WIP: Magnetizing a Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought

While building out my First Legion force for Horus Heresy, I assembled a Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought that had been long languishing on my hobby shelves.  Unsure which hull mounted weapons I might play with in games, I decided to magnetize some things so I'd have future options.  Perhaps ironically, I chose NOT to magnetize the main arm weapons.  I even have the autocannon arms still in the original packaging.  For the First Legion, however, there will be only PLASMA!

Magnetizing the torso weapons was a simple matter of drilling holes and gluing in magnets.

Any magnet of sufficient size will do here.  The weapons are not heavy and easily clamp up under the chin with most any decent rare earth magnet.  I believe I'm using 3mm diameter magnets here, but I didn't take good notes form the build.  I drilled deep and used two magnets in each hole for the body to provide solid attraction.  Overkill, no doubt, but effective.

Above, the heavy bolters are magnetized.  Below, we have the full set of heavy bolters and heavy flamers magnetized. Once painted up, I can try the different options out without feeling I made a mistake by gluing in one or the other of the two options permanently.  I like the acid rounds for the heavy bolters, so they'll get some time in battles for sure.

Next up, I chose to magnetize the missile launcher.  This allows it to swivel for effect, and I reasoned that since you pay separately for the weapons, I might chose to run the dread without the missiles in small point games to conserve points.  I don't know that this is strictly legal, but it'll certainly work for casual play.

Here again, I went a little over board.  Rather than sinking in a smaller magnet, I noticed that a 3/8" magnet was the exact diameter of the post used to mount the missile launcher.  So I trimmed off the requisite amount of post with my razor saw and used 5-minute epoxy to glue a magnet in its place.

The socket for the post in the body was quite deep, so I used epoxy to glue another magnet in there as well.  I could have used a 3/8" washer just as easily.  Bu the two magnets have GREAT GRIP! :)  the missile launcher will never fall out in a game or during transport. To accommodate the magnet in the socket taking up extra room, I trimmed off an additional amount of resin from the post of the missile launcher mount. This is visible above where the trimmed off resin is a bit thicker than the magnet that replaced it.

The launcher now clicks in with authority, swivels nicely is is totally replaceable and removable for very little apparent reason. :)  I just enjoy magnets, really.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!