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Has anyone had issues getting the ball joint on the top of the flight stand peg to seat fully into their Lightning fighters? Every other AI plane I have built (Imperial Thunderbolt, Marauder, Valkyrie, even the new Avenger, and the Ork jets) have fit perfectly, with the ball popping right into the plane model, allowing me to have them banked, climbing, diving etc with no issues. On the Lightning, I have to apply a lot of pressure just to seat the ball joint, and even then, the Lightning will pop off the peg when I try to reposition it. Is the female part for the Lighting too small, too narrow? Looking at it from the side, it looks like the ball joint on the top of the peg should go all the way in, but none of mine do, maybe the bottom 1/4 or 1/5 still shows, perhaps the plastic is too thick on the piece, not allowing it to seat all the way?

Curious if anyone else has experienced this, and if you did, how did you modify the Lightning for a better fit?

Thanks!

It’s not just the Lightning, the Tau are also too tight and the worst I’ve had is the Ork Eavy Bomber where the hole is too big so the model just falls off the stand. The Tau aren’t quite as bad as the Lightning, but they still don’t slot in nicely like the Thunderbolt, Marauders, Dakkajets and Fighter Bombers did.

I don’t know how to fix them, it’s bloody annoying though. I was thinking of trying to shave down a couple of the balls as it seems too risky to open the holes (I’ve got a handful of spare balls across my various sets now).

Possibly some of the older balls are smaller, I haven’t tried with the Lightnings but I did notice on the Eavy Bombers if I used the newer bases they seem less prone to falling off (though still requiring blutac).

I had considered magnetising rhe troublesome models using steel ball bearings, but haven’t come up with a good way of doing it yet. I think some small diameter steel tube might work as a cup for a ball bearing, then place it on top of a magnet and the magnet will induce magnetism in the steel, buuut I haven’t found any off the shelf parts that I think will work (noting that stainless steel won’t work well).

Yea the issue is as said by Skink.

My tau aint bad, they seat but it feels as if the cups are too small, i tought of trying to file them down, but in the end i dident need to.
The lightings are horrible.......deffo going to try and file down a ball. On the ork bomber i just jammed in a tiny amount of blu-tack in the cup.

Just had a play and shaving the sides of the ball ever so slightly allows it to sit maybe 0.5 to 1mm deeper in to the socket, but you only need to take off a tiny amount. The socket itself isn't as deep, so even shaving the sides it won't sit as nicely as the old Thunderbolts, but at least I don't have to force it on anymore.

Going to have to start labeling the bases so I know which ones go with which models.

The Tau isn't terrible, but I find the Barracudas if I try and angle them on their balls they just pop off, whereas the better models the ball sunk in far enough that you could roll/pitch/yaw them without having to reattach them each time.

Even with blutac I find my Eavy Bombers fall over if I leave them on my display shelf for more than a few hours.

Think i found a viable solution for the lightnings and tau.

The issue aint the flight peg ball as i tought, it is that the depth of the cup on the plane aint deep enugh, using drill bits helped the issue. There is very little material to remove so just hold the bit between your fingers.
I started with a 3.5mm bit to make the cup deeper and then a 4mm to make it wider. When you start handtwisting the 4mm it will feel as it jams up but that is just the "belt" of the cup you are removing and it need to be removed to get the whole ball deeper in.

My lightnings now sits solid as a rock and can be titled whitout falling off.