Magnetising the new Tervigon/Tyrannofex models

Yes - that is a second kit in the background : )

Being a world-reknowned Tyranid player does sometimes have its drawbacks...for example; ever since the new Tervigon/Tyrannofex models were released in early March, people have been stopping me in street and asking me:

“Chris, as a world-reknowned Tyranid player, when will you be posting a guide to magnetising the new Tervigon/Tyrannofex kit on the superblog – Weemen?”

Well ladies and gentlemen, your wait is finally over.

The first thing that you need to do is assemble the body of the model according to GWs instructions (paying attention when you need to fix the tail section that you haven't already glued the whole of the torso together...). Once the body is assembled go ahead and assemble & attach the legs. I also fitted the middle set of limbs and was able to carry on, but things got a bit tricky so I would advise leaving them off for now.

I used two sets of magnets: 4.75mm “large” magnets and 3 mm “small” magnets.

To fit the magnets I used a range of drill bits and techniques:

1. I used a scapel/exacto blade to mark the centre of where the magnet will sit. I then “drilled” a small pilot hole with the blade to make drilling with larger bits more accurate.

2. I used a 3mm drill bit to open up the pilot hole and drilled to about 1.5mm deeper than I needed to set the magnet (if I could).

3. I then used a 4mm drill bit to open the hole and drilled as deep as the magnet (this left a small “well” in the bottom of the hole.

4. I finally used a 5mm drill bit to finish the hole to the depth of the magnet, so that the magnet will ultimately sit flush with the surface.

When fitting the magnets I use a tiny ball of greenstuff dropped into the hole first (thats what the little well bit was for...) and then used super glue. I’ll only say it once – CHECK YOUR POLARITIES!

The easiest way I find to handle magnets is to work out which side of the magnet needs to be facing out of the model (the side the other magnet will attach to) and stick that side onto the base of something –like the flat end of a 5mm drill bit – this way the magnet isn’t going to spin around or fly off somewhere whilst you aren’t looking.

After greenstuffing and gluing, you can then use the magnet on the end of the drill-bit to place the magnet (and then slide the drill bit away, leaving the magnet in place).

The first thing I did was magnetise the models feet and the base; I had already decided that I wouldn’t attach the model to the base so that I could paint it more easily, and looking at it part assembledyou can see its going to be tricky to attach/remove the magnetised Tervigon parts if its fixed to the base.

A large magnet went into both hooves and into the base in the corresponding position.

I then magnetised both head options – placing a large magnet in the neck of the torso and in the necks of each head.Tervigon Head

Tyrannofex Head

Next up is the torso and Tervigon egg sack; along the torso are 8 indentations where some spikes fit (4 on each side). I drilled out these indentations a little and set a small magnet in each. Each of the spikes then had theirs bases drilled a little – enough to seat a corresponding magnet in their base.

The spikes will need to be tidied up with some greenstuff

I built the egg sack and Gaunts, but left it in two halves. On the half with the Gaunts, you’ll see that the reverse of the largest Gaunt is just big enough to hold a large magnet. I fitted a large magnet in there and on the front of the other half of the egg sack. Because of the way the egg sack fits into the torso ridges, this is just about strong enough to hold the pieces together, but it’s pretty tough to get it lined up properly, so I also attached a small magnet to each half that corresponded with the “torso-spike” magnet nearest the hind legs and this helps guide and hold the egg sacks in place.

The last section is the front arms; the arms sockets were drilled to seat a large magnet in each side and then it is just a case of going through all the arms (of which there are loads) and drill them and attach a magnet to each.

The Tervigon Scything Talons and Crushing Claws are simple and these magnets are easily strong enough to hold them. As are the Tfex Fleshborer Hives. The Acid Spray and Rupture Cannon are a bit trickier however, seeing as they are freeking huge!

Tervigon Scything Talons and Crushing Claws

Tyrannofex Fleshborer Hive arms

For the Rupture Cannon I magnetised the arms and also where the tubes from the left arm attach with the gun on the right arm. This was done with small magnets. Unfortunately, the length of the gun means that it is likely that the arms will droop and the Rupture Cannon will end up touching the floor. This isn’t the end of the world as the model is already very low and almost touches the base anyway. You could get around it by adding a removable pin into the arm/shoulder ball sockets – or by roughing up the magnets to give them more bite.

Tyrannofex Rupture Cannon

Tyrannofex Rupture Cannon with a Hormagaunt for scale - its huuuuuuuuuuuuge!!!

I tried something different with the Acid Spray – instead of magnetising where the two arms meet at the gun, I pinned and glued it. This means that to fit the weapon, the piece has to be flexed a little to pop over the torso, but the pressure against the ball joint stops the magnets from slipping.

Tyrannofex Acid Spray

And that’s it – one fully magnetised model that can being either a Tervigon or Tyrannofex. You now just need to fit the middle set of limbs, which I did by gluing them into place when the model was on its stand – to make sure they were supporting the weight properly.

Here are a few pics of the finished variants:

Tervigon (Scything Talons variant)

Tervigon (Crushing Claws variant)

Tyrannofex (Acid Spray variant)

Tyrannofex (Fleshborer Hive variant)

Tyrannofex (Rupture Cannon variant)

It’s going to take ages to paint all those weapons...and I still need to go over the model and clean it up – get rid of mould lines, tidy up some of the GS’ing etc.