Thunderhawk Basing Help Requested

[Valkyrion]

I'm now the proud owner of a 1st edition forgeworld thunderhawk, courtesy of ebay (and adobe premium for the ability to edit my bank statement pdf lest her indoors visits great vengeance and furious anger upon me).

It arrived in perfect condition, but sans base. And I don't know what to do next.

 

It's a big heavy thing with a small hole about the middle. But it's got almost a 20" footprint, north to south as well as east to west,  so I'd like it to stand on a roughly 6" base about 12" up in the air so it can be played with and around. 

 

My modelling, maths and physics skills aren't up to this challenge, in all honesty, but I'd like to play with it at least once before divorce proceedings. 

 

Any ideas? I don't even mind if it's a front and back smaller base set up using terrain to kinda sit it on top of. 

It is never, ever going to be used in any sort of serious gaming environment where base size matters, so all ideas are welcome. Hang the rules. 

 

 

[Lucien Eilam]

You won’t need multiple bases, and it doesn’t need to be massive.

 

You want a material that won’t bend, and I like to counterweight heavy flyers with some decent weight to it so it’s harder to accidentally tip over. I’ve seen everything from heavy steel discs to wood “landscaped” with lead shot and Milliput.

 

Heavy duty (20+ mm) clear acrylic rods work well for the stem.

 

Couple of nice examples in this guy’s White Scars army: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVtUPhAtU-h/

[Valkyrion]

Thanks. I've ordered three different sizes of acrylic rod and two steel rounds. 

 

Araldite the acrylic to the steel or is there a better way? 

[Lucien Eilam]

If you don’t have the means to drill the steel, and probably even if you do, I’d strongly recommend building up around the point of contact.

 

e.g. a short stack of big washers around the base of the rod to increase the surface area, epoxy that to the steel base, then texture over the whole thing with Milliput.