Bartertown.com

Long story short - I'm tired of crappy flying bases for my 40k tanks and bikes (Yes, I play Eldar). I'm looking for some recommendations for a modified flying base setup. On some Youtube video I saw awhile back the author described using flad headed screws with Kinex pieces for the 'pole' filler, which would be nice except that Kinex (or however you spell them, I've forgotten) are hard to come by for me.

So, Bartertown, what do YOU use and/or recommend?

I've purchased from magnets from http://www.kjmagnetics.com/. The size is going to depend on the tank you wish to mount, my falcons use 6mm magnets

On he flying base I chop off the tip, and glue a second magnet to that tip, roughly center, Then I use a wad of putty to reinforce the magent.
One magnet goes about where the hole was, and viola, you have an easily removeable stand, that is fairly strong, Prism tanks however require a bigger magnet as that metal cannon makes it so they don't stay on very well.
If you don't swivel the turet and keep the model centered the 6mm will hold the tank, but the second you shift the weight, it pops off.

I can't speak for your tanks, but for your jetbikes, you can use brass rod.

All of my Deff Koptas, Raptors and Assault Marines are mounted to their bases with brass rod, painted black.

There are a few benefits:

Strong. The thin rod I have is MORE than strong enough to hold the ALL METAL raptors in place. I'm certain you could get rod at hobby stores thick enough for even your tanks.

Dynamic posing. Depending on where/how you attach the rod to the base & the model, you can mount them in interesting positions. I have models that look like they're landing, taking off, in mid flight, banking right or left (which would look COOL on your jetbikes). They're easy enough to model like this, as you just make a dynamic base, so it has some weight on it. It easily counterbalances the model.

Security. They aren't going anywhere. That rod MIGHT bend, bit it isn't going to break.

Appearance. If you pose the pieces right (as if they're barely skimming above the base's surface), you won't even SEE the pin.

If you attach the pin to the base, but not the model (in the case of your tanks), you can still remove them from the base by just sliding them off of the rod.


Eric

I've tried magnets, I've a bunch of rareearth ones roughtly the same diameter of the top of the base peg, but it didn't work out well, kept slipping off.

MM, do you have any pictures of these bases?

Galley wrote:I've tried magnets, I've a bunch of rareearth ones roughtly the same diameter of the top of the base peg, but it didn't work out well, kept slipping off.

MM, do you have any pictures of these bases?

Nope... But I can snap some tonight for you, if I get time... email me a reminder (my username here)@aol.com.

Eric

The base post size is like 2/3 mm, you need to use 6-10mm for them to be effective, As I said the 6mm are to small for the fire prism, those metal bits are simply just to heavy, but the 6 mm are perfect for falcons, and vipers, you could go a bit smaller for jetbikes, but for like 3.00 you get like 100 6mm magnets, so it isn't like you are "wasteing" them

I'll try to dig out my Falcons and get a pic of them, when I can find my stinking camera. Just had the darned thing and it up an vanished.

You know if you look around the web there are some base supply websites that make more stable flying bases out of resine (sp?) or other materials and they usually are a lot wider/longer and look alot better.

Just remember what ever you build needs to offset the high center of gravity and be at least as half as big as the model it is holding or it won't matter what type of magnet you use on the upper part to hold it down.

Magnets are great for removal ease, but don't do jack in keeping an unbalanced model standing upright.

Having issues getting the spare TIME to get those pics... but I haven't forgotten you.


Eric

Here are the magnets I use

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn24 ... magnet.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn24 ... agnet2.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn24 ... agnet3.jpg

They are 6mm x 1.5 mm Neodymium magnets

And those don't slip around too much?

Nope, they are decent strength That particular size has about a 3 lbs pull to it, for Falcons, Vipers, Devilfish ect... (all plastic models) they have more than enough pull to geep them in place.

For models that have the metal bits (Fire prisim) you need a larger magnet, the 3 lbs pull isn't enough if you want your turret to swivel (they will stay in place as long as the turret is pointed forward) while I haven't found the right magnet to fixthis problem (I simply do not want to order blindly) I haven't fixed my prisms yet.

I'd guess that if you went with a 5-6 lbs pull you could manage it, also a larger size (the ones I use are 6mm) like maybe a 10+mm might have better results as there is more surface area to hold.