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Has anyone had any experience with replacing the clear plastic rods on flying bases by pinning a back corner of the model to a convenient bit of base decoration, so that from most angles you don't see anything holding it up and get a better flying illusion? I've seen some great examples of it being done but not a lot of behind the scenes looks at how they did it and I have some questions:

How well do the pins hold up over time? If it doesn't bend immediately after mounting the model will it stay that way over time or do you need to use a larger diameter rod than what is required short-term?

Do you bother to reinforce the structure of the model at all (building an internal frame on a flying tank and mounting the frame to the base, then building the model around the frame) to carry the load or do you just pin the back and trust the strength of the model? Will something like a Riptide or Hammerhead be ok being supported from a non-standard spot or will it be too much bending force on parts that weren't designed to take it?

To hide the pins do you paint them to match the background color or do you use a neutral gray/black? Or even the color of the adjacent part of the model?

If you haven't seen it before I'm looking to duplicate something like this: https://www.coolminiornot.com/254782?browseid=15166635

I just paint my rods matte black.

I've never liked the "use terrain to support flyers", because to me it is always very obvious when the terrain is supporting a model so there's no illusion that the model is flying, it just looks precariously balanced.

I find matte black rods to be the least intrusive to my suspension of disbelief that something is flying.

But each to their own I guess.

Clear rods are terrible and I always found it odd/funny that they became the norm because clear rods are the opposite of invisible, they stick out like a sore thumb.

I go even further than that. Matte black rods, but the rods are brass rod instead of plastic. 100% superior in every way as I've never had one break on me yet and they're even less intrusive than a flying stand as they're thinner.

Bumping to see if anyone has any ideas for the thing I was asking about. I've seen plenty of examples of different colors of conventional rod and it's not what I'm trying to do.

I used fire for mine

The others are correct when they suggest a sturdy rod painted black. You would just disguise this with terrain after. Use some kind of material on the base you can drill through and then slip the rod into this hole. And same for the model, but take care with larger models with hallow interiors. Then you just slot the model into place and the little bit of black rod that's visible will go unnoticed. It's also worth noting that the photographer has done a good job not actually showing the underside of the model. So it's most likely they have done something similar.



These are my latest examples. 3D printed rubble with a brass rod threaded inside and, as you can see, it's not very noticeable.

To clarify: I am not looking for ways to hide a standard flying rod in the standard position. I'm trying to figure out the structural issues involved in mounting from a different point. For example, if instead of just hiding the standard flying base with some smoke bits, the Valkyrie was mounted by attaching the wing tip to a piece of scenery. How do you deal with the bending stress of an off-center mounting point?

Well it shouldn’t be a problem for the model as such, as you can hold it quite securely by the wing. Therefore you need to make the mounting point get as much surface contact with the model as possible to spread the load. If you wanted to mount it by the wing I would probably try to drill a hole in one of the wing thrusters that runs as far up the wing as possible, and use quite a thick rod. If you go to a hardware store you should be able to get a feel for the stiffness of bars of different diameters.

 Flinty wrote:
Well it shouldn’t be a problem for the model as such, as you can hold it quite securely by the wing.

So, for example, the joint between the wing and the body can hold the bending load just fine? It's not going to bend over time? That's my main concern, that something seems ok holding it briefly while figuring out the layout but after a few months of holding up that weight the rods and/or structure of the model start to bend.

The Valkyrie wing joint is a particularly sturdy one as it has lots of surface area to transfer the load. I would use plastic glue or epoxy rather than superglue as fatigue could crack it over time.

Your original question was as about tau tanks. The devilfish hull is a nice sturdy construction. As long as you don’t try to support it off one of the engines it should be fine. Just need to make sure that you have a nice big contact area on the supporting rod. I would even recommend pushing the rod all the way up to the top surface of the hull so some of the load is taken in direct compression down through tue rod, rather than all the load going through a glue joint.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
You also need to prevent torsion in the joint from allowing the model to spin on the rod. Cranking or dog-legging the rod is one way to help prevent that. A rod big enough to take the bending is also likely to be big enough to prevent torsion lap rotation of the rod, but superglue is particularly bad in resisting torsion, so you either need a big fat rod to get lots of contact area for more glue, or you need to have some kind of mechanical key between the rod and the model.