I developed this stand years ago to help me hold  fish carvings without marring the painted finish or damaging pelvic and pectoral fins while I cut and fit veil to the sides for spraying a painted scale effect.  The stand worked so well I made some changes to it so it would also hold the fish upright so I could paint with it as well.  It then became my one stand does all around the shop, and still is.  As you will see below it also works as a carving stand for urethane carving and a safe harbor for carvings in progress.  

You should be able to construct a stand like the one shown just from the pictures to whatever size you need.  A good rule of thumb for length is build it 2/3rd's the length of your most common fish size.  You can always make it larger or smaller by just swapping out the center pipe.  My stand is 18" wide and works for anything 14" - 48" in length.  Mine is constructed from 3/4" PVC Pipe. 

The only joints glued are the base stubs that the upper arms fit over, none of the other parts are glued, so the stand can be swiveled to different sizes and positions easily and it all comes apart for easy storage.

Read all below so you get the full idea of how this thing works before you start cutting pipe.

Here are some measurements from my stand to get you started.

Center pipe - 15"
Two side legs - 9.5" ea.
Connecting pipes between the T's and Elbows are all 2" long
Padded Arms - (2) 9" Long     (2) 4" Long
Feet- 3/4" elbows to keep the base up off the table and eliminate rocking.  You can put rubber chair leg caps on the elbow feet to prevent sliding around your workbench.
Black Padding - Keeps your carving from getting marred.  This is just the foam pipe insulation you find at Home Depot.  Cut to length.  It works great and fits the pipe perfectly.  Cleans up well also because nothing sticks to it.  Dried paint just falls right off.

Now here is how it works.....The base is stationary and can be glued if you want it to be just one size.  The two short pieces of pipe that extend up from the base where the upper arms mount should be glued into the base T so it stays in place as you move the upper arms into different positions.  Lets call those the base stubs. The 45 degree elbows at the end of each upper arm allow the arms to tilt back at a 45 degree angle for painting, wedging the carving in the cradle of the arms.  The T just up from the 45 degree elbow allows the arms to lay flat giving you a raised platform to hold your fish while you apply veil or used as a safe stand while you are carving the fish, keeping it up off the workbench on padded arms.  To change the stand from a flat position to upright just remove the arms from the base stubs and reposition the arms on the alternate mounting hole and your done.  Its that easy.

Here is the same stand with the short padded arms removed and another set of long padded arms installed.  Creating a V shaped cradle to hold the fish up off the workbench while carving.  This is an excellent way to support urethane carvings so they don't get nicks and dents in the surface.  Perfect table top fish holder.

Same fish with the short padded arms back in place. 
Arrows show the different mounting holes.

Again, the perfect table top padded holder for any carving.

You can build one of these stands as large or as small as
you need by just scaling the size of mine up or down.

Good Luck,
~Ed Walicki

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All images and content Copyright 2005 Edward J. Walicki