Standards

To facilitate playing games with whatever shows up, we all need to have compatible stands and planes. This page lists the standards for making them.

Scale

The standard model scale is "micro scale" (1/300 scale or 1/285 scale).

Size

The standard hex size is 2" (measured between flat hex sides), so the standard base size is also 2".
Larger hexes allow more stable stands, but don't fit on existing gaming tables in a 45x30 CY6 grid.
Smaller hexes make the stands unstable, and many planes' wings don't fit inside.

Altitude

Altitude is indicated by actual height above the playing surface, using a telescoping rod attached to the base.

CY6 Jet Age requires 12 TALs for a scenario, but since there are no 12-segment telescoping rods available, we use a 7-segment telescoping rod extending from 5" to 25" and use half-segments for each TAL. CorSec Engineering sells two types of telescoping rod with 7 segments (one with a spherical magnet and one with a flat magnet), but if you can find cheaper ones elsewhere, feel free to use those.

Speed

Speed is indicated on the stand using a number from 1-8 (8 is the maximum speed in CY6). You can use a d8 or d10 placed on the base, a dial indicator, or your own ingenious method.

Pilot Skill

Movement order is determined by pilot skill, so pilot skill level is indicated by color on the base. Skill levels progress through the colors in "stoplight order":
Skill
Color
Ace
Blue
Veteran
Red
Skilled
Yellow
Green
Green
You can make colored markers, use an appropriately colored speed die/dial, paint the entire base, put a colored plate on top of the base - whatever works.

Airplane Mounting

The recommended method for attaching a plane to a stand is to have a magnet set into the top of the telescoping rod and a bit of steel set in the bottom of each plane. A flat magnet at the top of the rod offers the most secure attachment to tiny planes.

If you want to be able to display your planes at different attitudes (climbing, diving, banking):
  • You can use a rod with a gimbol at the top. At the time of this writing there are no 7-segment rods available with a flat magnet in a gimbol, but Lawrence made some by buying cheap telescoping rods with mirrors, cutting off the mirrors, and cementing a tube magnet on each stalk.
  • CorSec sells rods with spherical magnets set in the top, but you will need to use these adapters from Raiden to get your planes to stick to them (flat screws will not work).
The best method for magnetizing planes is to buy packs of these steel adapters from Raiden. They stick nicely to any magnet, including spherical magnets (which they were designed for). To attach them to planes, drill a hole into the bottom of a plane with a #46 wire gauge bit and superglue the standoff in the hole. You should probably do this after the plane is painted.

If your planes are only ever going to stick to flat magnets, you can use a tiny screw. Buy a bag of 1/8" long 4-40 steel screws, a #45 wire gauge drill bit, and a 4-40 tap. Drill a hole in the plane, use the tap to thread it (carefully! The plane is soft metal and the hole will strip easily), and thread the screw into the hole.

You can also simply superglue a tiny super magnet onto the bottom of each plane, but make sure you get the polarity right. If you have the wrong side of the magnet facing the magnet on the stand, the plane will fly off instead of sticking. Also, be warned that flat magnets don't stick to spherical magnets where you want them to - the polarity of spherical magnets is very strange.

Quantity

To get started, you only need 4 stands, for your personal flight of 4 planes.

You can consider making 8-12 stands so you can also put out 1-2  auxiliary flights and/or a few vics of bombers in addition to your personal flight.

If you want to go all out, a set of 30-40 stands should be more than enough - 30+ planes is a big game by CY6 standards! However, this group exists precisely so that we can each participate with only a small and inexpensive amount of stuff, getting big games through collaboration. You are better off spending your money on a variety of planes you'd like to fly (or shoot at).

If you don't feel terribly inventive, you can follow the these Sample Stand instructions.
Subpages (1): Sample Stand