"Flying stands and magnets - which glue?" Topic

I have some clear plastic flying stands of different heights that I am looking to use with my WW1 aircraft. I am hoping to use magnets so that I may switch the miniatures to different stands as they change altitude during gaming.

I have had great success gluing each clear stand to a peg using acrylic cement (Revell Contacta dries clear); and in gluing magnets to the aircraft miniatures using superglue.

What I am struggling with is gluing magnets to the top of the plastic peg on the stand.

I am seeking the advice of the gurus on this forum in the hope that one of you may have solved this conundrum. While I had some luck with superglue, in drying it really frosted the pegs and fogged parts of the base too = kind of defeats the exercise…

Please (please, please) help! If you know of a glue or other adhesive solution that works please share this information!

Thanks in advance – Ando Whitehead

2 part araldite (epoxy) type

I just use super glue.

Thanks Jim. Appreciated. I will give that a go.

I recommend you have only one magnet in the loop. Since you've already committed to putting magnets on the planes, get a sufficiently small self-tapping steel screw and drill it into the top of the plastic peg on the stand. There are a few reasons:

1. No polarity problems. A magnet will stick to any steel equally well, but magnets on both sides must have the poles aligned correctly. It's almost guaranteed you'll glue down at least one magnet the wrong way in any project, and you probably won't find out until a plane does a little loop and simulates a crash a little too realistically.
   
2. It's easier. Drill a pilot hole, torque in the screw, done. Speaking from (too much) experience: getting a magnet to set at the right angle in superglue or epoxy is pretty hard, and can go wrong in a lot of ways.
   
3. It's more permanent. NdFeB supermagnets pull against the glue bond every time you attach/detach them, which will eventually break a superglue or epoxy bond. A screw held in with machined threading is much stronger, especially if you also set it with some superglue.
   
4. Easier storage.Magnetic stands tend to form big clusters inside the box. Magnetic planes are already spread apart and isolated from each other inside the storage.

I committed to going the other direction (screws in planes, magnets on stands) because my planes and stands demanded it, but the principle is the same. When our group started playing CY6 collaboratively, we had magnets on both planes and stands, and it caused endless problems collaborating to put together a game. Committing to magnets on stands only helped immensely.

- Ix

As far as the original question about glues:

I use superglue a lot, but when I can find a way, I prefer UV curing resin glue (like Bondic) for attaching magnets. You can get it around all sides of a magnet so the magnet is completely buried in resin, it cures completely clear, and it retains a little bit of flexibility when cured (which is important for a glue bond taking constant shifting strains).

Screws in the planes is a brilliant idea! Thanks.

Thanks Yellow Admiral. I am testing screws on the pegs now. Would you also please recommend a modelling drill for this?