Magnetoengineering for the Greater Good

My first foray into magnetizing was a qualified success.

I started following this guide which is currently hosted at Eastern Empire.  It went relatively smoothly, though as you can see from the pics I didn't get one magnet quite right and had to plunk a second one down next to it.  (The first magnet was the one closer to the lip, which wasn't making a solid physical or magnetic connection to the one in the hull; the second one seals fairly nicely.)  So far all I've done is the jaw/locking piece and the extension for the chin/multi-tracker.  Unfortunately I'd already assembled both the railgun and the ion cannon before I found this particular guide, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to modify the instructions in order to "properly" magnetize those.

Lessons learned:

1. It's nothing to be afraid of.  I was oddly nervous before I made my first drills.
2. Old super/krazy glue is a bitch to work with; I need to buy a new pot.
3. The magnets are tiny.
4. I found the easiest way to get the magnets into the holes was to triple-check the polarity, attach the magnet to the pin vice's drillbit, set the magnet into the hole, then kind of scrape/drag the drill bit off until I could get a fingernail in to hold the magnet down for the final release.  Toothpicks would've been ideal or that last bit (I have stumpy fingers), but I keep forgetting to buy them.
5. A needle or something else sharp/pointy (oh hey! the tip of the X-acto would've worked) to start a guide pinprick would have been helpful.
6. Need a ruler with clearly-marked mm.  I was using a measuring tape that I think was inches on both sides, but with a finer delineation on the flipside.

Done.  My not-quite-3-year-old brought me the toy airliner.  Actually he brought me a twin turboprop (sorta like whatever they were flying in Air America; C-37 or something?) and then decided that he wanted that one and I had to take the airliner.

This one was fairly easy to do...

...but this one required a Mulligan.

Multi-tracker with additional piece of sprue in order to make a set of teeth that would prevent it from slipping out.  I see that I forgot to include a pic of that piece.  Oh well, you can see it in the guide.

Fully assembled!

You can't really tell from the pic, but the whole magnetized assembly is hanging over the edge of the table.

Paint It Black

I see a grey tank and I want it painted black
No greyscale anymore I want them to turn black
I see the tanks skim by ranked in their warring rows
I rotate my railgun until my target blows

More priming.  There are a few places I'm going to have to spot-check (inside nacelles, around movable turrets, hatches, the like) when I don't have a 4-month-old a few feet away in a bouncy-seat and a 3-year-old careening about demanding Dada's attention.  All in all, though, not bad for a rank novice splitting an hour's time between the kids and the hobby.

In the background are a GF9 GFT030 pin vice, bit, and rod set and some neodymium magnets of various sizes.  I'm going to try magnetizing the Hammerhead's multitracker (registration now appears to be required to view the forum, which wasn't the case earlier today?) so that it's convertible to a burst cannon, allowing the tank to moonlight as a Devilfish.  Unfortunately when I assembled the current Devilfish several months ago I glued the commander hatch in place, so if I want to make it convertible (into a Sky Ray, unless I can dig up another turret or figure a way to convert the Sky Ray's missile wing turret into a Hammerhead turret) I'm going to have to do something funky with the hatch.  Like...chop it out.

I think I've got a better grasp of what a macro lens is for, even though I still don't have the least idea how to make proper use of it.  The first 2 were done with the Nikon D50's kit lens, and the other 4 with an AF Nikkor 50mm.  Whatever that means.