Wall mounting 1/18 planes - advice

nooker21 · Post by **nooker21** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:24 pm

I'm thinking about mounting two planes (109 and a spitfire) flat against a wall, and was wondering if people who have done that before have any pointers or explanations or pictures on how they've done it. What kind of nails/hooks/screws did you use? I want them to be pretty secure since I'm in CA and there's the occasional earthquake. I'm pretty sure I've seen pictures in the past, unless I'm totally hallucinating...

Thanks,

Michael

fredricchio · Post by **fredricchio** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:47 pm

Yeah I'd be curious to see what some people have done as well. My roommate got some very nice, two pronged, wall mounts for his guitars off ebay which I have been considering:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Guitar-Wall-Han ... 286.c0.m14

They're kindy pricey, but there're a few other models as well. I like these because the prongs are padded so I wouldn't have to worry about them damaging the planes. I was thinking i could use two per plane, one under the nose and one under the tail, and mount them at maybe a 30-45 degree angle (the base is mounted directly to the wall and then the prongs are threaded onto the base, so you can position them at an angle).

The other option I've been conisdering is hooks you would find at home depot for hanging tools, but so far I haven't found quite what I'm looking for. Mostly what I've seen look rather cheap, and/or don't look big enough to support a plane

Buckyroo · Post by **Buckyroo** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:31 am

I started to make a hanging system. I used heavy coat hanger wire and made a shape to support the wings and the tail. I have more wire and plans, but have done nothing more than to make my three. What most people don't like is that the support is visible at the wing, but this support must go that high to not be affected by the flaps and to support a variety of planes. I tried to gear the design to work with most planes.

Threetoughtrucks · Post by **Threetoughtrucks** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:32 am

Bucky:

Can you show us a pic of your hanging system without the plane?

TTT

mikeg · Post by **mikeg** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:10 am

If your forced to display them downstairs (like I am) pegboard works great to hang them flat, I've also hung plywood sheets over the concrete blocks in the basement- and used 3 inch phillips screws wrapped in rubber tape to hang the tail sections from. This works out and looks better than described here.

mikeg · Post by **mikeg** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:11 pm

mikeg · Post by **mikeg** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:14 pm

mikeg · Post by **mikeg** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:17 pm

Grilledcheese · Post by **Grilledcheese** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:39 pm

Here's what I did:

All of the walls in my house are sheetrock. Since I really don't mind putting holes in my own walls, I found some one inch long white painted rim-shanked nails at Wally World. Using those and either 8 or 17 lb. monofilament I can hang all of my planes. Even with the nails being as small as they are, when nailed at a downward angle into the sheetrock they are more than sufficient to support even the heaviest XD plane, and without even nailing into a stud. The rimmed shanks hold them in nice and snug.

Above picture was taken with flash, and shows the setup. The length of monofilament is tied together in a loop and folded into a figure-eight. Each loop of the figure-eight is then looped around a wing with the center of the figure-eight looped over the nail.

Below is without the flash, and shows how unnoticeable the rig is under normal lighting---in this case, a lamp in the corner of the room and an overhead ceiling fan/light fixture.

And here's an Avenger hung with the same setup:

I've never had any of them fall of even come loose, and the eye of Hurricane Gustav passed about thirteen miles to our west last year, which provided lots of vibration!

Jeffrey

Buckyroo · Post by **Buckyroo** » Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:14 pm

Please excuse the crudity of this model, I didn't have time to build it to scale or to paint it......

These hangers are to scale but they are not finished. I have the material to coat the hangers with that rubber stuff you can dip your plier handles in to give them a rubber coating, but electrical tape worked for speed and testing. Anyway, I like this concept for they are fairly universal, you can remove the plane at any time, with some fine tuning and a finish coat they will look pretty good, and one picture hanging size nail is all you need in your wall. The hangers hold them out from the wall far enough to clear drop tanks or bombs. The Corsair that I moved for the pictures has its tank on the underside. Take a look and see what you think. My pictures are about as crude as the hangers finish......

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:24 am

I've hung a number of my 32x planes in the same manner that Grilledcheese hung his 1:18 aircraft - with great success. I've experimented successfully with wall hanging my 1:18 planes in the same manner, though the "topography" of my display room walls doesn't give me much space for hanging 1:18 planes.

Dauntless · Post by **Dauntless** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:01 am

This is all well and fine, and I admire your collections, but why would you want to hang them like that when you can have them in flight from the ceiling? (well not too close to the ceiling fan

)

Just curious. I got a friend who's going to do the same thing, and he said it looks cool. To each their own I guess (did I just answer my own question? )

mikeg · Post by **mikeg** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:22 am

open your eyes, young grasshopper, see the truth, we already have them hanging from the ceilings, the walls are a last resort!!!

Buckyroo · Post by **Buckyroo** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:29 am

Dauntless wrote:This is all well and fine, and I admire your collections, but why would you want to hang them like that when you can have them in flight from the ceiling? (well not too close to the ceiling fan )

Just curious. I got a friend who's going to do the same thing, and he said it looks cool. To each their own I guess (did I just answer my own question? )

My office area is 8 x 14 with 9' ceilings, with 4 recessed lights and a center ceiling fan. I have much more wall space than usable ceiling space. Hanging them on the wall I can get many more out of the attic and do something cool with the hanging ones. I remember seeing someone's hanging Stuka trailing smoke, something like that would be cool. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Grilledcheese · Post by **Grilledcheese** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:58 am

but why would you want to hang them like that when you can have them in flight from the ceiling?

Simple answer:

I'm 6'3".

Not much that hangs from a standard 8' ceiling is my friend...

Jeffrey

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:40 pm

but why would you want to hang them like that when you can have them in flight from the ceiling?

It means that you have more display space and thus the ability to display even more planes. Also, you can see the upper surfaces better, which is a little harder to do when the planes are hanging

Dauntless · Post by **Dauntless** » Wed Aug 19, 2009 1:08 pm

Open my eyes I will, see the truth I must.

I dunno, suppose you're right, we all don't have cathedral ceilings.

The ones I've hung up have been very few, and even then they are somewhat in corners, in a banking menuever so as to see the sides.
I put them all back in their boxes and hung up my 1:32 baby planes.

Buckyroo · Post by **Buckyroo** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:42 pm

I was so ashamed by my coat hanger, taped together, ugly, wall brackets that I finally made the finished product. I used 13 gauge wire (roughly 3/32" thick), picked the final dimensions, shaped and bonded the pieces, and coated the entire assembly with Plasti Dip (the stuff for dipping plier handles, etc to give them a rubber coating). The dip worked better than I had anticipated. It stays intact even while shaping the bracket to fit the individual air plane that it will hold. I included a couple of photos so you can see the difference.

OLD AND UGLY

NEW AND IMPROVED

REPLACED THE OLD AND ADDED A COUPLE MORE

EVEN A SHOT OF THE P-40 CEILING FAN

KRIS

Grilledcheese · Post by **Grilledcheese** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:08 pm

Dude, good looking finished product. Nice job.

Next, please spill details on the ceiling fan. I MUST KNOW.

Jeffrey

Stug45 · Post by **Stug45** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:08 pm

Buckyroo where did you get that ceiling fan?? its awesome

Buckyroo · Post by **Buckyroo** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:21 pm

on this site they are listed under children's ceiling fans

http://www.outdoorlightingandmore.com/C ... 921.html#1

They are made by Kraftmade. I got mine at a local electrical supply house for around $175.00 So shop around. I have been very happy with the fan. The motor is quiet, no vibration, and I leave it running for days at a time.

Here is the manufacturers website.

http://www.craftmade.com/air/collections/64#

They are available at Historic Aviation, too.

Stug45 · Post by **Stug45** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:13 pm

Thanks Buckyroo

Grilledcheese · Post by **Grilledcheese** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 5:53 am

Yep, thanks pal!

Jeffrey

nooker21 · Post by **nooker21** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:48 pm

Thanks for the pics, Buckyroo - when you said you "bonded" them after shaping, what did you mean by that?

Buckyroo · Post by **Buckyroo** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:38 pm

nooker21 wrote:Thanks for the pics, Buckyroo - when you said you "bonded" them after shaping, what did you mean by that?

I make each hanger out of three individual pieces of wire. It consumes 46 inches of wire in each hanger, but I combine them in such a way that each individual piece reinforces the other two. The overall combination makes a suprisingly strong hanger. I shape each piece, and then secure them together (bond). I use a thin, but strong industrial adhesive (tape) for this. I just went with "bonded" because it makes the process sound so much more technical.

I am almost done "bonding" 10 hangers and then I will coat them with the rubber/plastic coating. I have been tossing around the idea of seeing if someone would be interested in evaluating one, with the intent of getting feedback and maybe help spread the word in case others would be interested in buying some. I know there is the whole "anti hang them on the wall crowd", but I think that there may be enough interest to present this idea to those who may be interested.

Would there be anyone seriously interested in getting one to help me out, and/or to see if they have an interest in buying some? I don't want to put a price on them yet, until I get some feedback . Who knows, I may have to change something on them, or maybe no one would really want one. Send me a PM if you have an interest in this.