Sunday, May 28, 2023

Rebasing Wings of Glory Airplanes to extendable magnetic poles


 Hi Fellas,

something slightly different this time: Since a year of so, I am collecting and playing Wings of Glory from Ares Games. So far, I have only played WWI but I think it is a fantastic game in particular with many people (everyone controlling one plane)!

I saw a video about this game at the Youtube Channel of Little Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mjTCb2CArk&t=1297s
and I was amazed how cool and immersive the game looked in that video! So I had to do the same!

Here is what I did to rebase the Wings of Glory Airplanes onto extendable magnetic poles. It turns out quite simple!

Materials:
- telescopic magnetic pickup tools, e.g., https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0BNT3BXY7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&language=en_GB

- Neodym ring magnets Ø diameter 6mm, thickness: 2mm,  hole diameter: 2 mm  

(There are also magnets with spherical holes, i.e., ball-shaped but they are much more expensive).

- 5mm steel balls (e.g., paint pot mixing balls from AK Interactive)

- OPTIONAL: heavy washers with at least 6mm diameter holes and max 4cm diameter for the small bases. 


Tools:
- electric drill/dremel
- cutter
- small drill bit (e.g. 2 or 3mm)
- round/ball sanding bit
- sanding paper 
- super glue

Step-by-Step:

- Plane:




Not shown above: sanding the steel ball to have a rougher surface texture helps with the gluing and the stability of the positioning later on the base!

- Base (shown for a different plane, apologies!):





Now one just needs to stick the Ring magnet on top and optionally a washer at the bottom for more stability and its done!


One more thing: you can get even more stability for the plane positioning if you sand the inner edges of the ring magnet like this:

This is a bit difficult because the magnet is very hard and becomes very hot very quickly from the friction. Thus a word of warning: Neodym magnets loose their power if the become too hot (ca 80° C), so do not overdo it!

Happy flying!

P.S.: A nice side-effect is the easy storage of the planes on a steel tray: