Into the New Year - Magnetic Movement Trays

Antevaxx' Kraag is on hold until the weather gets warm enough to spray paint outside again.

As is our custom, the holiday season was spent holed up with the family all in our PJs, noshing on good food and just spending time together, thus my lack of the usual seasonal posts.

Santa was good to me this year, dropping into my stocking an assortment of RAFM Space 1889 Martian Infantry, a full company of RAFM Canadian Militia Rifles from their Riel Rebellion line and a Gashant Gatling Train:

While the Gashants are very pretty and very much appreciated, the Rifles are special because they were funded by Santa's helpers 1 and 2 - aka my daughters and the troops they represent were drawn from  my regiment, the GGFG. 

Another welcome gift was a certificate for Lee Valley Tools, a purveyor of fine woodworking tools and hardware as well as a range of garden and home accessories. Part of that went toward these:

240 1/8" rare earth magnets and a drill bit to match. So what possibly could I want with these? Units in  the Space 1889  Soldier's Companion Rules can take several different formations such as line, column open order and square. Further, units are made up of up to 20 single based figures each on its own 3/4" washer.  Making and moving formations of 20 figures can be a little tiresome. I decided to make things a bit easier.

At the top of this picture are the templates for two sizes of tray - 5 men in closed and open order. The overall size is pre-measured as is the spacing for the holes to take the magnets. Because I based my figures on washers, I had to off set the magnets slightly so they were not under the hole in the washer. Testing on scrap really helped reveal little problems like this and to get the spacing right. The ends of the bases were rounded with the scroll saw to a reasonable profile. I wasn't too worried about aesthetics yet as I will be bevelling the base edges. At the top of the picture is the two part epoxy used to glue the magnets in place. To the right of that is the rather extensive warning sheet for the magnets. The little ones I used aren't too dangerous but the larger ones can draw blood if the wrong body part gets pinched between a pair.

Here we see some of the magnets glued into place. Any excess epoxy has been smeared around the magnets to  better hold them in place.  The bases are being left flat until the glue hardens. I used wax paper underneath but I expect some will stick to that. I was going to set them on edge to dry to avoid this, but the magnets are strong enough to pull the bases together and in one case, pull a magnet right out of the base and send it flying across the room.

Cavalry and Martian Horde bases are to follow.

A happy New Year to you all.