At long last, put some effort in this week and finished off the Terminator Squad I’ve been working on for the last month or so.

The client had requested 6 Terminators in Actual Scale with a variety of armaments to be magnetized. There are 6 Storm Bolters, 4 Power Fists, 1 Chainfist, 1 Power Sword, 1 Assault Cannon, 1 Heavy Flamer, 1 Cyclone Missile Launcher, 4 pairs of Lightning Claws, 6 Thunder Hammers and 6 Storm Shields. In all I used 96 magnets in the squad, with each shoulder pad being magnetized also, so that only the arms are swapped out. The positioning of the magnets proved very tricky, but the results are well worth it.

Because the clients chapter has a lion theme to it, I added a lion head and mane as a trophy on the sergeant and sculpted a lion emblem on the chest of one of the squad members. There may be a few changes as I still need the clients approval, but otherwise the squad is finished.

Terminator Squad with Storm Bolters and Power Fists. Click for larger image.

Terminator Squad with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields. Click for larger image.

Terminator Squad with Lightning Claws. Click for larger image.

Completed Project Magnets

I haven’t devoted much time to these, but I’m giving myself 2 more days to finish this squad. Here’s the progress so far, pictured with my own unfinished Bane-Raider. I think they look pretty cool. The sergeant carries a power maul (I ran out of sergeant power sword arms), though I may swap it out depending on the client’s wishes.

Click for larger image.

I’ve been putting some time into the long awaited tutorial, which will be finished soon. A little later I’ll also be putting together a tutorial for these Terminators.

Work in Progress Actual Scale, Custom, Magnets, Squad, Terminator Armour

Here’s the whole squad. If anyone’s wondering what the labels are for, each squad member has 3 pairs of arms that will be bagged up with each model. The arms won’t be interchangeable between models so I need to track them. When the conversions are finished I’ll mark them with with different colour paints.

Click for larger image.

Work in Progress Actual Scale, Magnets, Terminators

Same model with magnetized arms.

Work in Progress Magnets

Effectively finished awaiting varnish (raining outside, so it’ll have to be tomorrow). I believe the client wants a more heavily battle damaged figure, but as I always apply battle damage last, I figured I’d show him as he is and get some feedback from the client at the same time.

Work in Progress Magnets, Red Scorpions, Regular Scale, Storm Shield, Terminator Armour, Thunder Hammer

Here’s the first of the finished members of the Mark V Tactical Squad. As per the clients orders this model has magnetized swappable arms, so he can be equipped with bolter/bolt pistol and power sword/fist. Still need to drill out the bolter and perhaps add a back banner. I’m very pleased with the way this has turned out. I feel there is some progression and improvement on the previous squad.

Also for your viewing pleasure I have one of the near completion marines from the same squad. The dagger (not entirely WYSIWYG, but looks pretty cool) is from a Catachan command squad (I think). I’ve tried to pose him as if he’s firing at close range, hence the slightly lowered bolter, with his combat blade ready to slash out at the approaching enemy. I also swapped out the magazine on the bolter for a belt feed, as these marines are meant to be heresy era. All marines in the squad also have the same style of back pack, which is pretty close to the accepted old mark back packs. I used a simply greenstuff mold to make the basic layered plates shape and added rivets from the Grandt Line range.

Work in Progress Combat Blade, Magnets, Mark V, Rivets

At the clients request the Space Marine shown in the previous post has magnetized swappable arms, power fist/sword and bolt gun/pistol. He’s also requested a similar thing for all members of the Actual Scale Terminator squad I’ll be starting soon. This is a great way of getting value from models I feel, and from my point of view as a converter is a nice little touch to a finished product. Sure this is nothing new, but it got me thinking whilst I was repositioning one of the arms on a veteran sergeant. It wouldn’t be too extreme to place tiny magnets between forearm and elbow, and perhaps small ball magnets where the head/helmet attaches to the body (as well as at the shoulders). This would give not only swappable arms but posable arms and heads.

Things like this, as well as fibre optics in the eyes and motors driving the spinning assault cannon (seen it done a few times now), speakers built into a Squiggoth, are great novelties, but is it going too far?

At what point do wargames figures become toys and is it something the average gamer wants?

For me personally I think magnetized arms/weapons and wargear are enough, but I’d be interested in knowing what others think of this sort of “upgrading” of miniatures.

Miscellaneous Fiber Optics, Magnets, Motors, Random Thoughts