Seeking Advice for a flight base.

[steve_holmes_11]

Hey folks, looking for advice here.

What I want is a 60mm(ish) square base that can be adjusted to different heights.
Extra credit if the elevated base and its leg(s) are transparent.

I've looked at the various offerings, and a few things aren't apparent.

 * The Litko bases aren't quite the size I'm looking for.
 * No obvious way to fix flight pegs to a third party transparent base.


I understand it's a bit of an odd project.
Can anybody provide some experience / advice?

Thanks

[fred.]

Would Lego work?

You can get clear bricks, and can stack the round ones to make the flight stand. Depends on how high you want the flight stand to be, as I'm not sure it would be stable if over 15cm or so.

[pierre the shy]

I think Fred's lego idea with the clear round bricks to adjust the height would work well.

I've got some here and experimented with them in the past, the only hassle is adding/subtracting them whenever your aircraft change height. Just glue one to whatever size base you want and then add more to get to the required height. 

The rules I am using are homebrewed but only have basic height differences (low/medium/high/ceiling) so I have gone with Litko bases with different length rods. I only expect to have at most 10 - 12 aircraft per game and bomber flights do not generally change height during a scenario anyway. 

I just use a flight peg with a small bit of bluetack to hold the model in place at the top of the rod. Have seen small 3mm rare earth magnets used which also gives a pretty solid connection. 

In between painting ships I have finally got on to painting some 1/300th planes that I have had since 2006....the trial ones I have done actually turned out pretty well, at least to my average "wargaming" painting standard, even if they are in either single overall colour or basic green/grey paint schemes. 

[Last Hussar]

Height. The curse of all aerial wargames.

[Ithoriel]

Many moons ago we used to play WW1 air games with 1/144 scale lead models.

To solve the problem of height each aircraft had a d20 on it's base showing it's current height. I can't remember which colour corresponded with which height, but we had three height bands (low, medium, high) each designated by the colour of the die (red, white and black) giving a total of 60 possible heights.

So much easier than clipping things to extendable car aerials, which was the vogue at the time, and less likely to be tipped over causing actual damage to the planes which were almost as fragile as the real thing!

[Last Hussar]

For my Battle of Britain rules I use d6 for same reason, and it is always a lot of faffing about changing heights.

[steve_holmes_11]

I've tried the 2d with an altitude marker.
I'd estimate 80% of the population could not visualise it.
This leads to players manoeuvring to evade and line up shots against aircraft of a completely different height.
That rather undermines the concepts of the game.

Thanks for the suggestions, but Lego won't work for me.

Had anybody found a workable combo of clear (perspex/acetate) bases with swappable transparent height sticks?

[hammurabi70]

Option 1: Long wooden rod stuck into metal plate with aircraft fixed to the rod via a small peg with aircraft attached to the peg via a small magnet; slide peg up and down the rod as height changes.  You might be able to rejink this with a clear plastic material.

Option 2: have a different height rod (in clear plastic) for each level and attach aircraft via small magnets; at the club this individual has three levels - low, standard, high.

Personally I use a single height perspex rod and base with a die for height indication but evidently this is not suitable for you.  I would like to convert to clear lego bricks but my most recent effort has been to eliminate any rod and leave on the table with the height die.

An another option might be to use upended glasses: sherry glasses for low level, wine for medium and high with champagne.  You may have other height glasses! 
[ I'll deal with the champagne!  ]

[jimduncanuk]

Many moons ago we used to play WW1 air games with 1/144 scale lead models.

To solve the problem of height each aircraft had a d20 on it's base showing it's current height. I can't remember which colour corresponded with which height, but we had three height bands (low, medium, high) each designated by the colour of the die (red, white and black) giving a total of 60 possible heights.

So much easier than clipping things to extendable car aerials, which was the vogue at the time, and less likely to be tipped over causing actual damage to the planes which were almost as fragile as the real thing!

Hi Mike

Thanks for the historical mention. These are my Western Front WW1 Air Combat rules, one of my best ever rules. They are still in action these days at our old club. The D20's were Red, White and Blue, red for 1-20 and dangerous close to the ground, white for 21-40 where the clouds mostly are and blue for 41-60 'above the clouds'. I also allowed 61-66 for a single D6 for the very few aircraft who flew that high.

Jim

[Big Insect]

It's a while since I played it, but what about Wings of War bases. I seem to remember that there might have been an expansion pack that allowed you to illustrate differing altitudes.
If you can buy such a thing separately.
Although I doubt it will be cheap.
Cheers
Mark