I am in the process of building the Monogram 1/48 B-29 and am wondering what people suggest for adding weight to the front of the plane. There is not too much room up there so I am not sure what would be the best weights to use or where to place them. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
What I use now are sinkers for fishing. You can buy them at most sporting stores, and they can be hammered into whatever shape you need. You could try placing them in the engine nacelles because that’s where the weight of the real thing would be. it might take more weight, but it will take some stress off of the front landing gear. [:D]
I’ve had some luck with bird shot. I buy mine at a sporting goods shop. It comes in a variety of sizes and you can buy a 5 lb can for about 10$. A five lb can will last a long time too. You can use white glue or epoxy to hold it in place.
Hide it everywhere. Mines full of mostly flattened .50 caliber muzzleloader balls but theres also a mix of shot in there too. I filled the whole front cockpit area below the cockpit with them. I also used putty and put some shot in the engineers control panel, under the navigators desk, in the cabinets at the back of the cabin. Since Im building Enola Gay which didnt have turrets I couldnt fill the turret buckets but you still can. The upper turret bucket can be filled full. Im also a fan of putting shot in the bombs in the front bombbay before they are built. Little Boy or Fat Man can hold a lot of shot!!
Check out Terry Dean’s nose weights if you want to take the quess work out of it. His prices are very reasonable and he’s a great guy to work with.
http://njipms.org/Reviews/Terry_Dean_Weights/noseweights.htm
I have that same kit, a project for a long time from now, but I tired putting bb’s silver bb’s in my Hasegawa 1/48 F-14 then held them in place with CA glue and Zip Kicker, for some reason when I painted the thing the nose bubbled on me. What did I do wrong? was it a chemical reaction, why would the inside affect the outside. i am worried because I am about to repaint it adn go again. What should I do differently in the future?
The weight dosen’t have to be in the nose- Any weight in front of the Main Landing Gear will make it nose heavy. So you could put weight in the engine nacelles or wings as well, (although it takes alot more than in the nose).
i am working on the b 29 too. i used clay and fishing weights in the nose. also put weights in the front section of bombs and front gun turrets.
I also have a “long term” B-29 project. I made some “molds” out of some thick aluminm sheet, .060, and poured some lead to fit in the area alongside the nose landing gear wells under the floor. Also hid some lead in the instrument panels. I am motorizing it so I have electric motor behid the engine fronts. I haven’t gotten the wings on yet but I taped it all together and it will keep the nose down. You can ever put some lead shot in the nose wheels! Someone should come out with some lead crew members for the nose compartments of WW II bombers! Might sell pretty good!
Oh Melgyver tell me about that process with the motors. Which ones are you using, how are you doing it and how hard and what is the process?
Jim,
I’m just using some 1.5 to 3 volt motors I picked up at radio shack some years ago. Just epoxied them to the back of the engine fronts and using aluminum tubing for the saft extensions for the props. Space was not a problem so I used the bigger heavy ones. I’m wiring them to a “dip” switch with four “switches” so I can run both inboards, both outboards, landing lights and interior lights. This will be in one of the main wheel wells so I can “program” what I want on or off. Plan on using a small DC adapter that puts out 3 volts to power it through an “APU” plug(sub minature jack). Basic wiring. Just will have to “make” connections when gluing the wings on. I used grain of wheat bulbs I bought some where years ago. Thinking about using the replacement bulbs for the Mini-Mag lights. I may be able to take some digital pictures and E-mail them. Haven’t gotten around to finding a host web page for pictures. I have also wired up an A-26 to be mounted from a “rod” out the tail cone and have the landing lights and props work. Did this on an old Revell B-25 that is “flying” out a picture frame. I thing my battery box in the frame came apart a while back. I’ll have to fix it.
Thanks for all of the suggestions, I knew this would be the place to ask.[:D]
To Melgyver, try www.photobucket.com. Its a free site that you can upload your pics to. I’ve been a user for about 6 months now, & have had no problems with them.
ch47,
Thanks for the site to post pictures. I’ll have to check it out soon.
Have you thought about putting it on a base? I find it easier if it’s going on a base to superglue the wheels down. This way, especially on the nose gear, you are “pulling” it down instead of “pressing” it down with a lot of weight. The B-29 nose gear can probably handle the extra weight but I know an F-105 doesn’t like it too much.
With my 1/48 Monogram F-105, I filled the nose cone with about an ounce of lead shot and it held it down just fine. I have found that the farther forward you put the weight, the less weight you need to use. One drawback I found with this, when my Thud migrated off of the shelf during a windstorm (my trailer vibrates like crazy in storms) it hit nose first. Man that sucker shattered when it hit. I’m still finding pieces of it in that room! It didn’t hit with a thud either, more like a smack. of course it fell about 7 feet too. If I remember right, theres all kind of space in the B-29 fuselage behind the cockpit to put weight. Most of it should be ahead of the mains.
Ok here is a strange one, for anyone who has finished the Monogram B-29, do me a favor if you please. I have figured out a short term idea for how to display some of my models when they are finished. If you could take a twelve inch ruler to the back of the plane and measure the height of the tailfin I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Can anyone please respond to my above post? Second, what is the proper color for the B-29 interior. The isntructions say it should be Dark Green, I assumed that it should be Zinc Chromate? Can anyone confirm one way or another? Thanks.
Go to your nearest tyre and wheel shop.
They use small weights to balance mags.
These weights have an adhesive strip at the back.
You get them in all diff weights and sizes.
They work very well for me.
Jim,
My B-29 isn’t close to finished or Ii would tape some stuff together and get your measurment. It will be about 8 1/2 in. though. I looked in my Detail & Scale Book on the B-29 and it appears the crew compartments were insulated with blankets and they appear to be any where from dark green to olive drab. The bomb bay section appeared to be mostly natural aluminum as well as the compartment behind the gunners section. The tail gunners area was zinc chromate green. The painted parts in the other crew compartments appear to be xzinc chromate green also. I broke mine up with a few zinc chromate yellow parts here and there.