Small magnets that aren't too strong?

[TMS]

Hello,

I want to magnetize a standing character to be able to have her on a mount as well as on foot. My plan is to put magnets beneath her feet and on the different surfaces she'll stand on, but the magnets would have to be really quite small both in width and height. They should also not be too strong since I'll have to remove her by handling the model, and she's made of metal so there's a risk of paint chipping. The model is pretty small and light so doesn't weigh much, but strong magnets might cause her legs to bend when I try to remove her.

So, in summary, do we know of any suitable magnets that are both small and not very strong?

 

[Raven Torrid]

The smallest neodymium magnets I have used (and the smallest I can find on eBay), are the circular 2x1mm ones. Can't say for sure, but I don't think they would be too strong for your needs. Here's an attempt at describing their strength - for example, they can hold plastic hands horizontally, but I'm pretty sure metal hands would just go down due to their weight. Also, with the whole miniature you have quite a bit of leverage which makes it even easier to remove it.

Not sure if mine are N45 or N35 tho.

Here's an example of the magnets, they are rather cheap anyway, and useful: N35 & N45

Not sure how fragile is the model in question. Is it heroic scale, or something tiny like Infinity miniatures (which have really tiny and fairly bendable joints). If it's that tiny, I'm not even sure if you could stuff a 2mm diameter magnet in the foot at all.

Another thing you can do is put the magnets in the surfaces, but put paper-clips in the feet. Paper-clips range from cca 0.7mm to 1.5mm, and if you cut of their tops, you can use them (since they have a clean cut) fairly well with the magnets. Clips also aren't magnetized so the attraction isn't as strong as it would be with two magnets. Their smaller diameter & area would diminish the adhesion and would also impact the integrity of the legs lesser than the magnets would (as a 2mm hole would "weaken" thin parts much more than a <1mm hole would).

 

[Zhatan]

The smallest neodymium magnets I have used (and the smallest I can find on eBay), are the circular 2x1mm ones. Can't say for sure, but I don't think they would be too strong for your needs. Here's an attempt at describing their strength - for example, they can hold plastic hands horizontally, but I'm pretty sure metal hands would just go down due to their weight. Also, with the whole miniature you have quite a bit of leverage which makes it even easier to remove it.

Not sure if mine are N45 or N35 tho.

I bought small neodymium magnets from china and if you want weak magnets I would not reccomend them. I use them to magnetize minis to a metal movement tray and one small 2x1 mm magnet is enough to keep even metal minis on the tray and I sometimes have a bit to much trouble of getting casualties off.

 

[TMS]

Thanks for the tips, Raven. Your point about using a paperclip is interesting, I'll look into that when I start working with the magnets.

I weighed the miniature today and she really is light. Unless the scale was faulty it's in the area of 10-15 grams. The neodymium magnets (1x1mm) at the top of this site say they can hold approximately 25g. Perhaps that will be a good fit? I could order a small variety of different sizes to try out.

http://www.supermagnete.de/eng/magnets.php?group=discs_small

 

[Raven Torrid]

Ooh, 1x1mm magnets, nice! Sounds like that might do the trick, and as you said - you can always order few different sizes and see what works best. Just make sure, that when removing the miniature from the surface, you support the lower part of the models (legs, feet) with your fingers when you remove it - should reduce the bending moment in the feet/ankles (going all engineery on how to remove a miniature ).

Let us know how it went.