Starting Tim's MadCat II

Just like many of you my MadCat got here last week and when I get a new kit all thoughts dribble out and all I can think about is starting work on a beautiful new chunk of resin.


I havnt worked out a pose for the legs yet but one thing I wanted to do is make the torso and arms poseable. Now I can do this the traditional way and drill in holes and mount tube styrene to accept each other but I wanted to use magnets this time.

Ive done it before a couple of times and I felt this would be more fun to do.
First the groin and torso. Straightforward, find the center, drill a pilot hole, then a larger bore out so I can glue in a couple of strong earth magnets.

Coupled with the friction from the thin locator joint Tim added this holds it very well.
And as you can see Im leaving off the cockpit for now to ease painting later. Figure it will be tricky with the roof on.

Next the guns.

First, Im going to drill out and pin the stalks with 1/8 brass tube. Just cause I wanted to really strengthen the joint,  and I pound them deep in. I want a little room for the magnet to get in there.

I didnt worry about the tube not being in deep enough, brass is soft enough that my drill bit made short work of it ..... pun not intended.

Once it glued in I then made sure (and I should have mentioned earlier) that you test the mating magnet and mark the face so you dont screw up which side is facing out. Otherwise they repel each other and of course that not what I want.

I carefully bored out the guns joint and glued in another magnet.

Again, coupled with the existing joints friction, these magnets  are very strong and hold the guns in place nicely and allow them to rotate easily.

This is going to be such a cool mech on my shelf.
Next the LRM pods.