whereas if you’re just swapping weapon, say changing a bolt pistol for a plasma pistol, you can glue the arm and just detach at the wrist.
It’s actually quite easy to do this. I generally drill a hole that’s two magnets deep. One mag gets glued in the hole and the other on the shoulder. When you place the arm on, the magnet on the shoulder that sticks out disappears into the deep hole to find his magnettey friend.
As I’ve mentioned above, the other option is to magnetise at the wrist. This is good for swapping guns, power swords, storm shields etc. I’ve even magnetised at both the wrist and shoulder in some cases. This is my second serge – he’s magnetised at the wrist so can have a power sword or storm shield:
He’s also magnetised at the shoulder so he can have a lightning claw instead. I’ve also magnetised his head, so he can have a helmet and be a regular veteran, or be bare-headed as a sergeant:
This shows his arm magnetised at the wrist and shoulder. It shows the shoulder magnet a little clearer than the earlier pic too:
The technique with the wrist mags is the same – drill double depth into the arm, so one magnet is sunken and the other stands proud on the wrist of the weapon. When put together, the weapon’s magnet disappears into the arm. Just watch out when drilling. I use 2mm magnets and the arms are about 2.5mm in diameter. You’ve got to drill very straight!
This is my serge with 4 different arm options – all glued at the shoulder and just swapable at the wrist:
I’ve really gone to town on these guys. I’ve got 10 men and I’ve used 59 magnets (so far – I could add more weapon swaps from my bits box!)
And you can see the first five veterans painted up here, and the second batch here.
Whittlesey 40k 