A Sturdier Skimmer Stand

Those of us who have owned Warhammer 40k Vehicles that require a skimmer stand, have all experienced the horror of a broken stand. The slender acrylic rods that come with every skimmer, jetbike, drone, etc. are  notorious for snapping off at the neck and leaving plastic embedded in the model.


There are many solutions. You can buy alternatives, and since laser cutting acrylics is becoming more common and cheaper to do, that isn't a bad way to go. You can play without flight stands (well that is no fun, and not in the spirit of the game either). Or you can make your own sturdier flight stand.

There is no end to the solutions people have come up with. The simplest I've seen was "drill out the hole so it fits on the thicker part of the acrylic rod" and I've seen some fantastically complicated ones too. Mine is in between, and involves no drilling, no magnets and takes less than a minute to do.

Materials

The materials needed can be bought at any hardware store. $5.00 USD will get you enough to 

• Skimmer and base (I am using a Tau Devilfish and a caste 40 mm base)
• Flathead screw and matching nut (length and thickness are up to you)
• 2 flat washers (the head of the screw should not fit through the eye of the washer)

Step 1: Washers

Superglue the washers to the center of the base and your skimmer.

Step 2: Nut and Screw

Superglue the screw's head to the washer on the base and the nut to the washer on the skimmer.

Step 3: That's it!

Just screw the base onto your skimmer when you want to play, and unscrew it for transport.

There are many variations of doing this, in fact I intend to try different methods as I base my other skimmers. However, the basic process is still the same.

You could have a rod that screws into 2 nuts to reduce the base profile. You could drill a hole through the base and feed the screw through (very sturdy, just requires drilling). You could even buy magnets that are approximately the same size as the washers you are using and then you don't even have to screw them together. 

I hope this gets some people thinking and provides a starting point for your own basing endeavors.