Mounting a Secret Weapon flying base on a Forgeworld Tigershark

Part of my current Tau project is an AX-10 Tigershark model.  Having built a warhound last year I knew this was going to be a long project and while I haven't even finished my Tau I wanted to get a jump start so I can get do this model in stages.

After cleaning up the model I decided on how to mount it.  Since I don't play much 40k I wanted to use the landing gear and make it more of display model.  I do want to play with it occasionally, that being said, I decided on a Secret Weapon Miniatures base from the Tau Ceti line with their "5" flight widget". .  While the rest of my army will be on standard bases I thought it could be interesting to use it for this Apocalypse only model.

This required some work to mount.  The base comes drilled for the flying stand by Secret Weapon Miniatures.  That is one half of the equation, as you have to drill out the bottom of the model.  The flying widget comes with a mount though this is a very heavy model and I had doubts it would support a large resin model.  I am sure it would have worked fine for a plastic GW kit though.

Additional, I  didn't want a static mount, I wanted it to be climbing and banking.  I am very lucky in that while I work in an office in my day job, it is in manufacturing and the the machine shop supervisor will frequently indulge me with help on hobby projects.  He previously had helped with with machining out some Chimeras for an IG project.

The first step was to decide how much bank and climb (degrees to drill at).  The advantage of doing it with this machine was it could be done at 5 degrees back and 5 degrees to the side.

 Fixtures were put in place to make sure the Tigershark body stayed in place.

 A large bit was used that was just smaller than the ultimate size we were looking for.

 Starting to drill.

After drilling the first bit, it was exchanged for one the correct size.  This ensured that the hole was exactly fitted to the correct size to hold the flying stem snugly. 

 The finished model on the base, from the front.

 From the back.

The hole.  You can see some of the markings I made so the mounting wouldn't interfere with the finished model.

I could have gone a bit more aggressive I think we the degree of angle for drilling though with such a large model I didn't want to risk having a tipping problem. 

Now I need to actually finish the thing.