The materials and tools used: thin metal sheets (from hobby lobby in their model railroad section), scissors, hobby drill, 1/8" and 3/32" drill bits, xacto knife, file, rare earth magnets (1/8" diameter x 1/32" thick) and of course super glue. The Rio Rancho Observer (background) is of course optional.
A close up shot of the metal sheets, for the curious:
Here are the weapon bits and "pods" (rear left) for lack of a better term. You get two sets of pods with the kit: one that is more for the Skyhammer or Typhoon missiles and a second that is more for the Heavy Bolter or Lascannon. I went with the latter pod purely for aesthetic reasons.
The missile bits are in front and the lascannon bits are tipped over in the back to display where I attached the metal sheets. The magnets were placed in the pods. Here's a better picture:
I drilled out two holes in each pod starting with the smaller drill bit and then used the 1/8" bit to widen out the hole. I wound up drilling clean through the plastic with the small bit. Note that I drilled my holes right on the line that joins each pod together. For this reason, it's very important to start with a small bit. Don't jump right to the 1/8" bit because the pod will start to split. Yes, I found this out the hard way.
Once the holes are ready, put some super glue around the edge of one of the holes and carefully line up a magnet with the hole. Don't try to shove it in by hand. Once the magnet is lined up, get something hard and flat and gently press it down into the hole. You may need to mash the magnet further into the hole by pressing the pod down against a table (magnet side down). The magnets need to be flush with the surface of the pods. Repeat these steps for each magnet.
Now for the fun part - the metal sheets. Take a look at the back of the weapon bits. Fortunately, they're all the same size which simplifies things. Note: the edges of the metal sheets are sharp! Grab the scissors and start cutting a thin strip of metal from the rest of the sheet. Try to make the width of the strip a bit less than the back of the weapon bits so it will fit inside (take a look at the above pic). Note that the metal strip will curl as you cut it so be ready to flatten it out with something. I chose a dice cube but anything hard and flat will do.
Once you have your metal strip get it somewhat (not totally) flattened out then take a look at the weapon bit and slice a little piece off. The piece should fit within half of the weapon bit. Slice another piece off that fits within the other half of the weapon bit. In the picture above, note that the lower weapon bit has one piece of metal already fitted - the metal for the second half of the weapon bit is sitting on the cutting board just to the left of the weapon. You will have to do more flattening and trimming to these small bits to get them to fit just right, but it's well worth it. Once you have these two small metal pieces sized just right you can use them as templates to slice up the rest of the thin strip of metal, resulting in small metal sheets that are just the right size for any of the weapon bits. Again, use caution when slicing these small metal pieces off the larger one!
After all of the small metal sheets have been sliced out, make sure they're nice and flat then glue them into each weapon bit. Wait for the glue to dry before seeing how they fit with the pods. Glue the pods to the Stomtalon chassis (per the kit's instructions) and you are done.
