Making A More Stable Flight Stand

GW makes some great models but until the recent Valkari model all the flightstands have sucked. They are too brittle, the mounting area is too small and they are next to impossible to balance anytyhing on. Moving to a screw on stand helps but you still have the problem of a small area holding up the actual fig and it is easy to break the mounting point. Here is my solution to the problem.

Parts List:
Large flight base
Plastic paint pot or metal tubing
Plastic and super glues
Basing materials
Resin
Magnets

---

Attach a magnet to the bottom of the fig you are mounting. Use the existing mounting hole as you guide. Try and mount the magnet as flush as possible. It will make the next steps easier.


Next take the paint pot and place it over the magnet an mark its location.


Now glue a magnet on the location you marked. If your magnet is thin enough you may be able to mount it without having to recess the magnet. If not carefully drill a hole for the magnet.


Once the glue is dry, center the pot on the base and trace around it.


Next spread some glue inside the area leaving room for the pot to fit over it and cover the glue with your basing material.


Spread some more glue on the outside of the circle and base as normal.


Finally glue the pot in place and you are done.

---

Another option is to cut off the flimsy piece that you are supposed to stick in the hole of the model, and carefully carve out a larger rounded peg out of the old stem. Then just drill out the hole on the model slightly larger to fit the new peg. If done right, the model will be able to roll off the new peg instead of breaking off.

...this, Diehard, is possibly the smartest thing I have ever seen anyone post about anything EVER.

This is a really good idea, but won't the model be able to spin on the one magnet? If you put two on then you wouldn't have to worry about it.

Justin

Because the base area is so big the model wont spin. Even large ones like DF stay in one place. Now if you center the magnet is may be possible, but remember the top of the magnet is flush with the jar. This creates a small amount of friction so no spinning.

That sounds really smart (no offence ment if any felt) and i will be directing a freind here because his skimmers are always snapping off the bases. Today was a perfect example when the table we were playing on collapsed and his flying base snapped.

Yeah shame I never got a photo of that Liam,

Anyhow as William pointed out I broke one of my stands today and the idea of magents used as part of stands was one I had seen on ATT a while ago but luckily now I don't need to filter through loads of old articles to find the tutorial, Thanks Diehard.

Also personally I don't really see a point on adding detail to flying bases as they are clear naturally so they will fit in with the battlefield easily.

What's always worked for me is using baling wire. It's bendable, cuttable, and cheap. 3/16 (I think? And is it in inches or what?) is the exact size of the little pin on the GW flying stands, so it fits perfectly without any advanced surgery. Plus, for the artistically inclined you can bend it in all sorts of ways that can convey motion, examples at the bottom.



The wire goes right up the hole in the bottom. Devilfish and Hammerheads get an extra wire, since just one won't be enough to support that bulky chassis. You can add more, but two is usually enough. I don't worry about how it looks on the HH/DF because I make them skim low enough to the ground that the wires are practically invisible.



I keep them low to the ground because they're heavy tanks, not fliers.



If you have trouble keeping the wire in place, there are a few neat tricks. The first: while you're building the model, stick a lump of epoxy putty (I don't know if green stuff works well, I assume it does. I use a fiberglass repair compound called repair-it quick or something.) over the hole and push the wire through the bottom. Once the putty dries, it leaves a nice little backing for the wire to push up against. Otherwise, you can either cut the wire long enough to hit the top of the model or else put the putty on the bottom (outside) af the model and hope nobody notices. I know I'm not the most eloquent or descriptive person, that's why I made pictures.
Examples:



Drones. See how the bending kind of gives the impression of lazy but dynamic floating rather than flying like a jet or a frisbee? That's how I see them moving.



Not as good of an example, but neat nonetheless.

PS Yes-I-Know-The-Models-Look-Awful-They-Are-My-Old-Army.

Well, since everyone is posting his own hints... I use stronger and bigger magnets. Those you can find in Geomag or the like are just perfect. They're 6mm (about half an inch) thick. To support them, I bought a plasticrod 6mm thick as well. First you must drill a larger hole in the tank and glue one magnet inside. Then you glue the other one on top of the plasticrod. The magnets have enough power to hold the tank, even when you hold the base and place the whole thing upside down. If you use to much strength, they will not break, but just tilt to one side, still connected through the magnetic force.

I would post some pics, but right now I'm moving, and I have no idea where I packed my camera...

Im glad this has come up again. I like the idea of using the clear flight stand (or I suppose any clear plastic tube, although I havent found a suitable replacement for the GW flight stands yet), but I want to use scenic bases for my tanks, so I have struggled with an application that lets me have the scenic bases I want, a clear vertical post, and a removable option that will support a Devilfish or Hammerhead.

This certainly is a good one, but I don't think it will work with the scenic base requirement (think Micro Art bases). I was thinking of cutting off the small nipple on the flight stand, putting a large-ish magnet on top of the post, and putting another similar one on the underbelly of the tank. My problems with this are: will this balance properly? I was thinking of constructing some sort of tripod for extra support, but I don't see this working with a single clear vertical rod...

You can try picking up these and mounting magnets on top them. The larger area of the toppers should make it easier to balance and they are small enough that you could use multiples for extra stability.
http://www.litkoaero.com/page/LAI/PROD/AFS/AFS006-20


http://www.litkoaero.com/page/LAI/PROD/ ... /AFS008-10


Alternately you could get make some x stands like the Valkyrie stand out of some clear acrylic. This is allot tougher but you can sizes it for the best fit. If you make the top plate match the bottom of the model you don't even need the magnets.

hahaha.. you pipped me to the post on the Litko Aero components, I'm about to add them to our Hobbt Resource links for those flight stand options.

Superb run through, just moved the thread to modelling to link it into our guides.

I have edited some text placing and a couple of spelling slips, all sorted and part of ATT's official How To's!

~ Tael.