Canis Wolfborn, magnetizing the arms and pinning the legs

In this post, I will be going over how I magnetized the model's arms, and attached it to the base over cork board. 

One of my Christmas presents this year was Canis Wolfborn. I wasn't too impressed with the model when it was released; however, after seeing it in person, I love it.

My original plan was to just assemble him as Canis. Then when it came time to glue on his arms, I decided that I also wanted to be able to use him as a wolf lord and give him a thunder hammer. Up to this point I hadn't been interested in using a thunderwolf, but the model is too cool! I make no claim that any of the following is the right way to do this. Its just how I went about it. If you know of an easier/better way, feel free to post a link!

Magnetizing the arms

The main problem I had was figuring out how to glue the magnets to the torso and arms, and have the arms fit flush to the model, as they are supposed to. 

First, I clipped off the part of the arm that was supposed to insert into the torso. Then, I drilled into the model to make a space for both magnets (the one for the torso and the one for the arm) to fit into, with the outer magnet being flush with the torso. Then I put a dab of glue into the hole, placed the magnet, and waited for the glue to dry. Then, I put in the outer magnet (with no glue). This way, I could just put a dab of glue on the outer magnet, place the arm as it is supposed to fit, and then quickly spray the joint with an accelerating agent to make the super glue set before it spread to the rest of the model and glued the arm to the torso. 

Below you can see the drilled out space with the inner magnet glued in place. The space was initially square, but a drill bit the exact size of the magnet and a drill changed that quickly enough.

And here is the model with the magnetized arms 

And the arms with the magnets. The arm on the left did take two attempts when it came to glueing the arm to the outer magnet.

Securing the model to the base. 

It was fairly apparent that simply glueing a giant metal model to cork board would not suffice. 

First, I placed the cork board on the base, and then put Canis on top.

Then, I traced the paws of the wolf on the cork board. These spaces were then cut out.

Then, I glued the cork to the base (with PVA glue).

Next, I drilled holes into the left front and right rear paw.

Holes were then drilled into the base for the metal pins that would be coming out of the paws. The pins were bent at a 90 degree angle and inserted up through the bottom of the base. The wolf was then placed on the base, with the pins in the paws. Satisfied that everything looked right, I glued the pins to the underside of the base, and hit the glue with the accelerating agent. Then, I pulled the wolf off, and filled the holes in the corkboad with green stuff, to both better secure the cork board and the pins. The hole in the cork board for the left rear paw didn't have a pin, but gave a more secure anchor to glue that paw too. Once the greenstuff had hardened, I glued Canis to the base. 

Greenstuff was later pushed onto the underside of the base, over the pins, to further secure them. 

Next up:

I''ll be starting the painting of my space wolves shortly. I'll finish the additional arms for Canis later on. I plan on giving him a thunder hammer and maybe a storm shield arm. 

Venerable Dreadnought, versatile drop pod icons

I really like this kit. The three different guns it comes with are a nice addition to my dreadnoughts' arsenal. I already had an assault cannon and a Forge World plasma cannon, but now I have two of each! Who doesn't want two Dreadnoughts armed with plasma cannons? I would happily field six of them with a Master of the Forge in a silly/friendly game if I had them.

As it happens, I can now field five dreadnoughts: two normal, two Ironclads, and the Venerable. One of my best friends will be made aware of this the next time we decide to play a game with ridiculous army lists. I'll have to keep my Master of the Forge model and Dreadnoughts hidden when I ask him if I can borrow a few of his drop pods...he might suspect something otherwise.

Nothing out of the ordinary with this model except for two magnets and the Imperial Fist icon from the Drop Pod kit.

The Drop Icons continue to find uses. It took a little bit of effort to make it fit on the sarcophagus cover, but I think it looks alright.

I felt that the Dreadnought looked way too cool with the torso exposed to put the cover on. On the other hand, the cover was really cool too. So...magnets!  It was really simple to do, and now I can field the Dreadnought either way.

Land Raider ready for paint!

Here is the Land Raider for my Imperial Fists army. It has seen some slight conversion work, has been primed, and will shortly come under assault from a paint brush!

Of note are the Forge World Terminator door upgrades, as well the statue and engraving I have added to each side. You can also see how all four hatches have coins glued in place. The Terminator doors, as well as Redeemer Cannons and twin-linked lascannons, are magnetized so that I can easily switch between Land Raider variants. When I want a Redeemer, the guns go up front and the doors go in the rear hatches. When I want a God Pattern 'raider, the doors go up front with the lascannons in the back.

Both of the add ons are from the Bastion kit. They were part of the relief sculptures that could be put in the wall mounted turrets in place of the heavy bolters. I used clippers to cut them out and then a file to smooth out the edges. The Imperial Fist/Crimson Fists icons behind the Terminator doors are from the Drop Pod kit.

And here is a shot showing the magnets. The mounts I used for the coins came with the Land Raider kit.

My plan is to paint the Terminator doors and statues with a marble effect. How exactly that effect is achieved is something I don't know. Hopefully I'll manage achieve a decent measure of success. I'd hate to put to waste all the effort of cutting that saint statue out with a lousy paint job!