I was just wondering what everyone uses to make the planes with tricycle landing make them sit right?
I’ve used lead fishing sinkers so far. The 1/48 P 38 was fairly easy to do.
Put the sinkers in where the engines would be. I think I used 7 on each side.
On the other hand, the 1/48 scale PBY Catalina took a ton of them. After putting them in every where I could, I finally got it so it just barely sits down on the nose wheel.
I use lead shot, the fine ones. It is easy to put them into small plases (even if model built already) and a bit of wood glue keeps it all inplace.
Theuns
Depleted uranium?
Density: 19.05 g/cm³ [lead is 11.35 g/cm³]
Number 6 shot mixed with epoxy. And the occasional lead sinker.
I use solder, wrapped up as tight as possible to get as much in the space as possible.
I use the #6 shot as well, with 5-minute epoxy. The epoxy adds a bit of weight, too. Never tried it on something as biig as a 1/48th Catalina, though. Mostly 1/48 jet fighters, so it doesn’t take a lot to get it right.
If you mount the aircraft on a base, then using a pin or even a small bolt is a possibility. In a diorama, you could also install something under the tail to hold the model up. Depending on the subject, an oil drum or a saw horse could be appropriate.
I use fishing sinkers. with lead you can also hammer them flat to fit more in a tight space. John
I use Daisy BB’s- cheap and small enough to almost completely fill any compartment in the model. Then I dribble enough CA glue over them to fuse them into a solid mass so they don’t rattle around.
But be careful- “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!”
LOL Chuck
I never thought of BBs. For me the sinkers are cheap, I usde the CA Glue as well. Go to Walmart and there even made in the USA
DD, I thought I’d never get enough when i was building the PBY LOL
I’ve used BB’s, too, though I’ve also used white glue to fix them in place.
“Noddafinga!”
i found that there wasn’t enough space in the nose of my tigercat for enough bb’s/glue so i moulded roofing lead to fit. get some heavy aluminium foil (thats english for aluminum…)- i use old takeaway cartons- and push it into the fuselage halves, folding it over the edge, then take it out; you’ll have a fuselage shaped bucket mould. place this in an earthenware plant pot full of slightly damp sand. make sure that the mould is surrounded and supported by the sand but not distorted. get the roofing lead, cut bits of it up (i usually do triangles about 10- 15mm along the sides) and put these into the mould. get a blowtorch and heat the lead; i use mapp gas and it melts almost instantly. remove the heat as soon as the lead has melted and settled into the mould. top the mould up if necessary with some more lead bits and repeat until its full. needless to say, exercise caution with this process and wait for it to cool properly before handling it; a couple of minutes should be fine unless you’ve really overdone it! this method maximised the amount of lead in the tiny tigercat nose. i made a left and right moulded weight and they fit perfectly. the plane sits happily on its nose wheel. another chronic tail sitter is the Ta-154, whose nose is even smaller than the tigercat. luckily it has inline engines so i made a weight for each nacelle using the same method.
The only drawback to using / melting lead is its kinda toxic.
Theres a LOT of model railroaders who are no longer with us … due to lead poisioning !!!
If you guys must use lead … PLEASE wear gloves and a facemask. And make sure to wash your hands THOROUGHLY before eating!!!
Or in my case… smoking.
Just want to keep you guys around… no one else will put up with my sense of humor!!!
And as for TOMZ2… I want you in a FULL HAZMAT SUIT !!!
I’ve found it easy to mix lead bird-shot with two-part epoxy, and then this mixture can be packed into just about any space in order to add weight. I have also used spent projectiles, found in the shooting berm on my range. A 9mm or even .45 ACP bullet fits neatly into the nose-cone of many jets. Again, two-part epoxy holds that bullet in place, no fuss, no mess. Might give it a try? Good luck!
Gary
Like Texgunner, I have used lead bird shot with Milliput epoxy putty. Using a thick epoxy has the advantage of being able to control where the mixture goes. If you use a release agent on the kit parts, like a dusting spray i.e. Endust, you can pop the weights out for final shaping. I managed to produce conformal weights for my Monogram A-37B in this way.
One caveat is that my buddies have informed me that lead bird shot is no longer sold in the local sporting goods stores. Probably an EPA thing against lead being scattered all over the place.
I don’t use CA glue to secure my weights for several reasons:
Risk of fogging the clear parts from the inside.
Brittleness of CA causing weights to come loose after dropping the model. Yes, I am pretty clumsy.
The CA seems to expand a bit when it fires off, which has caused fuselages to split or deform.
I oad the weights as far away from the center of gravity as possible.