DIY Display Stands

[nheather]

I don't normally do aircraft but I have a few.  In general I prefer to show them flying with gear up.

 

That means building some form of display stand and in some cases finding crew.

 

But on the stands I'm thinking wooden display mounts with metal (brass or aluminium) tube or clear acrylic rod.

 

Any other ideas and what materials should be looking for - what looks best circular or rectangular bases.

 

Also is there any rule of thumb for how big the base should be against size of aircraft - both from a stability and looking sensible point of view.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Work In Progress]

Don't ask us. because the answers to these questions are purely personal to you and no-one else's opinion matters. Also, apart from me, hardly anyone on this website uses stands. Go cut up some wire coat hangars and cardboard shapes and offer up various things together until you find a combination of base shape and size, and height of stand, that pleases you because you're the person who will be looking at it. If you make one you don;t like, it;'s easy to modify it or make a new one.

 

If you must have my worthless subjective opinion on the aesthetics, it is that aeroplanes look silly on stands lower than half a wingspan, unless you are portraying them as a vignette or diorama depicting the last half-second before touchdown or the first second after take-off.

 

One piece of advice I wll offer, because it's not aesthetic but practical, is to remember that the centre of gravity of  most WW2 types as plastic models is a LONG WAY aft of where it should be on an aeroplane capable of flight. Generally about 40% of the way from tip of nose to the tail. And inside your fuselage at that point you want a big chunk of solid material that you can drill into. Hard timber or a full-depth plug of epoxy putty, somethig like that. Or a length of brass tube crimped at about half fuselage depth, into which you can insert a wire rod forming the top of the stand. 

 

Edited August 2, 2020 by Work In Progress

[dogsbody]

There is always the option of pinning a wingtip to a picture mounted on a plaque-type base and hanging it on the wall.

 

Damn! I can't find a picture of one. GOOGLE can be so useless sometimes.

 

 

 

Chris

[Vlad]

If you're looking for inspiration I think @reggie78usmc 's display style is pretty awesome. Maybe you can ask him what he uses:

 

 

 

 

But if you just want something simple, do you need to DIY? You could just buy a bunch of these Zvezda stands, they're pretty cheap. I'm building something using one at the moment, I'll probably just spray it solid black and I think it should look pretty good.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zvezda-7235-Aircraft-Stand-Suitables-for-all-scales-aircraft-helicopters/123595966280?epid=2281471249&hash=item1cc6e4c748:g:sjQAAOSwp3dcWb-c

 

As an alternative suggestion, if these models are going inside a cabinet you can hang them from the shelves so they're "flying" above whatever else you have in there. This way they are also not taking up actual shelf space.

Edited August 3, 2020 by Vlad

[easixpedro]

I only build gear up, and really the only limit is your imagination. I’ve been using just a flat piece of aluminum bent to shape, but have recently been making more exotic displays. All the bases are either handmade or a plaque from a trophy shop.

HTH

-Peter

 

 

 

 

 

[dnl42]

Here are some bases I've done. The first and third used images I created in a graphics program, GIMP in my case. The middle is a photo from the web. All the images were printed at a local photo processor and glued onto painted bases. 

 

 

 

 

[John B]

On 8/4/2020 at 5:33 PM, easixpedro said:

I only build gear up, and really the only limit is your imagination. I’ve been using just a flat piece of aluminum bent to shape, but have recently been making more exotic displays. All the bases are either handmade or a plaque from a trophy shop.

HTH

-Peter

 

 

 

 

 

Wow those stand bases are amazing.   Are the custom-made ones 3-D printed or carved from wood?   The F6F stand is a clever mini-diorama.   Is the smoke/flame trail emanating from the J2M also 3-D printed? 

[-Ian-]

On 8/5/2020 at 1:33 AM, easixpedro said:

I only build gear up, and really the only limit is your imagination. I’ve been using just a flat piece of aluminum bent to shape, but have recently been making more exotic displays. All the bases are either handmade or a plaque from a trophy shop.

HTH

-Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love that one, you very rarely see stands which can be wall mounted.

[easixpedro]

On 9/21/2020 at 8:17 PM, John B said:

Wow those stand bases are amazing.   Are the custom-made ones 3-D printed or carved from wood?   The F6F stand is a clever mini-diorama.   Is the smoke/flame trail emanating from the J2M also 3-D printed? 

Thanks! They’re all wood, though I guess you could print ‘em if desired. I used to hand paint the squadron patch on there too, but have gotten away from it recently. The Hellcat was a test—plan on doing a bigger one with the airfix Hellcat! The data plate is a sheet of aluminum with a custom decal on top of it. The stand is buried inside the smoke. The smoke is actually spray foam that you can buy at any hardware store. I was messing around one day and thought the foam looked a bit like a small explosion. One thing led to another and that’s the result. I was going for a Terry and the Pirates or Buck Danny style look to it—came out better than I expected.