Many Tau players are well aware that buying a Sky Ray box is the best way of obtaining all the parts necessary to create a Devilfish, Hammerhead or Sky Ray. However, only the Devilfish uses the front Burst Cannon; the Targetting Array is the nose cone for the Hammerhead and Sky Ray. This short tutorial will show just how easy it is to create a magnetised front turret so that the player can alternate which vehicle he wishes to use just by swapping a Burst Cannon for a Targetting Array.

The mount.



Many people will just cut out the piece of extra sprue from the turret hole and throw it away. However, this piece of seemingly useless plastic is an exact fit for the turret, and will form a perfect mount for placing a magnet. The circular section fits precisely into the recessed area and the two “wings” are wide enough to catch behind the uprights, as can be seen in the picture. However, do not yet glue the mount in place.



The Burst Cannon.

Only the front section of the Burst Cannon is required. Taking both parts separately, make a cut using a razor saw just where the square housing meets the circular section leading to the barrel displacer [arrowed in the picture].



This will leave the Burst Cannon with a small “neck” onto which a thin piece of metal can be superglued.



The next step is to drill a hole in the surface of the circular facing, ensuring that the hole is as centrally placed as possible. This is to house the magnet. In this example, a 2mm wide by 1mm deep magnet was used. This tiny magnet has an amazing amount of attraction power for its size, but the piece of spare sprue is large enough to accommodate a 3mm wide by 2mm deep magnet which would be a stronger option.

It is important that regardless which magnet is chosen, the depth of the hole must be drilled accurately to allow the magnet to sit flush with the surface of the plastic. Once this has been achieved, the magnet should be superglued into the hole.

A small piece of flat metal sheet should now be cut to size and superglued to the Burst Cannon body where it will meet the mounting piece.



The mount assembly can now be glued in place in the turret. It is important to check that the circular facing is as perpendicular as possible to prevent the Burst Cannon from pointing up at an angle when it is fitted and to ensure that the Targetting Array is able to be seated correctly.



Once the glue has set and the mount is solidly fixed in place, the Burst Cannon may be fitted and removed as desired.



The Targetting Array.

Only a small amount of trimming is required to ensure the correct seating of the Targetting Array. This is done by making a small incision vertically followed by one made horizontally at the points indicated in this picture. This piece is then removed to get rid of the curved nature of the rear centre section.



The idea of this is to create a flat mounting surface for the piece of metal plate which will be fixed to the back of the Targetting Array.

The metal piece needs to be cut accurately so that it does NOT overlap the sides of the rear centre section of the Targetting Array, otherwise the unit will not fit into place.

Here is the finished product with the metal plate superglued in situ.




This now allows you to swap the Burst Cannon with the Targetting Array, thus permitting you to use the vehicle chassis as a Devilfish, a Hammerhead or a Sky Ray.

If you prefer not to destroy one of the large burst cannons supplied with the Sky Ray sprues you can always use one of those supplied with the XV8 Crisis suits. Those BCs are certainly not to the same scale as the vehicular version but using one does save the destruction of the larger BC.

A full set of four step-by-step articles concerning magnets and Devilfish can be found here.

E.

Absolute genius E! I had been doing far too much work to magnetize my front turrets, thanks so much for the help. And it is a good think that I save all useful little sprue bits, as I think I still have a few of those pieces lying around!

Cheers!

Glad to have been of help. ~ E.

I like this tutorial - it puts you in a position to glue the major components of the chin turret in place, to avoid getting the barrel-droop that tends to happen if the securing t-piece is magnetised.

The only drawback is that it does involve cutting up the Burst Cannon pieces - am I right in thinking that you glue the remaining pieces of the burst cannon together and install a magnet in the front end so that the Burst Cannons can still be used in the secondary weapon system turrets?

What size magnets are you using for this? I recently went up a size in my magnetised fish and Hammerheads, because while they're trickier to install around the chin turret, I found the smaller magnets just weren't strong enough to avoid components drifting or dropping slightly.

A good tutorial, and a nice catch on that piece of spare sprue. It fits perfectly!

I put a tutorial up on my blog - I used the exact same cut in the burst cannon. The hollow inside fits the 3mm dia magnets I use perfectly.

Sholto

Heh heh! Looks like you beat me to the reply to Mnemonic's question about magnets, Sholto.



This is true - you are effectively destroying a Burst Cannon. However, adding a strong magnet - probably about the size that Sholto mentioned - to the body of the BC would mean the barrel section could be repositioned if the secondary weapon system was to be used on the HH or SR.

E.

Eigle, this is brilliant.
I'm not a believer in coincidences, but I got a new Sky Ray box yesterday.
You couldn't imagine the smile I gave when I saw this, but it was something like this:

Thanks for this, a great help.

Well, that's good to know.

I've altered the text slightly in the tutorial to point out that although the tiny magnet (2mm x 1mm) does hold the Burst Cannon with no problem, a slightly larger magnet (3mm x 1mm or even 3mm x 2mm) would be a stronger option.

E.

Insta-sticky. If you hadn't pointed it out, I'd have never realised that that irritating bit of sprue in the hull was in fact, not irritating at all! Thanks for this, Eiglepulper; a great tutorial.

Thanks for the compliment, but I think in this case Shas'el Tael must decide whether Sticky-dom is merited or not. ~ E

Wow, that is roughly 17 times easier than the solution I came up with. Idea stolen!

Although I'll have to work out a different way to mount the burst cannon on the....sponsons? Winglets?....when it is in Hammerhead mode. But it will still be easier than the convoluted thing I made, where the entire chin turret is removable. It doesn't work that well and it looks horrible.

Once again, ATT saves my day.

I'm quite happy to sticky this work; then include it in the huge [Model Guides & Tutorials] Official ATT Modelling Resource topic

I'll also point out there is an alternative technique (if you have disposed of that bit of sprue) which is a tutorial in a series of four called 'Maki My Fish' available also, in the [Model Guides & Tutorials] Official ATT Modelling Resource.

- Tael.

Ok out of curiousity does anyone have a link to a site that sells these small magnets??? My local craft shops don't have them and as for hobby shops around here I'm up a creek without a paddle unless I know some place I can get them to order them from.

Great move though. Was considering pinning them instead.

I will have to remember this for my next fish. Excellent tutorial, clear, simple, and with crisp pictures to aide the instructions.

I get mine from United Nuclear because:

1. They have gold magnets instead of just silver, and it fits my color scheme
2. I love having purchases from "United Nuclear" on my bank statement

But many people get them from K & J Magnetics and they are quite a bit cheaper than United Nuclear. The ones I use are 1/8" x 1/16" which seems to be a good size for everything from Hammerhead turrets to Crisis suit hard points.

hazmatt gave some excellent examples, but if you ever buy magnets from another website just be careful. A week after I received my order from the following supplier, I got a letter from chase saying that they detected a security compromise at AmazingMagnets.com and my credit card information may have been stolen. As a result of this possibility I will not be placing another order from that site.

Agentarrow:

Thanks for the heads-up about your unfortunate experience.

jentral:
We have a Resources forum in the Research and Development section which will furnish you with many things, including a number of addresses of magnet sellers.

E.

Thanks for the info on the magnets guys and sorry Eigl didn't expect it in there.

Agent thanks for the info on that web site. They wouldn't get much from me since on off weeks my balance is like $3 but getting the info still sucks.

Hazmatt thanks for the info on that site considering it's warning on the 12" away from electronics I'll have to dodge them. No room in my house is safe from those. Could be good for a practical joke in mind though.

Edit: Thanks again Eigl found it at the bottom of the list. On a side note if Agent got that message you guys might want to edit that list and remove AmazingMagnets

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