Aircraft Stands

Two aircraft stands are now finished.  After a few minor adjustments from the original plan they look like they will work quite well.

First, I had to glue in the metal telescoping rods into the base.  Initially I thought I would be able to unscrew them for transport, but the threads that were inside the rod were able to spin preventing them from being fully tightened down.  This, in conjunction with the Sculptamold shrinking ever-so-slightly gave it a little wobble which was obviously undesirable.  Gluing them together isn't a big deal since the whole thing collapses to 6" which makes it fairly compact.

The second thing I did was to glue a more powerful magnet to the one already at the end of the telescoping rod.  Although the magnet included sort of worked, I didn't want to take any chances with an aircraft falling off.  The Lynx would have been at most risk since its washer is the smallest and it is a bit tail heavy.  Using a drop of Gorilla Super Glue on the top of the existing magnet, I just set the larger one on top of it and it was held secure.

The third item, which is another addition to the plan, was to Rubber Cement a piece of latex glove to the top of the stand.  Again, another precaution.  When positioning the Lynx in a dive, it had a tendency to spin on the very smooth magnet and go nose up.  The latex rubber gave it a bit more 'traction' and helped out with that. The latex should also help to protect the paint on the bottom of the models rather than them being stuck directly against a piece of metal.

Fully extended, the stand can suspend an aircraft 18.5" above the table. The washers provide a very stable base and should work fairly well...  We'll see how they fare at the convention this weekend!

The base was covered in Sculptamold and painted just like the rest of the terrain.

The top is very movable so the aircraft can be posed in some great attack positions.

Both stands as low as they go - 6".

The Alouette III is at its highest altitude - 18.5".

The total cost of each stand including the magnet, telescoping pickup tool, washers, and other bits is less than $5.00.

If you want something without having to make it yourself, you can check out Armaments In Miniature.  It looks like you have to email them your order, but they do apparently take PayPal and other forms of payment.