Over the years I’ve tried out several different types of stands and bases for my miniatures, but I think I’ve finally settled on the using the Omni-Stand system from Corsec Engineering.  What I like about it is that it is very versatile, especially when combined with a few accessories from a fine tool store like Lee Valley.

There are three main parts to the Omni-Stand system, the base, the supporting rod, and the mount, all of which are interchangable, which means you can use the same miniature for multiple games and just swap out the base, going from a round base with 30 degree firing arcs for something like Full Thrust, to square bases customized for use with the X-Wing Miniatures Game.

It might initially look like the bases and rods are more expensive than others brands, but you also need to consider that the same base and rod can be used with multiple miniatures because they aren’t permanently attached to the miniature.  The only part that is usually permanently attached is the actual mount, and there are several options for these. There are some standard mounts available from Corsec, but this article is going to focus on some non-standard ways of mounting minis.

I’m going to demonstrate a couple of ways of mounting some non-standard miniatures, actually toys.  Some additional examples can be found in my previous post Battlestar Galactica Starfighter Shipyards Miniatures – Part 2.

I had previous used some Litko X-Wing stands and posts to mount my Titanium Vipers and Cylons and my Corgie Thunder Fighters from Buck Rogers.  The tops of the posts fit into the existing holes in the Titanium toys, with a little bit of filing. The Corgie toy required an adapter ring to be glued to the bottom of the toy.  To convert these to use the Corsec Omni-Stand system, I invested in some counter-bored washers  and some adhesive backed rare-earth magnets from Lee Valley.

I glued the washer over the existing hole in the bottom of the viper.  The Corsec stand is the round one in the photo below, with the rod attached and a magnetic mount top sitting in front.  Next to it is one of the Litko X-Wing stands.  You can see that the washers I used will actually fit over the posts on the Litko stands.  This means that even after the washer is attached to the miniature, I can still use the Litko stand if I want.

The first Viper on the Corsec stand, held on with the magnetic stand topper attached to the washer.  The second Viper is on the Litko X-Wing stand even though it has a washer glued to it.

A bottom view of the two Vipers on the stands

Next up was the Buck Rogers Thunder Fighter toy from Corgie.  This toy didn’t have an existing hole that I could make use of, so rather than gluing a washer to it, I attached one of the adhesive earth magnets to it. After this photo was taken, I did change the top on the Corsec stand to standard mount without a magnet so that the miniature could be aligned properly on the base, less important on this base, but makes a difference if I was to use a square or hexagonal base.

I did discover that the official X-Wings stands are just a tiny bit thicker than the Litko stands and the washers won’t fit over them. However, with some careful gluing, you may be able to take advantage of that and rig up the official X-Wing miniatures to work on the Corsec stands and still work on the official stands.  I didn’t actually glue the washer to the mini in the photo’s below, but I think it might work.  All the other suggestions I’ve seen for converting X-Wing minis to Corsec stands involve removing the peg on the mini.

Some Cylon Base Stars, used slightly bigger washers on these ones

They pop off the stands quickly and the same stands can then be used for some Star Trek Micro Machines that have had washers attached. Note a couple different variations on the bases used in these shots. The rods are easily swapped between the different types of bases.

Now we have a stand off between the Enterprise and a couple of Klingon D-7s