Wraithknight magnetized with full weapon options

While my recycled Eldar army is still in bits after being stripped of colour, I couldn't pass up the challenge of the wraithknight and his many weapon options. So I picked one up when it was launched and put it together while preserving all weapon configurations. After I was done I took a picture of the model together with some others to clearly show its size.

The model offers three primary weapon options, big cannon with shield, two heavy wraith weapons or giant sword plus shield. Considering that the model comes with the choice of three different pairs of secondary weapons and can only fire two weapons, my guess is that shield and big gun plus a laser for the buff will win the day, but time and personal bias will tell at a later date.

To preserve all options, I had to magnetize ths shoulder joints for the  torso and all four arms as well as the mount points for the secondary weapons on the shoulders and gun arms. The secondary weapons all use the same base with different barrels. Since the guns for the right arm share the center part, I had to magnetize the barrels and accessories there.

For extra fun, I made the hip and head joints flexible as well. I find that even a little freedom with the pose really adds to the miniature. The picture below shows all parts laid out.

Three was one problem with the right arm, it didn't stay up where I put it and rotated down instead. Usually the friction between the plastic parts is sufficient to avoid unwanted rotation. However, if the weight and leverage is too big or if the fit isn't just so parts may not stay where you want them. I had filled the lower arms with green stuff since I wanted to have extra meat for my magnets to bite into. However, it turned out that this was completely unnecessary. So most likely it wouldn't happen again when doing the same thing to another unit.

I fixed this model by  adding the two magnets you see here on the top of the arm and under the shoulder pad. Just like the green stuff in the arm, this was a bit more than needed. A plastic know like a door stopper would have done the job just as well. ;-]

When I completed this model, I also made a YouTube clip and followed that up with another one showing the fix for the dropping arm. You find those below.




I quote the magnet dimensions here to help pick sizes for your own wraithknight.

hip and torso: 6x6mm 2pcs
neck: 5x5mm 1pcs
head: 3x3mm 1pcs
shoulders(torso): 5x5mm 2pcs
shoulders(arms): 6mm wide x2mm thick 4pcs
hands 3x3mm, 9pcs, four hands, one sword, four wrists)

right gun: 5x5mm 1pcs (holding barrel), 3x3mm 2pcs (holding accessories)
gun barrels: 4x4mm 2pcs (one each), gun accessories 2x2mm 4pcs

four secondary weapon mounts 2x2mm, 8pcs (two location pairs, two magnets each)
secondary weapon mount shoulder connection: 3x3mm 2pcs
secondary weapons 2x2 mm, 6pcs (three weapons, two magnets each)
secondary weapon barrels 3x3mm, 8pcs (three weapon type pairs, two mounts)
secondary weapon accessories I just plugged in, 1mm max in them otherwise.

In my experience, the worst magnet problem is having to remove one that is glued in place inside a pice of the model. That's usually because it's inserted wrong side up, not inserted far enough, or because it turns out to have insufficient strength due to small size, distance to the counterpart or deviation from the perfect alignment.

When (hand!) drilling the holes for the magnets, I find it useful to start with a pilot dimple for the center point, followed by a small 1 or 1.5mm drill. I then increase the drill size in 1 or 0.5mm steps to the required size. This reduces plastic tearout and breaking when too much is cut in one go from a small or narrow piece.