Swiss Army Brute

I can see that project updates from I, Stylus, have been pretty thin since February, and I have duly sealed myself within a daemon engine sarcophagus in penance.

"Where are the toilets in here?"

In truth, there are two reasons why my hobby has slowed down to the point where, short of a painting frenzy, I am *never* going to meet my annual goals:

1. I am WoffBoot Champion 2018, and glory doesn't just bask itself.
2. Weather over the past few months has been abysmal (if not, arctic) and I've barely had a chance to venture outside to do any spray priming. Winter can be a real roadblock to painting. Roll on the summer months, when I can stay indoors and use all that natural light.

Undaunted, I have been doing a lot of assembly (another 60 models have been added to my Shelf of Shame) and - this is the real kicker - magnetising.

Pre-Woffboot, I ordered a Helbrute for the Thousand Sons, as I figured they could use a little punch and firepower. Luckily, it didn't arrive in time, and I had to fall back on its larger cousin, the Defiler (which ROCKED!)

But when the Helbrute did arrive, I was caught on the dilemma of which of its many weapon configurations to use (I swear this was never as much bother in Fantasy - you either had a shield, or you didn't).

No other choice - magnetisation!

This really isn't for the faint-hearted (or for those lacking magnets). None of your Space Marine Dreadnought pop-off-one-gun-and-replace here - the Helbrute is a morass of interconnected and shared configurations:

• The two Helbrute fists are the easiest - they have their own shoulder pads and sit right on the sides. Interestingly, the joint is sculpted with jagged flesh, which helps to 'grip' the magnet in place (very useful)
• The right-hand missile launcher, is just a missile launcher, easy.
• The right-hand hammer shares a shoulder pad with the right-hand flail - so you have to tuck the magnet into the recess and hope it connects.

And that's the easy part! Wait until you get to the guns:

• All five guns share the same connecting shoulder pad (so you'd better glue the correct polarity)
• The Autocannon, Multi-Melta and Plasma Cannon then connect onto the shoulder plate.
• The Heavy Bolter and Lascannon both share the SAME connecting piece that, in turn, connects to the shoulder plate.

Basically, don't put this Helbrute anywhere near a USB stick. It will erase every scrap of data from ten yards away.

I went slow and *very* carefully - and I'm very happy to say that (possibly for the first time), not one magnet was backward, not one connection is anything less than flush and strong.

(Credit where it's due - I was expertly guided by this very useful tutorial)

I can now field him in whatever configuration I want (although, given I bought him to be a DakkaBrute, that's probably what he'll be most of the time).

Best of all - Disco Brute!

Jive Maulin'