Metal or Plastic Stands?

lokirising · Post by **lokirising** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 4:36 am

I prefer metal. They seem to fit tighter on the minis.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 4:45 am

I hate the plastic stand risers. The peg on them is way too fragile and will shear off if you even breathe hard on the mini.

I ended up paying for bags of the metal-riser stands, to solve that little issue.

Bolo_MK_XL · Post by **Bolo_MK_XL** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 5:07 am

Once they moved away from the "Notched" ends on the rods, I've pretty much disliked all them.

bluebirds38 · Post by **bluebirds38** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 10:33 am

i myself prefer metal.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 12:55 pm

I prefer a neat little anti-gravity module I invented. The map is underlaid with a special sheet and each object has a receiver inserted. I will have to admit that the phaser beams in the pic were photoshopped in...

bluebirds38 · Post by **bluebirds38** » Thu Jul 04, 2013 8:10 pm

cool pic, like the space amoeba

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:02 pm

That space amoeba model was done by Ben Haggard with hot glue and dyes. There was a blurb about how he made it back in CL#36 (p.37).

ingkent · Post by **ingkent** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 4:11 pm

Any recommendations for stands that can be used on 2500 series ships for play in both Fed Commander and A Call to Arms? I'm finding the plastic stands don't do so well with the bigger and heavier ships. Thx.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:15 pm

I haven't reached that point yet, myself.

I'm leaning toward using CorSec Engineering or (hopefully) Ninja Magic adapters, to allow swapping of the bases for the various systems and allow easier casing/storage of the minis.

For SFB/FedCom, I'm leaning towards just doing my own bases, out of metal. Adding fender washers to the plastic bases is a pain and just doesn't look as good.

ingkent · Post by **ingkent** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 9:11 pm

Thanks Will. I'll take a look at them. The 2 metal Fed DDs I put together this morning are tipping forward when using the standard 6 sided plastic stands (from the 2400 series). They're the only ones I'm having problems with. Magnet adapters, I'll have to look at those, are there any good ones that can hold a 2500 BB - those have a lot of heft but are surprisingly very clean and required very very little clean-up (at least the one I got from Starfleetgames).

Bolo_MK_XL · Post by **Bolo_MK_XL** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 9:49 pm

Been very happy with the "B-10" Metal Stands, doesn't hurt to put some weight underneath them. They work well for the heavier 2400s (ISC DN, Dom, Condor).

If you want to modify them, a 3/8" bolt goes right though the center hole, short extender (come in several lengths). Use whatever method you want to connect to the mini (personally glued a nut underneath the mini).

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 10:31 pm

Kent -

CorSec adapters are threaded and screw the mini onto the stand riser, so they're strong as all get out.

Ninja Magic takes a different tact and uses "toothed" adapters that have strong rare earth magnets cast into them. They stay put really well, from what I've seen, with the added benefit that they are "keyed" and the mini is aligned to the base automatically.

Unfortunately, Ninja Magic is on hiatus for a relocation, so their stuff is unavailable right now.

Either of them can more than handle any SFU mini.

Where the thinking really comes in is with the base. To get a solid footing, that will still fit inside the Federation Commander big-hex map spaces, you really can't make them any wider than the existing plastic bases. That only leaves going thicker and/or heavier.

In the past, I've used stacks of fender washers under the plastic stand, packing the stand with metal-impregnated plumber's putty, etc. None of those were ideal. Washers look ugly and stick out around the base, hiding the hex lines (and tend to pop off, unless the base was filled with something). Putty was just too much work to keep looking nice, on a "mass production" basis (pun intended).

For my new batch of work, I'm leaning towards steel for my bases, up to 1/2-inch thick for some of the biggest minis, 1/4 or 1/8-inch thick for the rest.

Bolo -

Agreed. The B-10 metal stand is quite good and I used it for all my biggest/heaviest Starline 2400 minis. However, I've had too much trouble with damage, in-transit, and I'm going to transition to storing my minis with no stands attached.

Bolo_MK_XL · Post by **Bolo_MK_XL** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 11:53 pm

djdood,

I placed/glued a nut onto the bottom of the mini's, put a second nut on the threads of the extender. Using two nuts keeps the mini from spinning when moved (on the map). Only takes a couple seconds to remove the mini from the stand. Allowing the mini to be placed in a custom form for transportation / storage.

If I had been more involved lately (playing) would have tried the Ninja or similar tech to have the similar affect, allowing safer transport.