Now that I have my Zeppelin, I needed a way to increase the altitude of my fighters. I know I could go out and buy some of those nifty telescopic rods, but I wanted something that utilized the materials I had on hand and that didn't require me to 3D print anything (I know, a departure from my usual methods!).
I also wanted to be able to still use the standard bases and also I wanted a solution that didn't require any alterations to a standard aircraft (ie no drilling, no magnets etc).
Scuffling around in my hobby stash turned up plastic tubing of two suitable diameters (6.43mm and 4.86mm) with the smaller tube being a nice push fit inside the larger tube. Now we are cooking with gas!!
With a bit of experimenting, I discovered that the standard pegs would be a nice tight fit into the medium size tubing and a standard peg would be able to be glued to the top of the smaller tubing and, as they were a firm fit, I would be able to adjust the altitude of the aircraft to suit.
Hopefully the photos will be clearer than my words!!
Here are the three sizes of tubing I looked at but I only used the lower two sizes. Make sure any cuts are at right angles, otherwise things will be a bit wonky, especially the pegs glued to the top of the smaller diameter tube - ask me how I know!
I made each piece 95mm in length - nothing magic about that but I wanted to make 4 sets with the materials I had at hand. Of course just after I finished I discovered more of the same tubing in another box of stuff!!
The standard altitude pegs can be pushed inside the larger tubing (they are so tight, they don't need any glue) and another standard peg can be super-glued to the top of the smaller tube - notice that I got this one a bit off-square and it needed redoing!
I did experiment with one by sliding a piece of the larger tubing up to cover the join but decided that it really wasn't worth the extra effort. The altitude pegs aren't a constant diameter and so I had to ream the 'collar' out by hand for half its length with a 4.5mm twist drill to accommodate the altitude peg.
And here are a couple of action shots showing the completed project. I was thinking of painting the tubing a light blue but am a bit worried that the smaller tubing may not slide inside the larger tubing - I guess a trial with one will prove or disprove that theory.
Now I need to add another compartment to my Zeppelin storage box to accommodate these extended altitude pegs - it never ends does it
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