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So I'm looking at getting into Kharadron but those flight stands on their ships give me massive anxiety.

What are some good alternative (preferably UK based if store bought) replacement materials and techniques?


Also, in my googling, I've seen things such as clear acrylic rods to metal bolts. How do you go securely attach them to the base and model?

Cant you just use the 40k flyer stems? They are pretty sturdy.

Glue the stem to the base, shape the top of the stem to follow the ship hull and then glue magnets to the stem and ship? it is under the ship after all so not too many will take notice of it.

40k uses the nice, strong cross shaped stem.

KO use these new, small ball and socket joint heads.

For the smaller vessels, it's not an issue but if you ever see a KO Frigate or Ironclad on the table, those things shake around like crazy and are a massive liability.

I'd use the 40k ones but there's not a lot of real estate under the ships to secure it to.

Important to remember that the 40k flyers are, by and large, older kits and that is why they use the X-stem.

The most common replacement I've seen for the ships is to use a piece of terrain as an anchor point and make it look like the ship is 'floating by' while it's actually pinned into place.

It isn't pretty, but I have used the bolt and nut style. I find Goop the best product for attaching. I bury the bolt head in the base I'm using, and glue the nut to the model. Then it remains detachable. Sadly, no real way to hide a long bolt besides paint black and smile and nod.

A friend bought used Overlords stuff, and nearly all the original flight stands were broken. I've used 3mm brass rods instead of the rubbish from the box.
Since all those models are just plastic, the leverage isn't too bad and the ships stick nice and solid to their bases.
Naturally, painting the brass rods black and obfuscating them with base deco helps sell the concept.

I've built a lot of my own jump infantry bases out of acrylic rod (Seraphim, etc. w/ photos in my P&M blog). I drill the model to hive a nice big hole to receive the rod, and on the base I not only drill it through, but I build a scenic riser out of cork or plastic to create a deep socket to provide support from the sides. If the rod were ever to snap, I could easily salvage both model and base with a little cleanup and a new length of rod. I'd do the same for a flying vehicle, but with a larger diameter acrylic rod, a deeper socket on the base, and maybe a well-chosen magnet pair at the top of the stand to attach to the hull. With a bigger vehicle, I'd consider two acrylic rods, since you're building custom anyway.

How do you go about securely attaching brass/acrylic rod to your bases?

This is what I built for my Seraphim... nothing like a vehicle, but they're the old metal ones, so they're topheavy and prone to falling over. I knew gluing a flat end of an acrylic rod to a flat plastic base wasn't enough surface area or structural support to handle the shock a metal model falling over repeatedly, but between the drilled base and the cork riser, the rod sits about 1/4" deep in a pretty stiff little socket.

Any type of bendable wire can be attached to a base by simply bending the bottom into a circle, bending the whole circle 90 degrees, and then gooping onto base. Here if you look at the bottom of this picture is a somewhat poor example. This is 16 gauge gardening wire bought at hobby lobby. I have done all of my jump troops this way. Also lighter vehicles.