…what did you use for nose weight? I’d like to keep all the detail up front, but I haven’t a clue what to use for nose weight or where to put it. It has to be really small…
I used a fishing weight(forget what ounce) and cut it into halfs then placed it in front of the gunbay. Also you can use BB’s to use as nose weight.
If worse comes to worse, if you are weired about the detailing, I’d mount it on a base. Use white glue to mount it on the base.
Hope this helps…
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
Im assuming This kit has engine detail? If so what about inside the engine? Just a fishing sinker pounded into shape and put inside the engine should work.
The engine on the Airacobra was mid fuselage so it would have to be placed in front of the gun bay…
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
The engine sits behind the pilot so adding weight there might make it sit on its tail but if someone is good at mold making and using liquified white metal they could always mold the gunbay/nosegear bay and cast a copy of that in white metal.
I used birdshot in every place I could conceal it in the nose. Inside the spinner, in the ammo cans, along side the nose gear well sides.
I formed some lead to fit in the spinner and nose wheel as well as any voids in the ammo boxes and other empty areas.
Lead fishing weights work great if you can still buy them. Fabric stores have drapery weights. They are about one inch square and can be easily bent to fit into a fuselage.
I used BBs and added them under the gunbay, in the nosegear well, and between the panel & bulkhead… It doesn’t take that many to work, and once the doors are on, you can’t see 'em at all after they’re painted black, unless you flip it over and look straight down into it… I even checked it with my “Judging Mirror” (a dental mirror) and without a light-source, they ain’t gonna see it…
Lead fishing wieghts are harder to find nowadays… Buy some tire wheel weights… they can be cut up with decent wire cutters or scissors, and hammered into shape to fit into spots.
Also, the weights don’t have to be in the very tip of the nose, as long as the wieght is in front of the rear landing gear, this will help with the balance, some wieghts just infront of the rear landing gear, along the leading wing edges etc, this can lessen the amounts needed in the nose… also puts more wieght on the main gear, instead of the nose gear… helpes with the plastic nose gear wanting to bend under the weight…
Aagranata: Check out Willam Walters ie; Termanil Hobby Shop, for a product called Temp Lo it has a very low melting temp its so low it will melt from a candle flame. melt some and carefully pour it in the aircraft nose don’t worry it woun’t melt your model. I used this a lot in my days as a model railroader I used to pour it into plastic locomotive shells for added weight. [2cnts] Aceses5
If you do it right, you won’t even have to buy 'em… Just go down to your local tire dealer and ask the mech for a couple handfulls of the old weights… I got about 5 pounds of 'em the other day when I bought a couple skins fer the Taurus. Course…They were only tires in the fact that they were made of rubber, were round, and held air… Heh… Don’t think I’ve bought a new tire since 1978…
all of the above…packing it into every recess i could find.I wander around the parking lot at walmart and find tire weigts all the time near the tire and lube express. I also took solder wire and wrapped that into a coil and stuffed it under the cockpit. This woks really well on helicopters under the floor!
Thanks for all the tips, guys. I’ll get this bird to sit on all threes…
I did with mine…but barely. If you look on this pic, you can see the birdshot in the back side of the ammo cans.
