Star Wars X-Wing Mod

Use the (Magnetic) force to modify your Star Wars game piece to create a movable piece, which adds flare and character to your game play!

Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game is a tabletop game that's become popular quickly over the last few years. It's a game where you enact spaceflight battles using model's of X-Wings, TIE Fighters and other spaceships from the Star Wars universe.

In addition to being a fun game, the tiny miniatures are quite detailed and look really great! But we can make them better...

Materials needed: Star Wars X-Wing Game Miniatures, a small ring magnet, steel ball, hot glue gun, and a knife.

The basic starter set for the game includes one X-Wing and two TIE Fighters. You can acquire more ships and make a larger fleet, but you can also play with the basic set.

As you can see in the picture, the game pieces are rigid, meaning they can't turn, twist, or bank on the stand. The plastic parts are made with a "D" shaped hole, which makes sure that the ship is assembled correctly, facing forward, in one particular direction.

The modification we're about to describe uses a small ring magnet and a steel ball to form kind of a ball-and-socket joint. It replaces the top joint and allows the ship to tilt or move around in different directions. This doesn't affect the game play at all, just looks cool!

Check out the video that shows how we modified one of these ships.

Note: This modification permanently alters your ship. Once you choose the way of the magnetic force, there's no going back.

In that video, you'll notice that we had a nail sticking into the R421 ring magnet while we were gluing it in place. We used a nail with the point cut off. We found that the glue tends to come up through the hole, which affects how the magnet snaps to the steel ball.

Using the nail in the middle stopped the glue from coming up through the hole, helping the NSB3 steel ball to sit in place nicely.

That's it! It is a very quick, easy, and simple process. Now you can play the game in style!

What magnets should you use?

The most popular choice seems to be the ¼” diameter R421 ring magnet with a 3/16” diameter NSB3 steel ball. That’s a great combination. It’s strong enough to hold well and not flop around too much, yet tiny enough not to overshadow the ship.

For much larger ships, consider bigger magnets and steel balls. R422CS-N or R622CS-N magnets are great for much bigger ships that are available. Consider 3/8” diameter NSB6 steel balls with that larger ring.

This type of magnet ball-and-socket joint can also be useful for other games like Warhammer 40k and many other games.