"Slotted tube for flight stands?" Topic

One of the many airplane combat games has a slotted tube that allows the user to add tube sections to increase altitude levels in a simple and visual manner. Check your six, I believe:

I'm trying to build a Zeppelin combat game using a bag of castoff tin zeppelin toys that I found in bulk out in the country. They look like this:

My intention is to remove the wheels and wind up mechanism and build a socket to affix the end of the flight stand tube to. Thereafter, if the player wishes to change altitude, they merely add more tubes.

I have found brass and aluminum tubing in hobby shops, and can saw them into discrete lengths. However, I am not sure how to make them slot into each other and join two or more together to make a long pole. Any ideas?

Failing that, is there a more sturdy version of a flight stand similar to the Check your six flight stand that I could purchase?

V/R

Walt O'Hara

Walt, you should seek out Brian Cantwell… he has stands like that, and can tell you how he made them.

Basically, you use plugs cut from brass rod, affixed in one end of the tubing segment, to make discreet lengths that you can then join together. I don't remember if he soldered them, glued them, or just press-fit the rod into the tubing. The key is using rod that just fits into the tubing.

We were using these stands for a Check Your 6 game in the other back corner of the room where your big boats game was, they worked a treat.

Or you could buy Corsec Engineering's "Omni Stands"…

Thank's Sergeant P. You're on to something here!

My flight stands are made out of plastic tubing (from Evergreen Plastics). It might work easier for you than the brass tubing since it is easy to cut with a tube cutter, and you can use model cement to join the smaller tubes to the larger to create the pins that slot together. All depends on how heavy your zepplins are. The heavier the model the bigger diameter the tubes need to be.

Also I would recommend making some longer length pieces for higher altitudes since each peg joint will decrease the overall stiffness/strength of the whole stand. We made 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's length pieces.

Litko makes great alt. markers for stands and great clear stands
Clif

Walt,

Mine are made simply from brass tubing cut into sections of 1, 2, or 3 "height units" with a solid pin in each to connect them. 1, 2, and 3 allow you to do any combination, although as the poster above said, if you are going higher, it helps to have a few really long ones to reduce sway.

If you want a detailed description of how I put mine together, drop me a line (cantwell dot brian at gmail). You can also see the stands in action on my blog link

I did toy with using clear Biro pens with innards removed. Some success. At least they were easy to cut and quite easy to get hold of.

I have some radio antennae – the telescoping kind with 6 segments – if you're interested.

There is a world of telescoping pick up tools out there, no need to build your own. Most have a clip at one end, like a pen. You can usually unscrew this leaving a threaded hole to screw onto a base. The other end has a magnet on a rotatable head which makes attachment to various items easy. These come in telescoping segments of anywhere from 3 to 6 segments allowing various heights. There is usually a limitation in weight for what the magnet will handle. Here are but a few:
auction

I like the idea of telescoping for hights (as I hate altitude dials), but …. 6 hights is not nearly enough apparently for the rules on the market.
I looked at BCantwell's blog and liked his stands tremendously (no altitude markers). How many hights can you go with your system ? And how many hights are there for the Jet Age ?

Depends on rules. For example the Aerodrome series (3 sets, one each for WW I, WW II and Korean War) has 4 altitude levels (with the Korean War rules having a 5th for some aircraft).
aerodrome-ww1aircombat.com