Thursday, 31 March 2016

Magnets, how do they work?

I finally decided to bite the bullet and shell out for an Adeptus Mechanic cruiser. It's a ship that I've been keen to acquire for a long time and it will hopefully be a worthy addition to my Imperial fleet.

It arrived ready assembled as a Tyrant class (all weapon batteries) but I wasn't convinced that this was the best use for it, nor was I willing to shell out for several vessels to have different configurations. After all, it would be a rare fleet indeed that would field more than one given that they take up valuable reserve slots! So I did what anybody would do and put the question to the BFG Facebook group. Which configuration should I go with?

The response; magnetise it.

Fine then.

The Adeptus Mechanicus cruiser Immutable Faith

I've never tried magnetising the weapon options of my ships before but I had a fair few neodymium 3x1mm magnets spare from doing their bases. These things tend to end up attached to every metallic surface on my desk!

I decided to only do the rear set of weapons as this would open up the Tyrant, Dictator and Lunar options to me. I still wouldn't be able to field a Gothic but I already have two of those in my regular fleet. Gothics can't make use of the increased weapon battery range upgrades anyway so I didn't consider it a priority.

So with a bit of nervousness and trepidation I started drilling into a fairly pricey model.

The side of the ship with magnets in situ.

First I carefully drilled recesses into the sides of the ship and glued the magnets into place. They've been painted over in the picture above but you can see where they stick out a little bit.

The hole doesn't go all the way through and there is a magnet on each side. They are pretty close together though so each one has a different polarity facing outside.

Showing how the magnets are placed.

Next I did the same for the weapon options. The batteries and lances were easy and just had recesses drilled into them for the magnets.

The launch bays however are hollow and therefore more difficult. I cut a rectangle of plasticard roughly the same size as the inside of the launch bay, drilled a hole in it, glued the magnet into the plasticard then glued the plasticard into the launch bay. Definitely fiddly but I couldn't think of a better way. It's also sturdier than it sounds.

You may notice a bit of purple paint on them. My low-tech way of knowing where to drill the holes was to paint the magnets which were glued into the ship purple, press the weapon options into place and then drill where the purple paint mark ended up.

The finished weapon options.

From the front you wouldn't even know!

It was quite a time consuming job and definitely not something I'd do for every ship, but it seems worthwhile for special cases. My rogue Trader cruiser might get the same treatment.

Outfitted as a Dictator class...

Overall I'm pretty happy with the ship. My main concern is that it would seem too Chaos-y given the red colour scheme but I couldn't bring myself to part with the iconic Adeptus Mechanicus colours. I think the white highlights lighten it up and tie it into the rest of my fleet enough to be passable.

One thing that I do miss on these models though is the really distinctive prow and I couldn't think of a good way of adding a Nova Cannon without pinning it into place.

... and as a Lunar class.

So there you have it.

Honestly I'm not sure how worthwhile AdMech ships are as part of an Imperial fleet. The extra turret, 60cm Lance and better Leadership are all fantastic bonuses, as is the Mechanicus Gift although it's a shame that it has to be rolled randomly. 35pts is just too steep though.

The extra upgrades (Nova Cannon, Torpedoes and plasma-boosted Weapon Batteries) come together to make the ships extremely expensive too. A fully kitted out Lunar clocks in at 245 points and even a standard Dictator is a whopping 255! That's certainly pushing well into Battle/Grand cruiser levels of expensive without nearly as much 'oomph' or survivability.

Oh well I'll find a use for it anyway, it just needs some escorts to go with it now.


So there you have it, the latest addition to my Battlefleet Gothic collection and proof that I am still adding to it on and off. Also, if anyone has some AdMech light cruisers they want to get rid of don't hesitate to let me know!

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