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Some advice needed please.

I have a FW Tiger Shark. As a rough guide to size and weight, it's about the size of the entire bottom tray of a GW carry case and probably weighs around 400/500g. It has absolutely no points anywhere to affix it to any sort of flying stand.

My Tau army is currently based on clear bases/stands, like this...



I had them made by Fenris Games to order. Whatever I end up using, I'd like it to have a clear base too. I'd also like it if the flyer is obviously high off the ground - so at least the height of a GW flight stand.

So, what do I do?

- Buy a GW flight stand and attempt to drill out a 'plus' shape from the underside of the Tiger Shark, then get Fenris to make me a new oval shaped clear base, and attempt to cut the plus shape out of that too? I'm not sure I have the cunning Dremel skills for that.

- I'm currently using 3mm clear plastic rod for vechicle/small flyer stands, as pictured above. I was thinking I could make a base with three rods on it, glued together, then drill out three holes from the Tiger Shark.

- Another cunning solution - are there any third-party flight stands available?

Personally I'd go for 3 points aranged in a triangle below the model using the 3mm plastic rod. With a model that large (and held up high) your less likely to have it wobbling and falling than if you used a single thicker rod.
This would mean you dont have to try find some thicker clear plastic rod too

May I also suggest using a base made from a peice of plywood or MDF? It will give the model a bit more stability as its heavier and gives you a more solid material to fix the clear rod into

Hope all goes well, whatever you decide to do

Dan

I'd have three rods in a line, on a 90x120mm oval flying base; one at the front, one in the middle, and one at the back.

I had a marauder bomber that mounted nicely on a steel rod, it supported the weight nicely although you do have to manually drill a hole under the model (which was rather painful to do to such a nice model...) If using steel, it's also nice that you can fit some powerful magnets in the hole to help support it/transport it around.

One thing to watch out for with plastic supports is the rod snapping.. I have had the misfortune of seeing an Eldar Vampire shattering into pieces in the middle of an apocalypse game!

Dragonforge makes a very nice flight stand setup. Small piece that you attach under the vehicle, and a thick solid plastic rod that goes down into a pre-drilled resin base you can order from them.

If you prefer not to use their bases, you can get the clear rod and the vehicle-side attachment separately, but you'll have to drill your own hole in the base.

I've used these on my FW Vampires with no issues at all.

You can use the GW "stem" but won't necessarily have to cut into your custom base. As long as the base is acrylic, you should be able to use plastic cement (conservatively) and get a solid join.

You can then drill four holes into the flier and cut the plus shape of the stem down into four pegs. That should leave it just as stable with less chance of messing up your model.

I plan to do a wooden flying base for my Thunderhawk.

I am going to do a wooden base with a wooden stem (glued and screwed to the base), with a cradle for the TH to sit on, again this is going to be screwed to the stalk.

On the cradle I am going to put foam squares that will fit inside the aircrafts landing gear holes to stop it sliding off as well as foam side walls.

I have seen people use a 2cm / 1" thick transparent acryl rod as a flight stand. Stable and looks good.

yeah,
you could tallk to Scott-S6 from S6 engineering about making large flyer bases.
I believe he's open to new product ideas?

He already has the landspeeder base design, would just be a case of upscaling, using thicker acrylic and designing some extra support at the bottom.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/314905.page#1911608

Panic...

edit
His design also includes a piece to add to the miniature, so you don't need to mark/ drill the flyer if you don't want to...