Yeah, I designed and built these. I broke so many parts off building ships, I needed to figure out a way to hold them in a stable position while working on them (besides laying it in my lap) and reduce the hands on handling of it as well.
I have 3 of these, one fits 1/700 aircraft carriers, one fits 1/350 aircraft carriers and one in between. You have seen the 1/350 one. It's about 36" long.
This one is the 1/700 one, about 21" long.
They are made of poplar boards that I had laying around in the shop. Here you see how I attached the support legs to the base.
The mounting board is attached like this -
The bolts are dowel screws. the longer one is a dowel screw used to attach stair rails to newel posts, called a "rail bolt". It has a longer machine thread than a standard dowel screw and I prefer them. I usually have some of these laying around the shop too, left over from building fancy stair railings and balisters. These are 5/16" diameter bolts, but 1/4" are standard too.
The handles are some extras I keep around to build jigs and fixtures for the shop. These are easy to grip and have a thru hole for the bolt. That's nice so the machine thread doesn't bottom out in the handle.
Being a kinda perfectionist, I brushed a coat of varnish on them so I can wipe off paint and glue that gets on them. Plus, they just look nice to me.
They seem to help out for me.
EJ