XV104 Construction - part 2: Magnetizing the Riptide

This is the next part of XV104 Construction.

As I said before and you probably already knew, the Riptide is a massive model. I didn't exactly measure how long it took me to put it together, but I'm guessing it was about 3 hours in total. Of course this includes the time it took me to magnetize the main gun, read on after the break...

The first thing you need to do is drill out the slot where you want the gun to attach. Make sure you have the right drill for the size magnet you want to use and drill out the rectangular slot where you would normally attach a gun or support system just deep enough so that the magnet sits flush with the outside of the arm. Then glue it in.

See the magnet in the arm?

After that, it's time for the big work. locate the recess in the two halves of the gun where the raised part of the arm normally goes (if you have it in front of you, you'll know what I mean). You could cut out a piece of the plastic, but since I'm using a bigger magnet in the gun, I'm just attaching the magnet inside the gun instead of at the surface.

The magnet is colored blue with a sharpie on the side that is away from the arm.

To make sure the magnet doesn't move around in the gun, we're building a bracket around it so it can't budge. I use some left over sprue for this. The sprue used is about as thick as the magnet, so I have a good fit for the magnet.

The white parts are the edges of the sprue, where I used clippers to cut it.

After the magnet is glued in, I add another piece of sprue on the 2 support pieces and over the magnet, so it can't fall off, even if the super glue would detach in some strange way.

The magnet fits snugly.

Doing stuff like this, you always need to dry-fit the 2 pieces of the gun so you're sure it still fits together and nothing is sticking out.

The magnet holds the gun in place, but it's not that sturdy, especially with the Burst Cannon as this is a bit heavier than the Ion Accelerator. For some added stability, and since GW kindly offers this piece in the kit, I used the bracket as a pin to hold the gun to the arm.

Left end goes into arm, right end into gun.

For this, some holes need drilling... the pictures are self-explanatory.

Arm with hole.

Gun with hole.

I didn't drill the pin that goes into the gun in the center of the bracket (d'oh!) so that's why the hole in the gun is off-center...

Now for a showcase of the entire model:

With Heavy Burst Cannon

With Ion Accelerator

Only the magnets keep it together as well...

A shot from another angle.

And a good look at the shield.

Stuff that needs doing: secondary weapon systems...

Should I magnetize the secondary weapon system or is there one that is strictly better than the others?