Hello fellow model builders, I've been asked to introduce myself, as a kid I often glued model kits of any kind, tanks, planes, boats, you could see the glue everywhere, no painting , decals? can't remember, anyway I'm now 60 yrs aged and rediscovered the now therapeutic hobby of model building, my interest hasn't changed, still mostly WW2 stuff, planes, ships, I have what I think is a pretty good setup, now I paint, tools, sanding supplies etc,.. as of now I've built 6 models in the past 4 yrs or so. So, my first question to anyone interested in answering is this, when the directions say to add "weight ', what's your go to?, Thanks for a reply.
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- Thread starter HDspringer
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Jim R
SMF Supporter
Welcome to the best forum around Neal. I'm sure you'll enjoy your time here.
Airborne01
SMF Supporter
Welcome aboard Neal!
Steve
Steve
Hi Neal. Welcome to the forum. When you say “add weight”, in what context do you mean? There are several ways of doing this, but it depends on what you are making…..
Welcome to the forum Neal. If you mean adding weight to the nose of an aircraft model to prevent it tail-sitting, the usual product is called Liquid Gravity. However someone on here put me onto the fine steel shot used to weight teddy bears, which is a lot cheaper. I've often wondered if the same stuff is used to weight those animal-shaped door stops. I usually use PVA to glue it in place.
Pete
Pete
That's precisely what I mean, I'm building a A-10 Warthog plane, I tried gluing a couple nuts and washers inside the nose but it wasn't enough, yeah it's tail-sitting!, Ugh!, Thanks Pete.
I'm in the process of building an A-10 Warthog plane, the directions say/show add weight to the nose area of the plane, never before running into this situation I wasn't sure what to use so I tried a couple nuts, washers, didn't work, I now have a tail-sitting plane!, Another guy on this forum responded with "liquid gravity", thoughts?, Thanks Tim.
Hi Neal and welcome. We hope that you enjoy the forums and look forward to seeing you around and what you have built
Neal,
welcome to the forum. If you've lots of room for weight -try coins - they're mostly worthless anyway! Otherwise I use ball bearings, you can pick up a big bag of 2/3mm dia ball bearings ( or whatever archaic system of measurement current ), from Ebay, ot Toolstore. I use CA to stop them rattling, allthough I have wrapped them in cooking foil for the same reasun.
Dave
welcome to the forum. If you've lots of room for weight -try coins - they're mostly worthless anyway! Otherwise I use ball bearings, you can pick up a big bag of 2/3mm dia ball bearings ( or whatever archaic system of measurement current ), from Ebay, ot Toolstore. I use CA to stop them rattling, allthough I have wrapped them in cooking foil for the same reasun.
Dave
Waspie
SMF Supporter
Hi and welcome Neal.
My two penneth regards weight, if you can some lead shot, (fishing shop or the like), I used to use that when balancing balsa gliders etc.
The lead shot is small, dense and can be kept in place with small amounts of glue.
My two penneth regards weight, if you can some lead shot, (fishing shop or the like), I used to use that when balancing balsa gliders etc.
The lead shot is small, dense and can be kept in place with small amounts of glue.
I’ve used offcuts of roofing lead when I’ve had to do this (it’s amazing the crap you collect when you are a modeller). It can easily be cut, shaped, and filed to fit. Use evo stick or araldite to hold it in place because real lead and PVA don’t mix well. A lead and PVA mix creates lead acetate, which expands, and can destroy the model over time.
Modern lead shot, fishing weights, or liquid lead, are fine with PVA as they don’t actually have real lead in them anymore.
Modern lead shot, fishing weights, or liquid lead, are fine with PVA as they don’t actually have real lead in them anymore.
I've lots of used auto wheel balancing weights. Cut'em to fit where ya'need'em.
.....What about just glueing the nose wheel to your base? 
, Cover any "glue spill" with grass,mud,dirt,chocs, whatever the scene you're depicting requires?.. just a thought 
.... A warm welcome to the site from me too by the way
, Cover any "glue spill" with grass,mud,dirt,chocs, whatever the scene you're depicting requires?.. just a thought .... A warm welcome to the site from me too by the way
Del640
SMF Supporter
Welcome to an immensely informative site with some real characters,
Enjoy!
Del
Enjoy!
Del
langy71
SMF Supporter
Welcome to the madhouse Neal.. make yourself comfy ...there's plenty of helpful advice and cheerful banter... so feel free to dive right in mate, and please remember, the only daft or silly question is the one you never ask...
Gentlemen, thanks a bunch for your replies, definitely a lot of great ideas here I didn't think of.
Hi Neal. We hope that you will join the forum propper and enjoy all the benefits that come with it.