The Aircraft Paint Stand (APS) was designed to provide a cheap means of supporting aircraft that could be placed in the spray booth and get covered in paint without worrying about damaging expensive investments.  The original APS always bundled the base with the short supports.  The MSS now splits them up so you don't need to buy the short supports if you are building larger aircraft.

The short and tall supports have been slightly modified with hooks so that elastic bands can now be used to restrain models.  The twin boom supports will be modified in the future.  

Over the years we've had the occasional request to make a larger version of the APS.  Supporting a large model near the wing tips places a large strain on the wing/fuselage joint and so the model should be supported as close to the fuselage as possible.  This negates the need for a larger APS and so we have never produced one.  The base with large supports has been shown supporting the Airfix 1:24 Mosquito and one customer has several supported in this way.  However, the new modular system contains connectors and base extensions that can be used to create a larger base if you so desire.

Small Aircraft

For smaller aeroplanes such as most 1:72 and smaller 1:48 a base and the short aircraft stands are recommended.

When painting a model it will need to be turned upside down at some point and it is the height of the stabiliser (tail fin) that usually determines the need for taller uprights.

Larger Aircraft

For larger aircraft a base and the tall aircraft stands are recommended.

I Want a Larger Base

There are two lengths of base extension that can be utilised along with the connector to bind all the bases together.  The connector can even be used to join two bases together.