WIP: Drop Pod (Games Workshop)

Clearing out some backlog!

I actually started on this piece a decent ways back. Apparently I never documented any of it though? Regardless, its been in subassemblies in the original box for what seems like eons, and the need for closet space grows, so I'm clearing out some backlog kits!

As you can see above, I had the parts mostly built, and ready as subassemblies before priming and painting. The side struts, the opening panels, the two floor parts, each harness, and the two center consoles are the parts. Keeping them like this makes airbrushing far easier.

I wish I had pictures of when I was building. When I test fit everything, I noticed the opening panels had a tendency to just flop open and detested staying upright. So, when I assembled the two halves of the opening panels, I placed magnets on the lower inside, where the piece touches the base. I did it there, instead of at the top, because there was more contact and a larger area at the base of the piece than at the top, which is logically where you'd actually want it to hold. Pictured below are magnets attracted to the magnets INSIDE the piece, NOT the actual magnets I used to attract it to the base.

From there, I marked the panels 1 through 5, and put one magnet per panel at the base. If you do more than one, they start attracting each other, even through putty, so you have to give enough time for the putty to cure a bit before doing the second set per panel, if that makes sense? Also, just in case the polarities are different per panel, it helps to mark which panel corresponds to which side of the base. In the end, I have the whole works covered in putty. This also keeps the piece bottom heavy, which is an added bonus.

Now that those are attached, you can see that the piece now stands upright on its own. The magnets in the base and the panels have just enough attraction to "lock" the panels upright, but aren't so strong that they don't allow for you to easily open the pod to show off the inside.

I had to hold the piece down for the picture, since I will glue the two base halves after painting, and with all those magnets, they push the base around a bit when not in the attract position, but that won't be an issue when the base is glued down. Now its on to priming and painting. I'm thinking of doing the color scheme in my "Children of Fire" scheme you saw on the Stormtalon. Thoughts?