Tau: Magnetising a Riptide (Quick Tip)

Unboxing and building one Tau troop-type at a time I reached a point where I could no longer hold myself back and tore into the packaging for my Riptide. What a great model!

As with most models, though, there are a number of ways of building it depending on the weapons load-out and sensor suite that you want.

Now I've not play-tested Tau yet so I don't know what the best combination is. Besides, I do like to be able to change things around. The solution: Magnets!

So I started drilling and glueing as follows:

I added a magnet to the top of the "hand" (for sensors, etc) and inserted a small length of cut paper-clip into the slot in the middle of the circle on the back of the hand (for the "power coupling" to attach to)...

Another magnet went into the bottom of the hand for the weapon to attach to...

Magnets went into the recesses at the top of the weapons to attach them to the hands (more easily seen in the upper weapon than the lower in this photo) and a bit of bent paperclip went into one of the recesses on the side of each weapon (for the "button" to attach to)...

The "power coupling" (left) got a magnet inserted in just one end - very tricky drilling job. The other end is too small to work with so I left that be (it will just rest in place). The "button" had a magnet inserted...

Each of the smaller weapons got a magnet too...

For the sensors I just cut a small channel in the bottom and glued a bit of paperclip in place...

So now the arm goes together like this (or with the other weapon or a different sensor)...

And I can add sensors (left) and weapons (right) to the tops of the jump-engines too!

A fairly simple bit of work on the whole - drilling the power-coupling was by far the most difficult part.

It will be a while before I complete the build of this model as I'm only assembling to a stage conducive to easy airbrushing at the moment. I'm trying to do that to the whole force before I start painting anything.

Other Tau-Related stuff: