"Countersunk magnets on 1/300 planes for flight stands?" Topic

Hi,

I have been chewing over a few options for my 1/300 aviation.

I've been getting magnets from K&J magnetics and have used 4mm steel ball bearings on stands successfully with 3mm N54 disc magnets on my 1/600 stuff for "yank and bank" effects..

For the 1/300, I'd like to try to reuse the 4mm ball bearing stands but am thinking that the countersunk magnets would likely fit the 4mm snugly and have a bit more metal to magnet contact than a ring magnet on a plane.

Anyone tried using countersunk magnets on 1/300 stuff? (I have BoB 1940 stuff.. fighters plus Do-17,Ju-88 He-111)

I used to use flat nail heads on 1/144 planes. Drill a hole, clip the stem of the nail.
It eliminates the need to line up polarity on magnets.

Winston that is a great idea. I have over a thousand planes that I had holes in them for mounting on some wire. I made an adapter to use with my Check Your 6! stands and I was trying to think of a way to get rid of the adapter. Your idea hits the "nail on the head" so to speak.

Thanks,

Phil

You're welcome.
I had some telescoping antenna like pickup tools with magnets at the tip. It was frustrating trying to match polarity with the magnet on the stand and the one on the plane.
So I got some nails, not brads, and clipped enough of the stem to shove into a drilled hole to give the glue something besides a flush contact.
It's a nice flat surface to put on the magnetic stand.

Nothing more annoying than trying to match a plane with a stand.
I had cheap stands and the polarity was not consistent.

I also use this on resin Battlefront tanks. Do you like having your turrets pop off if you don't match them properly with the body? I don't.

Why not just glue a small piece of sheet metal on the bottom of the aircraft. That way the magnet from the base will stick to the aircraft. That's what I did with mine. I even painted over the sheet metal to hide it.

I eventually settled on these posts from I-94 Enterprises, because the cupped bottoms work best with my telescoping rods with spherical magnets from Corsec, and will also still work on my previously acquired telescoping rods topped with flat magnets when I'm willing to give up attitude adjustments (e.g. level bombers). They might also work on your 4mm ball bearings, if the ball bearings are attached to a really strong magnet on the stick…. maybe.

The principle is the same as Winston's and Terry's: steel on the plane, magnet on the stick (and/or storage box), no polarization issues.

FWIW, I have a preference for Winston's method over Terry's because I find the steel holds onto the plane a lot better if there's a post drilled into the fuselage. Every time a plane goes on/off a magnet, the bond with the steel is stressed; a flat piece of steel (or a magnet) held onto the plane with CA glue eventually comes off (CA glue gets brittle with time), but the peg inside a hole in the plane fuselage adds quite a bit of extra strength (especially if the hole is a really tight fit for the peg). Epoxy might also avoid the brittleness problem, but I hate working with epoxy in tiny spaces. Winston's cheap homemade nail-pegs accomplish the same thing as the expensive adapters I buy, if all you need is a flat magnetic mounting surface.

- Ix

Another thing to consider: ring and tube magnets will also stick to a ball bearing and to steel on a plane, and might be the simplest solution for you. I don't know if you can find any small enough to work on a 4mm ball bearing; 4mm is pretty small.

Almost-example in this old TMP thread.

- Ix

That's why I sell them in matching sets.

;-)