OK, so not really fatal more a bit annoying but why spoil a good title? Lets talk about magnets and steel washers. I made the decision to base all of my individual figures for Commands & Colors Napoleonics on steel washers with the plan to magnetise the storage boxes as I had done previously with my 3mm Ancient armies thinking the washers would sit securely in the tray inserts that I had made from 5mm foamboard, however I'm afraid that I need to admit that I'm a bit of an idiot because I now understand that not all grades of stainless steel will in fact work with the magnetised paper liner I use due to the tiny surface area.
At this stage all of the figures were sitting loose in the trays, neatly lined up and awaiting the magnetic lining sheet, so far so good. Last week as I was picking up my rather neat wooden storage box it slipped from my grasp and tilted over resulting in my having to sort through the pile of jumbled figures and sort them back into the various types again which took me a good half an hour to do, time I thought to get the boxes lined so all will be safely magnetised should this happen again. The Magnetic Paper duly arrived via eBay, I placed a few figures on and BLAST (or words to that affect), the washers just slipped off. I now have a dilemma on my hands, either I superglue tiny 4mm rare earth magnets into every base (the washers have a convenient 4mm hole), now almost 200 figures OR I just leave them as they are and abandon the idea entirely, after all the figures are very heavily gloss varnished for protection against constant handling. Still, I do like the washer bases for the individually mounted figures, we live and learn. Despite the setback I think that I will probably add the magnets gradually over the next couple of months, they are inexpensive, but it's a fiddly job that requires patience.
I have ordered a few more bags of figures from Essex to expand up to the Waterloo scenario, Dutch Belgians, Brunswick, Young Guard, Nassau etc (the game scenario utilises Portuguese blocks to represent Allied troops but we really can't have that can we?). All good fun.
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| Made to measure! |
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| These magnets are TINY and very powerful! |
Lee - whatever your solution, check it out carefully before you make it an industry. My experience of micromagnets (which is limited) indicates that they may stick to your magnetic sheet, but not as strongly as they will attract each other. You may find that individually based figures fly at each other if they have magnets attached. Safer idea might be to fit self-adhesive discs of the "ferro sheet" material (which is now used as a substitute for Old School steel paper) to the underside of your washers - I think Magnetic Displays sell the discs cutout - no idea whether sizes would work for you. MD definitely stock cut-out discs of the magnetic sheet, and you could line your boxes with Ferro Sheet - do it the other way round. If this is no help, apologies, but the little magnets are fiendish little devils - I have visions of them flinging small-scale figures around...
ReplyDeleteBe sure to check the polarity as you go. You don't want them repelling instead of sticking.
ReplyDeleteMy concern would be that the magnets are too strong and prove problematic with the ferrous paper. But that little hole in the middle of each washer is a compelling convenience for travelling that route :-)
ReplyDeleteI’m glad your accident with the storage box didn’t create casualties, I have done it a couple of times and they are horrible moments.