Magnetizing and Storing Raiders and other delicates

I've just started assembling the vehicles for my new army, and it became very clear very quickly that Raiders and other DE vehicles are full of delicate blades, pikes, and sails that will break if you sneeze on them.

Furthermore, storing these things fully assembled would take 6" deep foam trays, with about half that height just for protecting said delicate bits above and below. (At least CWE tanks have a flat hull they can sit on with no blades and chains sticking underneath.

I tried some magnetization for the sail and pikes on a raider, and quickly discovered that the magnets small enough to fit without being huge and obvious weren't strong enough. Instead of breaking when sneezed on, part fell over when looked at.

I haven't yet tried anything with magnetizing the items under the hull (which would let me remove the flight base for storage and cut down the required foam trays by at least an inch), rams, or passengers (though they can at least have multiple magnet points).

Looking for experiences and advice here. What have you guys had success with? What hasn't worked? Should I just suck it up, glue everything, use 6" trays with lots of empty space, and handle everything gingerly?

I've looked for online articles and videos, but everything I've found tends towards "just stick a huge, visible magnet on everything."

Personally, I just do not assemble the bottom spiky parts. Just get a 4.5" foam and you will do fine to be honest, and that is the foam I use. The top pointy part is the one that you really need to worry about, but nothing a foam and a protective thin layer of foam would not protect from the ravages of transportation.They fit into the premade foams much easier that way, and I do not even need to magnetize anything. Besides nobody really sees the bottom of the raider and pay attention to the spikes below (with the exception of painters,modellers and fluff nazis).The only reason why my models break is because the spiky parts on top tends to get hooked onto some buildings, but nothing too serious that a super glue would not fix.

That is my personal experiences with Battlefoam and Raiders/Ravagers

I magnetised the sail and gunner with zero issues... 2mm sunk in the mast and 3mm attached to the sail. Ditto on the gunner mount

I just chosed battle foam and save myself the trouble and hefty amount of money.

Azdrubael wrote:

I just chosed battle foam and save myself the trouble and hefty amount of money.

+1 When you consider the investment of time and money that you pump into these things, it really is worth it. Battle foam makes a tray that holds 5 raiders or 3 Ravagers/2 Raiders for $30USD. That's $30 invested to protect $165 worth of models AND avoid the headache of repairing your army every time that yo sneeze within 10' of it.

I magnetised the sails. The magnets I ahd just happened to be the exact same size as the part where the sail attaches (and also the same size as Razorwing's weapon mounts, allowing me to magnetise the lances/dissies). Now if only I could do something about the spikes and the beam the tip of the sail rests on (that part keep snapping off all the time).

I am a horrible person and carry my two Raiders, Ravager, two Venoms and Razorwing in a shoe box with fabric and plastic bags for padding. It looks like spiky tetris, but as long as everything is tightly sitting in their spots and not rattling about, it's all good.

Holy crap do I need to find a better way to transport them.

Thanks for the input! I definitely plan to go with Battlefoam, the ability to order custom-cut trays is terrific and I like how they use larger-area trays than GW or Army Transport, which I have used in the past.

I've determined that magnetizing the bow gun (which was going to be a dry fit anyway) and the ram will be easy and help reduce and "boxify" the storage profile. It will also let me swap out for shock prows if I ever decide to take them (unlikely).

I really like how the spiky bits on the bottom look, and the keelblade sticks out below the hull anyway, so I probably will suck it up and store the skimmers on their flight base even though it adds a good inch to the trays. Hull blades won't be as vulnerable to errant sleeves as pikes and banners anyway.

After my first disastrous experiment with magnetizing the sail, I will probably do what Massaen suggested - while leaving a portion of the sail's peg in place carries a risk of breakage, it seems better than a simple dry fit. That's at least half an inch off the overall height even with pikes and banners in place.

I still have no idea what to do about the pikes and banners, or the passengers (I'm not even touching them until i have the rest sorted out).

In people's experience, are the pikes and banners really that fragile? I realize I could forgo them but they're an important part of the Raider's silhouette to me. I might try shortening them by 1/4" or so and see if they still look right.

I also got a battlefoam custom tray, 4" thick. I dont stick the sails on and i snip the rudder pole in the middle, just enough for it to slip into place. I DONT use the pikes though. The crew heads are the highest points with the sail and rudder off.




Like this, they fit nicely into a 4" tray on their bases, with slots in the foam for sails and rudders.

The custom tray i made also holds a nice 2 Raiders, 2 Ravagers and 2 Venoms. Here is the Design....

I magnetised my sails, drilled out the top of the bollard and the bottom of the sail thingy quite easily and was able to get two magnets in there that are plenty strong enough.

The bow guns I simply use the stock peg mount and dry fit them, no need to get any fancier.

I don't put spikey bitz on the keel, but I do fix my rudders in. One has broken it's tip in the plastic IKEA bin that I use and I am going to switch to S'jet's method for the rudders. Brilliant, don't know why I never even considered that before.

pre battle foam releease i found removing sails allowed me to fit four boats in a shoebox with bubble wrap layyers made them all safe and snug. i used the less breakable units to fill in the gaps, my whole army would fit in one shoebox an my only breakages were blades id glues onto guns.

the b/f is good, tho i find you have to be really careful, its like snagging hang nail getting them out some times.

I actually found a neat little case... XL Accessory Case by Plano. It's normally used to store guns and the like, and the case is filled with three layers of foam that lay against each other quite well. With a normal pair of scissors and some good planning, you can fit 5 Raiders/Ravagers into one case. I wouldn't recommend holding it by the handle unless you're really good with those scissors. I bought a second one that I'm going to fit my Venoms into. I predict I'll be able to fit 6 venoms into that case.

I don't magnetize or anything, the case is tall enough to fit the tallest sails. Tipping the case upside down, however, would produce disastrous results.