I see it all the time on various Discord servers: “Should I magnetize my minis?”
This isn’t clickbait… the answer is no. (With a very few, specific exceptions.)
Let’s say your scenario is this:
You buy a box of Orlocks. You’re not sure if the list you built is the best load-out. You wonder… “Should I magnetize?” The answer there is a clear “no”.
Firstly, they’re Orlocks. The box isn’t going out of print so you can always buy more. Also, there are very few boxes of GW minis that you can get for around 40-euros for ten minis. But, with Blood Bowl and Necromunda, you can. So it’s not a crazy money thing.
But, you decide to anyway. So you fill the shoulder joints with green stuff and jam a magnet in there, with the polarity absolutely correct. Good. Now you’re 1/4th of the way there. Because Orlocks have a socket for an arm so now you need to sand down the arms (both one handed and two) so they sit flush with the body. Then you need to hope there’s enough arm left to drill a hole for the magnet.
And, once you have all of that, you’re hoping you still got the polarity right and that the retention is strong enough the arms don’t drop in the middle of a game.
Meanwhile, what have you given up?
Well… you’ve given up the most dynamic aspect of a Necromunda model, which is its pose and the attitude that goes with it. And, to what? Save yourself from having to paint a handful more miniatures?
With Necromunda, the actual truth is, you’re not going to be swapping weapons nearly as much as you think you might. You build a gang list, that gang list is going to be the core of the gang for at least 2/3rds of the campaign. You might add a ganger or juve here or there, get lucky and give your specialist an actual special weapon… well… what then?
Just paint another model.
Unless your painting style leaves you perplexed every time you look at it… just paint another model!
My original Escher gang only had one las-gunner. It took me two or three nights of painting to add another two to the gang. Another two or three nights and I had two more juves. I spent some additional time adding copies of my specialist with various special weapons but that was before I maybe needed them. And because I like knowing I have options.
My recommendation: Build your models to the level of cool you think they deserve first. Then think about whether you need options. If it’s just one or two additional models, just add one or two new models and paint them. If you need dozens of new layouts… then… yeah, maybe a magnet scheme makes sense…
My one proviso… I have a buddy in town who is an amazing converter of minis. He can take anything and make it weird and cool. But the minis he converts from cost real money. In his case, he magnetizes at the shoulder to take whole new arm load-outs and it makes sense so he doesn’t need multiple copies of the same, say, Forge World model. But that’s a very specific use case. If you’re basically going to build an Escher or Orlock or any other House gang right from the box, skip the magnets and focus on making them look unique and cool.
