Cheap fighter bases, a how to.

[Frankvas]

I didn't want to have to buy a million fighter blisters to field all the fighters needed so I came up with my own bases. I put 3 fighters per stand, more could be added if needed.

Materials needed:
aprox 1" round/hex/square x 1/8" cutouts (wood, acrylic, up to you)
1/8" dowel rod
1/32" metal rod
1/32" drill bit
Pin vice to hold drill bit.
Knife, cutting tool of some kind.

Drill hole into bases (same size as dowel rod).

Cut dowel rod to desired length (I cut mine different sizes, it gives the fighter bases a better look.)

Drill 3 holes into dowel at angels so you can stick your bent wire pieces.

Cut the wire to desired length.

Glue everything together. Finished base should look like this.

Once the fighters are put on them, they will look like this.

Prime, paint. You are done. Nice flying bases for you ships. Total cost about $5 for 25 bases.

Here are some pics for comparison with capital ships.

Enjoy

Frank V.

 

[[Omicron]Urobach]

looks fantastic....really

 

[Sean-Khan]

Yes, they really do look very good! I tried to do ww2 fighters once but didn't think of central pole, which seems to put it kind of together.

Thanks for sharing this, Frankvas!

 

[angelus2000]

VEEERRRY NICE!!. Out of curiousity, how long did it take you to do all of those up? Looks awesome but.... aint it a wee bit time-consuming? I'd like to do this myself but I've got something very close to 1200 individual fighters, all 6 per hex base.

 

[Sean-Khan]

I think 3 fighters per base looks good. If I had thought of such, I might not have made new counters for fighters - there's 50% reduction to the cost of fighters

Ps. I believe that the number after the name of fighters means amount of wings you get with one patrol point, right? Didn't find it anywhere...

 

[Lord David the Denied]

The fighter's entry in the fleet book clearly states number of flights per wing. The fleet list at the front of each race's section shows fighter wings as patrol (or sometimes higher) choices.

 

[Banichi]

Very cool. I like the fact that you can get the fighter minies on various levels on your stands. The darkner looks cool as well.

 

[Blu_Majik]

great stuff
8)

 

[greenboy]

I like the stands where did you get the cut outs from

 

[Lord David the Denied]

My own plan for cheap fighter bases is to use slotless GW slottabases (the sort you get with most new 40K kits) with holes drilled into them. Place a wire into each hole and fix with putty or the like, then mount fighters onto the wires. So you'd have a round base with fighters flying above it. I plan to use four fighters on each base but you could use as many or as few as you like.

 

[mbtanker]

I do something similar that I think looks a bit better and is probably easier. I use 1 1/4" wood circle bases and drill about a 1/8" hole (basically just eyeball your bundle of wire) in the center. I then run various lengths (about 2") of 1/32" brass wire out from it and bend them out. So from the side it looks like a V (think of flowers sitting in a vase). I then attach the fighters directly to the wires. The advantage over your idea (in my opinion) is that it is not only less fiddly (no center peg and fiddly little wires) but I think it looks better because once the wires are painted black it almost looks like the fighters are floating in the air.

I've also done it in reverse where I clean the fighters up then mount them to a length of wire that acts as a holder for painting. When done painting just trim the wire and insert it into the base and bend it out. The different wire lengths and the way you bend them allow you to set various formations and heights.

I've used thicker wire when I've run out of 1/32" stuff but I don't think it looks quite as good. Oh, and I generally use three fighters per base as well except for the really small ones (like Shadow fighters).

 

[Frankvas]

I got the round 1" circles at Michaels (craft store), bag of 25 for about $3US. (By the way, that was the most expensive part of the base). As for how long it took me. The actual bases only take a couple of minutes each, cutting the fighters and drilling a little hole in took a little longer but not that much. Overall, I think putting 10 fighter stands together probably took me like 1.5 hours.

I've also tried putting fighters on wire from the base/edge and I actually like this ones better, on a black mat/tablecloth, you can't see the stand either.

Frank V.