Flight Stand - to show Aspect

[pauld]

I like to play with little planes

I mount the little guys on clear 25mm Hex bases and track altitude with clear Lego pegs

I'd really love to be able to easily show the aspect of a plane (bank left, bank right, climb and dive) when performing manouvres manuvers manoeuvers tricksy moves.

So my idea is a tilted shoe for the base with a small lip on one edge (or better still 3) to keep the base in position - a bit like the crude sketch below. 

The "ramp" would need to be fairly shallow (no more then 3 mm I'd hazard) so the plane doesn't topple but that should make the riser off centre enough to be noticeable.




The question - is such a thing already available and from whom (UK Based)

The supplementary (and embarrassingly very cheeky) question - are there any 3D print gurus among us who can make and print this and knock out a dozen or so for me at a reasonable cost.

I realise that these are very unlikely to be clear but no matter.

Thanks

[Daeothar]

Your idea does have merit, especially with very small planes, where there is no space for magnets.

I've seen quite a few solutions to this using a ring-shaped maget and a ballbearing. The magnet is then usually glued to the belly of the plane and the ball on top of a flight stand (usually clear, but I've also seen black).

The advantage is that this will allow you to reposition your planes without gaming aids. The drawback is a more visual impact (the magnet and ball remain visible) and also cost.

I can't recall seeing your solution anywhere before, but the design seems very easy to design in 3D (even I could do that I think ).

Clear 3D printing still results in matt/cloudy products, although I understand that these can be polished clear. I never tried this myself (yet) though...

[gweirda]

I haven't the printing experience to make an informed judgement, but the base/ramp thingy looks to be possible? Still... (sounds a bit better than "but...", however the intent remains to rain on your parade... )

My concern lies with the practical use/application: Getting the thing into place (and/or changing its orientation as the maneuver is altered) would, I think, be a bit too fiddly - especially with many models crowded on the table?

Also, tilting the model at the base would -if it sits atop a tall stack of altitude-pegs- lean it into the neighboring hex? dunno...visually, the effect would be to have the aircraft look like it's falling over rather than maneuvering?

I think addressing the issue at the top would better achieve the desired effect (which I am all for, having gone the gimbal or ring-magnet-ball route myself). For simple: how about slipping the bendy bit of a clear plastic drinking straw over the top peg and using it to show attitude?

[pauld]

For simple: how about slipping the bendy bit of a clear plastic drinking straw over the top peg and using it to show attitude?

Lateral thinking at it's best - I like this and may well try it out if I can find them (plastic straws are sensibly being phased out everywhere)

[Kelly_]

My concern lies with the practical use/application: Getting the thing into place (and/or changing its orientation as the maneuver is altered) would, I think, be a bit too fiddly - especially with many models crowded on the table?

I think that for hex-based maps, there would not be much difficulty in using the shoe... move two hexes, banking right would be picking up the base-stand, placing the shoe on the destination hex with any rotations needed, and then putting the base-stand back onto the shoe.

Your idea is a good one, what dimensions are your current base-stands (25 for diameter or height), and what dimensions were you looking for on the shoe / hex sizes on your mats?

[pauld]

what dimensions are your current base-stands (25 for diameter or height), and what dimensions were you looking for on the shoe / hex sizes on your mats?

The hex bases are 25mm across the flats - so the "shoe" would need to fit these with the containing lip on the one hex side to suit manufacture so maybe 2mm thick with an internal rise of 2mm.  The "fat" side of the slope maybe 5 mm high.

I think I may try my hand at tinkercad or some such and see what I can butcher together.

[Kelly_]

Was this along the lines of what you were looking for?

I put a 10-degree incline into the top which resulted in a rise from 2 mm to 7 mm across the shoe and think it does show a marked difference between climbing and diving orientations.

[Daeothar]

Ooh; that looks really good! 

[pauld]

Was this along the lines of what you were looking for?

I put a 10-degree incline into the top which resulted in a rise from 2 mm to 7 mm across the shoe and think it does show a marked difference between climbing and diving orientations.

Spot on - exactly what i envisaged

Excellent stuff

[Kelly_]

Ooh; that looks really good! 

Thank you for the compliment...

Spot on - exactly what i envisaged

Excellent stuff

And thank you for the inspiration… when I saw the initial post I was two days into a massive group of clear print jobs, and was glad to have a distraction to put into the queue.  I will be experimenting on some options and can send you a pm on the file.

[pauld]

Thank you