It BEGINS!

Yes, I've finally begun work on my tanks tonight.  Went by the local hobby shop and picked up some extra powerful magnets for this project.  Counting that Landraider, I have 4 tanks to work on.  I've got 3 Rhino-type tanks to build, all 3 will be magnetized, too.  I would've started yesterday, but I didn't have any glue anymore.  Picked some up today at Target.  As an aside, apparently the new Transformers Generations (G1 styled) Voyarger class figures are out.  They're Blitzwing and Springer, both triple changers (Blitzwing's jet mode looks like the Alpha/Legioss from Mospeada).  It was kind of funny because there was an adult in the toy aisle very jealously guarding the only two figures left.

Anyway, onto tonight's progress.

Mostly, I was just building the chassis.  The top portion and front armor aren't glued in yet and obviously no tracks have been added.  I'm going to paint those separately.  The turret is from Bitspudlo and the front armor is from Chapterhouse Studios.  I've got some other armor bits I'll be adding to it from the Chapterhouse set.  They'll make it look more like the old Rogue Trader era tanks.

I'll be adding hatches from the leftovers of my other two tanks.  The turret btw is not glued in, either.  I primed it tonight to see how it'd look and how many more air bubbles I'd need to fill in.  Apparently I still have quite a few to go.  This tank is acting as a test run for the other two (I'd bought it cheap on ebay as it was just a barebones kit).  The real test with this kit is the magnetizing.  It takes some work, but isn't difficult.

Here you can see how I did the door hatches.  That square magnet on the door is one of my new powerful magnets.  It is indeed very strong.  While the parts go together pretty much perfectly, the fit is not so perfect when I try it with the sponson mounts.  I'll have to do some adjusting to get those to work.  I may mount several small magnets into the door frame for the sponson.

Here's the rear hatch.  This was actually really easy to do.  I've circled the two magnets I've added.  The one in the hull frame is mounted on a piece of cut sprue.  Simple and effective.

Here's the top of the tank.  I've added a pair of cross beams there for stability and to mount the magnets.  They're my smallest magnets.  I have larger, more powerful ones set in the hatch itself.  The cross beams were also made from cut sprue.

Here's the larger magnets attached to the underside of the roof hatch.  They snap right into place on top of the tank.  Since it's getting late though, I won't be doing any more work on the tank tonight.