[GZG] Miniatures Transport

["Thomas Barclay" <kaladorn@xxxxxxxx>]

Mr. Seibold said:
I tried your system about 4 years ago (the round brass tubes) for my 1/300 scale aircraft
and I rejected it due to too many problems.
-The brass tube is not that easy to cut. I used a special brass tube cutter which
worked like a pipe cutter but still the tube would get slightly deformed. You have
to ream out the larger brass tube and clean (dremel tool sander) the end of the
smaller tube to get a proper fit.
- The brass tube is difficult to attach to the ship. You have to drill out a space
that's bigger then the brass tube or drill into the model and anchor a wire in the
model and into the brass tube. The tubes are not that small,  the smaller tubes
are about half the size of of a GZG fighter.
-When finished you now have a model with a brass tube sticking out of it's
bottom which will be difficult to store when not in it's stand.

I say:
1. Do not use circular tubing. Use square. Resists deformation. 
2. Do not use tube cutter (won't work on square anyway). Use Dremel or fine toothed
hacksaw/razorsaw. Cuts cleanly and easily cleaned up with a small bit of metal sandpaper.
3. I flush mount the larger square tube to the ship or drill in slightly to mount it. 
I don't drill far in if I drill at all. To get the right embedding depth for the smaller
insert tubing, you want to have some depth inside the larger tubing. probably better to
actually put this in the bases' larger tubing.  (see illo below)
4. You do have a small bit of brass sticking out of the bottom of the ship. This is still
far less of a pox than an entire stand sticking out. Most storage cases will allow this to
sink into the foam. It might result in wear in tear on the foam <shrug>. 

I've had tooooo many plastic bases snap off at the ship (meaning I have to drill out the
plastic tip) or at the base (meaning I have to re-shaft the entire thing. Plus most hex
bases are too small for stability with the big ships. That's key in my group. Knockovers
would otherwise be common. They knock plastic hexbase escorts over with abandon, but
bigger ships with the described brass-tube mount and bigger white metal disk below are far
more stable and resist it. Which is good, since many are fancier designs that would break.

Diagram for prior comment:

--------------------

<here be ship>

    |     |
----|     |---------
    |     |
    |     |


Then on the post

     |   |
     |   |
     |   |
    ||   ||
    ||   ||
    ||   ||
    ||   ||
    |     |
    |     |
    |     |
    |     |
    |     |
    |     |
    |     |
    |     |
    |     |
   =|     |=
===============      (this is the white metal base) 

Roger Books gave good info. I'm just reinforcing Roger's points. This system works. It
takes a bit of work to build, but the results are good. 

YMMV of course, as Scott's did, though he used the round tube which I don't recommend.

Tom B
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