Adding LED headlights to, magnetizing and painting an Astra Militarum Taurox/Taurox Prime

This took a lot of thought, so bear with me.

LED headlights

The Taurox headlights are small and fiddly, unlike the Chimera searchlight. Drill two 1mm holes into the back piece.

A 2mm LED fits just right into the socket. Glue in the cables.

Drill out the front piece (see the picture above, in the background) with a 3mm drill. Glue it on.

To lead the wires into the interior of the truck, drill out the front side pieces and the connector to the interior.

The wires go in through the sides, then through the connector into the interior. Glue on the exhaust pipes to fix the wires. Add plenty of glue on the inside to plug the holes and prevent the wires from moving around.

All the inside works mean that there will be no driver/gunner (which I find a hilariously bad design choice anyway), so I closed up the windows using bits of plasticard.

With the wires firmly glued in place, finish the circuit with LEDs.

GENTLEMEN, TURN IT ON!!!

I thoroughly glued down the thin wires, using superglue, epoxy glue and green stuff. They are very thin and prone to breakage. Only the thick red wires should move around.

Obviously test whether they fit inside.

Magnets

I counted 7 magnetization points. 

The upper chassis connect to a detachable turret (2mm vs 3mm), the turret has two possible options (3mm vs 2mm), the non-detachable turret has an optional storm bolter (2mm vs 2mm).

The turret slot seemed weak (I did not want to drill in), so I glued on a magnet with superglue, then filled out the hole using epoxy.

I closed off the non-detachable with plasticard.

The back has an optional missile launcher. If you don't use, you are supposed to glue in the back plate; I just decided on leaving the insides bare. Looks like cool sci fi gizmos. 3mm drilled into the back, 2mm in the missile launcher. Normally this wouldn't hold such a weight but the launcher fits neatly into the back slot, so it's fine.

Reinforce every possible connection with epoxy glue.

I also forgot to take pictures of the side guns, where I drilled in 2mm magnets, and just hacked off the connectors on the body and glued on 5mm magnets using epoxy.

I also forgot to take pictures of the back hatch, which I magnetized so I can access the switch and battery.

I decided to counter magnet usage and possible breakage by introducing plasticard in between the magnet connection.

Glue a magnet on a piece of plasticard, embed it using green stuff, then reinforce everything using epoxy glue.

Painting

Same as the other tanks, this goes really fast by now. (Although painting in batch makes it even faster.)

Prime black. Scratched black metal body. Paint the tracks metallic, then Weathering tank threads. Paint the aquilas Shiny gold. The additional headlights are Silver covered by Iyanden Yellow. 

Paint the guns Dark metal, except the head of any missiles Blood Angels Red instead of Black Templar.

Any additional targeting lenses are Silver followed by Blood for the Blood God/Soulstone Blue.

Crewmember peaking out.

Extra steps

Because I was in a hurry, I forgot to block out the headlights during priming. Use a small amount of cotton wool wrapped on a toothpick dipped in IPA to wipe off the primer.

Finished!