"1/100 Aircraft: Store/Display/Transport" Topic

I ended up getting quite a few "modern" planes (post-WW2), either because they were easy to build and I needed the practice, or because they were really inexpensive (and let's face it, I needed the practice).

Here's the thing: Compared to figures (and even land vehicles), aircraft are pretty huge. I think the BT-5 Soviet Light Tanks I've got are supposed to be 18 feet long, while the F-4 Phantom I bought is supposed to be around 58 feet long. These planes are three or four times the size of the tanks (well, 1925 light tanks, anyway, but that F-4 is still more than twice as long as an M1 Abrams hull and one-and-a-half times the gun forward total length).

My questions:

1) Where and how are you storing (or displaying) your planes and (especially) helicopters?

2) How are you transporting them for show/play?

3) How do you mount them for show/play/display, when not in the case/cupboard/drawer?

As usual, thanks for the hints, tips, tricks, ideas and opinions. Cheers.

I agree that aircraft are a pain to store and transport. I've got around 60x 1/100th aircraft and 6 1/48th aircraft and I'm constantly on the lookout for suitable, sturdy cardboard boxes of approximately the same dimensions (or larger) than the aircraft I want to store. File boxes do the trick for larger aircraft or multiple aircraft. Nothing complicated – I just wrap them in tissue paper and pack the gaps around the sides with 'scrunched' tissue paper for shock-absorbency. With helicopters I try to leave the rotors separate and/or replace with clear plastic discs.

Once they're packed in boxes, transport isn't a problem.

I don't display them when they're not in a game. For game purposes, I have some heavy resin stands with detachable 12-inch clear plastic poles. At the top of the pole is a brass wire spike and I then drill a hole into the aircraft models to take the spike. Sadly the manufacturer of these stands is no longer in business and I had his last stock. That said, there are similar items for sale and a friend of mine casts his own flying bases from melted-down spare figures, which seems to work well and gives you a nice, heavy base to keep the model stable.

My aircraft bases can be seen here: TMP link

I saw some very nice home-made flying stands recently, made from four pieces of welding-rod and a D4 (yes, really – a four-sided die). Three rods are used to make a tripod and are held together using the D4, which has a hole drilled into each point to take the rods. The fourth rod is then inserted into the topmost point and that then is inserted into the model. This provides a very effective, strong and stable flying stand, which doesn't require a large, obtrusive base. These stands are also completely dismantleable!

These can be seen here: link

Both the bomber stands and those D4 helo-stands are quite impressive.

The clear rotor-discs look serviceable, and believable enough.

Thanks for the storage idea. Cheers.