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The Jackson Gamers build things!
An aircraft flight stand

By Jay Stribling

I purchased two already-built and pre-painted aircraft models at my local HOBBYTOWN hobby shop with the idea of using them in our Russian Civl War games. I had gone there looking for plastic 1/72nd kits, but these metal planes (by Model Power) were in the correct scale and cheaper than the unassembled plastic models! Both were Sopwith Camels and in British color schemes.

Above is the box which plainly states "1/100 scale" - perfect for 15mm. Well, they are NOT 1/100 scale. They are larger than 1/72 scale. Tim Latham, one of our other Jackson gamers, also purchased one of these aircraft and he says the plastic stand for the metal plane says "1/63rd scale". Naturally, I cut my stand up before reading it!

The plastic stand that comes with the airplanes is inadequate! The planes do not fly high enough to clear a cavalryman. I built larger wooden stands for my planes. The techniques given below would also work for the plastic models.

Here are the templates for the larger wooden stand that I built. I used 3/32" thick basswood, simply because I had it. Sheet plastic or balsa or probably even a heavy cardboard would work. I glued all the parts together with super glue since I am an impatient guy! I used a 1/4" spruce dowel, again because I had one laying about. Any reasonable thickness would work, as wood a metal or plastic tube. A soda straw would probably not be strong enough to take the weight of the metal model.

I cut the plastic base about 1/2" below the top and super-glued this into a slot that I cut into the top of the dowel. This allows me to use the two small plastic pegs on the top of the stand which fit snugly into holes on the bottom of the planes.

After the glue was dry (about 5 seconds after I misted super-glue accelerator all over it) I glued lead weights to the top of the base. I used self-adhesive model airplane weights which are available in any flying model shop. Anything heavy would work, but use plenty! The metal models are top-heavy. My bases without planes weigh about one pound. I sprayed them black and the aircraft flew their first mission the next day!


The Red aircraft commanded by "Captain Kalvan" (Sean Pitts) pulls up after dropping a bomb on the white occupied town of Plivnik.

Go to the "Red Sabres" game where these aircraft & stands were used.

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