How to magnetize Imperial knight. Part 1. Face.

My most recent project is the dreaded Imperial knight.
I magnetized all the weapons and switchable options on the model and the first post I would like to make is about magnetizing face armor or masks.

I apologize for the quality of pictures. I make them as I go and under only one lamp so the quality is not the best.

Magnetizing the face is very very simple. You will need:

  • 5-6 1/16″x 1/32″ magnets
  • Small hobby drill. ( Biggest drill pin on Citadel hobby drill is exact same size as 1/16″x 1/32″ magnet! )
  • Superglue
  • Green stuff
  • Patience

You want to start by carefully, very very carefully drilling a crevice inside the face. It is part #39 in the new kit. You want to be extremely careful not to drill a hole in the face. You just want to make a crevice for a magnet as deep as possible. ( You can check if you can omit the drilling part by hand placing two magnets on both sides of the face. I wanted to make sure that the magnets are as close to each other as possible.) Then you just glue one of the 1/16″x 1/32″ magnets inside the face.
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After you are done with the magnet inside the head you can assemble the rest of the head following instructions in the kit.

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Next step will be gluing the magnet on the face mask. I tried to file the face mask inside and put the magnet on the superglue, but that did not work. Some filing inside the mask may be needed though, since face masks have some kind of plastic trim inside for gluing to the head. To make sure that the magnets are flush you want to place the second magnet on top of the face with a little blob of green stuff on it. ( Don’t use to much of green stuff. You just need to make sure that you have enough of it to stick inside the mask.)

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Then carefully position the mask in place and let the green stuff stick to the mask ( about a minute or so, not too long, you don’t want the green stuff to harden completely in case you will need to reposition the magnet.). Then lift the mask off the face. And if you waited long enough- the magnet will be inside the mask in exactly the right place.

Proceed with the rest of the masks.

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I waited until the green stuff hardened and filed and cut extra green stuff from inside the masks for a more accurate clean look, but you don’t have to do it.

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2 thoughts on “How to magnetize Imperial knight. Part 1. Face.

  1. Thanks to this blog I’m planning a similar build, did you clip the bit inside the faceplate to get it to sit tighter?

    1. Hey! I did not clip the whole piece, but I had to cut off a little bit inside the face plate to fit the magnet in the right place. If you look at the last picture – you can kinda get an idea how much you need to get rid of. On the other hand, if you are using green stuff, you may not need that bit inside at all. I kept it because it is easier to align the mask with it.

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