The recently restored Franklin Mint Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) possessed extremely fragile landing legs – even before they were restored – more so after restoration.  The completed module weighed 775 grams.

It required a discrete stand that just stood the LEM fractionally off the ground thus the weight would be taken by the stand not the legs.  The solution utilised a length of clear acrylic tube 300mm in diameter and with a wall thickness of 50mm.

The acrylic stand with the turned taper and the resulting lip

The stand inserted in the blast tube

The outside diameter of the landing module’s rocket exhaust was 300mm and the external / internal taper was 12 degrees.  Thus by carefully turning a matching taper on the tube it was possible to insert the tube up the blast nozzle and take the weight of the LEM on the resulting edge.

The completed LEM standing clear

The length of the tube was trimmed such that the feet were imperceptibly off the ground.

In this next example the Nautilus Shell required a discrete way of elevating it such that the detail of the markings and the shape of the shell could be appreciated rather than the stand!

This stand made use of a clear acrylic tube with a brass cradle (lined with ‘Sugru’ to prevent scratching the shell) to discretly support the shell.

This gave the impression it was ‘floating’. This meant one focused on the shell, not the stand.