Recently, several of my fellows at work wanted to play a WWI air combat game. That request prompted me to pull out my old copy of TSR’s Dawn Patrol. The game is a hit and we’ve played few times over the last couple of months. Dawn Patrol dates from the early 1980′s but it is fun even if it is a little difficult to shoot someone down. After a few games, the inevitable comment “wouldn’t this be cool with miniatures” cropped up.
After looking at scale models in 1/72 and 1/144 scale the choice came down to either the Wings of War miniatures or 1/300 scale metal models The WoW miniatures come pre-painted and are readily available so that is what we choose. However these miniatures posed a problem. The WoW bases are short. In order to get the feel for altitude, a better stand needed to be made. After several tries, I’ve been able to come up with a stand that can be build using just hand tools that does not require significant modifications to the WoW miniature so that the original base can still be used. As a bonus, the design also allows for the model to be articulated so that the pitch and roll attitude of the aircraft can be shown. What follows is my description on how to assemble the bases.
Materials
- 3/8″x12″ steel tubing (available from K&S Engineering through hobby stores)
- 1/8″x12″ aluminum rods (available from K&S Engineering through hobby stores)
- 1/4″ square plastic tubing (available from Evergreen Plastics through hobby stores)
- 1/8″ hardwood dowel (from Midwest Products through hobby stores)
- 3/32″x2″ strip of basswood (from Midwest Products through hobby stores)
- 0.125″x0.250″ rare-earth rod magnets (from Magcraft)
- 1/4″ rare-earth spherical magnets (from Magcraft)
- steel 1/8″ diameter x 1/4″ pop rivets (available from home improvement stores)
- white glue
- thick super glue
- Your favorite paint
- craft felt
Tools
- Hobby vice
- pipe cutter with steel cutting blades and pipe reamer
- hobby saw and mitre box
- pen vise with 1/8″ drill bit
- pliers
- hammer
- ruler
Essentially, the stands consists of a wooden base and metal pins to denote altitude bands. Originally, I made the metal pins out of aluminum tubing but the tubing bends rather easily. I made the switch to steel tubing since the metal is stiffer but it is harder to cut which is why I needed the hobby vice and the pipe cutter. It was too hard to cut the tubing with a hack saw. It might be possible to make the pins out of plastic tubing. Evergreen Plastics makes telescoping tubing which should work.
I first cut the steel tubing into 1.5″ segments. The K&S sells the tubes in 12″ lengths so I was able to construct 7 pins out of each rod. Since I cut the steel tube with a pipe cutter I had to ream out the metal flash from the inside of the tube. I used the 1/8″ drill bit and pin vice to clear out any metal debris in the pin. Finally, I checked each pin with a scrap piece of 1/8″ aluminum tubing to make sure the inserts would fit. Once I had the steel pins cut, I then cut the aluminum tubing into 1″ lengths using the mitre box and hobby saw. I used four pins per stand. The first pin does not need an insert since it will be permanently attached to the base.
I used the thick super glue to glue the aluminum inserts into the steel pins. Normal super glue is rather thin and will run down the inside of the steel pin. When dry, the glue is gummy. Since the idea is to be able to assemble the pins into one another, the excess glue tends to stick to the inserted pin. I ruined several pins this way until I switched to the thick glue.
Once the glue dries, test each pin in several other pins. Ideally, the pins should snugly fit into one another and can be easily rotated. If the fit is difficult, in might be necessary to clean the aluminum insert of excess glue or clean out the pin.
The base of the stand is constructed from the basswood. I cut the wood into 2″ square pieces and then using the white glue, glued two squares to one another. Not much glue is needed. To ensure that the wood glued flat, I placed a stack of the glued bases underneath a glass of water while the glue dried. Large models should use larger bases so that they don’t tip over during play.
My game mat has 2″ squares so I trimmed the bases to 1.75″ squares using the mitre box. I then drilled a hole in the center of the base using the pin vice and 1/8″ drill bit. I then cut a 0.75″ length of dowel and then inserted the wooded peg into base by tapping it into the hole with the hammer. The pin without the insert is now tapped into place over the wooden peg. I added a 0.5″ length of the square plastic tubing around the pin to help align the pin vertically straight.
Once I had assembled several pins and bases I then primed all of the pieces with black priming paint. For each stand, I then painted the alternating pins white to provide a quick visual cue as to how many pins are on the stand.
After the paint dried, I glues a square piece of felt to the bottom of the stand to protect the game surfaces (or mats) from the stand.
The final step is assembling the stand to model attachment. The rivet is pressed onto the plastic pin (rivet head down) onto the bottom of the model once the mandrel is removed using a few taps with the hammer. It will be necessary to sand the pin down around the edges so that the rivet can be easily pressed onto the model. Next a spherical magnet is placed on the head of the rivet and the rod magnet is then placed on the spherical magnet. The rod magnet is now placed into the top pin of the stand. The strength of the rare-earth magnets is strong enough to hold the model in various attitudes.
To help weight the stands, I added two washers (one 1.5″ in diameter and the other 7/8″ in diameter) with altitude clocks made from shipping labels. In this manner, relative altitude can be shown by the number of pins on the stand and the washers can then show exact altitude.
