I’ve been pondering leaving the gear up on the Hornet kit I’m building and making a stand out of 2 clear acrylic rods bent into a semicircular shape running from the tailpipes to a handmade wooden base.
What I was wondering is if any of yall have ever done anything like that and if so, where can I find acrylic rod that will do the job (3/8" looks about right). Also, if I can only find it in straight lengths (already found it online as such), how do you go about bending it to a perfect shape? I would need two exact bends so they would fit in the two tailpipes and fit evenly in the base I was planning.
I’ve used clear acrylic rod to display a couple of planes in mid air. At the time I had a guy who was making clear cases for me and he provided the rod; I used 1/4". Unfortunately he has disappeared and there goes my source. I would suggest getting out the yellow pages and calling some plastic/acrylic suppliers. As to bending the rod, I used the wife’s hair dryer and gently bent it into the shape I wanted. One thing to remember is to take into consideration the weight of the plane. For example, I wanted the F-16 I was mounting to have a slight nose up angle. I bent the rod into what I thought would work (I had already drilled the 1/4" hole in the walnut base), but when I attached the plane to the rod and the rod to the base, I had a nose down angle due to the weight of the plane. I had to start over, but on the second try I succeeded.
As to getting two pieces bent with the same curve, I would tape them together and use the hair dryer on both pieces at the same time.
Someone else mentioned somwhere that you can get acrylic rod at a Michael’s craft store.
Do an advanced search in the forum for “display stand” and “plastic rod” and you may find more info. I only looked at one topic.
PS - If you search for “acrylic rod” you’ll get about five pages of topics. I didn’t wade through them, as many titles didn’t seem to pertain, but maybe they do.
ive had a plan for the base, but wasnt sure how to bend the acrylic. i’ll post pics when i get it all done. still have a ways to go on the model first - just wanted to make sure it was doable how I wanted before I went and glued the gear doors shut and whatnot