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Loose ballast.


Admiral Puff

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I'm building an Airfix 1:48 Meteor in the RAAF "Meteorites" scheme, to go with the U.21 now being painted, but I've run into a problem. In the course of assembly I glued a pellet of lead roof flashing securely (I thought) under the cockpit. The wings and fuselage have since been joined. This morning I picked the beast up to do some sanding, and was greeted by a rattle which said to me that the pellet wasn't as securely glued as I thought and is now floating free within the fuselage. With any other Meatbox I would simply cut a hole (carefully!) in the lower belly, re-secure the lead and make good the damage, because the belly tank would cover most of the work, but I'm reluctant to do that on this occasion. The Meteorites usually displayed clean, i.e. without either wing or belly tanks, so the repair has to be spot-on because any damage is going to be open for all to see. I'll cut a hole if I have to, but does anyone have any suggestions as to an alternate solution?

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I've had that happen to me a couple of times, ironically one was the Tamiya Meteor.

On both occasions the problem occurred towards the end of the build. My immediate thought was to try to gain entry whilst doing the minimum of damage, such as drilling a hole and filling the area with Deluxe Materials Liquid Balast and finishing off with copious amounts of either PVA or CA glues to secure it.

However, I reasoned that as I had achieved a reasonably good finish with paint and varnish, any drilling would necessitate more filling, sanding, priming, painting and varnishing of the area. I therefore settled on the thought that as the model wasn't a tail sitter and only rattled when I moved it, it wasn't going to cause me any issues by just sitting on the shelf.

This is probably not the most constructive answer that you'll get, but it was a solution that worked for me.

Good luck.

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Can't help with a solution unfortunately, I've had the same problem myself in the past and the best option I could find was Dave's (shaking the model to try and get the lead back in place).

I can only offer a couple of tips for your next build: one of my first solution to the problem was to glue bits of plasticard or sprue behind the lead, so that even if this detaches at least it will rattle but not unbalance the model.

Then I finally sorted the problem by changing glue: today I use silicone sealant for the weight on my models, sticks well to both plastic and metal, has great long term adhesion and being soft it will keep the bits in place even if the model hits something

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Don't know if it's a recommended procedure but I stick the lead in with epoxy, lots of it... Nothing's gonna shift that.  I've no suggestions for repairing a loose bit in a finished model, though.

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  • 5 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Mark4700 said:

I put lead shot in blue tack and push it into place. For me this has a 100% success rate. Works particularly well in nose cones and under cockpit flooring. 

 

Be very careful with how you use Blu tack?  Its oil based and tends to leech after a period of time.

 

Check out these sites if you dont believe me asking for solutions to remove Blue tack oil stains

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-b&dcr=0&ei=MxuDWqT7CJC2gQbD6oOYCA&q=remove+blu+tack+oil+stains&oq=remove+blu+tack+oil&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0.14650.29118.0.31104.10.10.0.0.0.0.203.1213.5j4j1.10.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.6.799...0i13k1j0i22i30k1.0.xbjLOf1bUWE

 

White tack is also the exact same recipe..............both leave stains and leech

 

Some colleges and student accomadation have also banned it from being used on their walls due to oily stains that it leaves behind

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8 hours ago, rayprit said:

 

Be very careful with how you use Blu tack?  Its oil based and tends to leech after a period of time.

 

Check out these sites if you dont believe me asking for solutions to remove Blue tack oil stains

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-b&dcr=0&ei=MxuDWqT7CJC2gQbD6oOYCA&q=remove+blu+tack+oil+stains&oq=remove+blu+tack+oil&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0.14650.29118.0.31104.10.10.0.0.0.0.203.1213.5j4j1.10.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.6.799...0i13k1j0i22i30k1.0.xbjLOf1bUWE

 

White tack is also the exact same recipe..............both leave stains and leech

 

Some colleges and student accomadation have also banned it from being used on their walls due to oily stains that it leaves behind

I can’t say I’ve had any issues at all over the years in using it to secure ballast inside plastic kits. 

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