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I'm an idiot. I forgot to add weight to the nose.


keiron99

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I've just almost completed construction of a Revell 1/72 ME 262.

 

I have just added the wheels as the final step...and the whole model tips back! I should have thought of this but I'm not experienced and it doesn't mention anything in the instructions.

 

From what I can tell it needs about 10 grams right at the tip of the nose for it to stand upright.

 

Does anyone have any tips as to how I could achieve this bearing in mind the kit has now actually been built?! 

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Drill a 3mm hole in the nose wheel bay. 

Start stuffing small bits of lead and blue tack through the hole with a thin pointy stick - the ubiquitous cocktail stick

Keep stuffing, you can move the blue tack about with the stick, until you get a balance. You can either leave the access hole or cover it with a piece of tape or thin plastic card

 

A handy supply to have on hand is 'Liquid Gravity'. Its micro sized steel balls. With this you pour the balls in through a hole and squirt some PVA or superglue in with them.

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No, its not cheap. But you'll find it lasts a long time and you'll hardly ever use it

I've had my bottle for many years and I've used very little from it. I use it only in similar forgets to yours or on builds where there just isn't room for big pieces of weight, eg in a OV-10 Bronco

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Another alternative, try to find some anglers' micro lead shot (available from your local High Street Angling Supplier or on-line auction sites) and carefully pour it into the nosewheel bay in the way which @Black Knight has described.  One of my father's friends shoots clay pigeons and he gave me the contents of a couple of shotgun cartridges a few years ago and I'm still making use of them. 

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This has happened to me a number of times, even when the instructions very clearly and unambiguously indicated nose weight was required. Fill the hole with a sprue plug.

 

Liquid Gravity is smaller than the buckshot I've seen available, so a smaller hole will do. And PVA will do a fine job of securing it. Don't use a glue with strong outgassing as it can will melt the plastic.

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I'm lucky enough to have several life times supply of smallish lead shot, given to me by a friend who reloaded his shot shells. I tend to use 5 min epoxy to secure it now after reading that lead can react with PVA glue with unfortunate results, the swelling of the shot after the reaction causing bulging & cracking of the joins. :( I've not had this happen to me but having used PVA early on I wait with trepidation. :unsure: The mentioned method of pushing shot through a small hole will work well with 5 min epoxy, mix a small amount of epoxy stir in shot then pick up & push through hope with tweezers, they will stick to previous shot & anything else in there as they drop in. Don't mix too much at once 'cause 5 minutes isn't very long, ask me how I know. :) :D 

Steve.

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Liquid gravity looks the best bet, tenner for 240g which would last for ages.

Might even be able to inject it with one of the small syringes you get over the counter in a pharmacy (no needle)

That would keep the hole size to a minimum which should then be easy to cover up.

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5 hours ago, stevehnz said:

lead can react with PVA glue with unfortunate results

 

????

Where did you read about this? I don't see how is it possible. CA yes, PVA unlikely (unless there is a gap in my chemistry knowledge) 

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13 minutes ago, Pin said:

Where did you read about this? I don't see how is it possible. CA yes, PVA unlikely (unless there is a gap in my chemistry knowledge) 

I've seen this discussed in various Railway forums. Here is a pretty good explanation

 

https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11777

 

Cheers

 

Colin

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7 minutes ago, ckw said:

I've seen this discussed in various Railway forums. Here is a pretty good explanation

https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11777

 

Hm. "The ester groups of the polyvinyl acetate are sensitive to base hydrolysis and will slowly convert PVAc into polyvinyl alcohol and acetic acid" so in theory it is possible but it would require quite high humidity or contact with water for prolonged period of time.

 

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38 minutes ago, Pin said:

 

????

Where did you read about this? I don't see how is it possible. CA yes, PVA unlikely (unless there is a gap in my chemistry knowledge) 

It was mentioned quite recently in a thread. As said, I've not had it happen to me, time yet I guess. Try googling Britmodeller lead PVA, will bring up some results. I think from my reading it depends a bit on the lead purity or otherwise & I would imagine the PVA composition. For my part now, I'll stick with 5 minute epoxy. Afaik, that is safe. :shrug:

Steve.

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Although the article above mentions PVA and I admit there may be a slight theoretical possibility for PVA to emit acetic acid because of hydrolytic deterioration (that may require years of water contact an that would make a polymer into a goo) it does not mention that anybody had any real problem with lead/PVA combination. The post mentions UHU+lead (with UHU composition being unknown) and "lead + CA" combination that is known to be problematic. 

I use lead with PVA for years (the link contains photos of solving tail sitter problem when I drilled a hole in the nose, filled it with lead pallets and fixed them with PVA); no budging or any other problems are found yet. 

 

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10 hours ago, Pin said:

no budging or any other problems are found yet. 

& hopefully that will continue. I'm picking the even if the reaction began within the model, it may only become obvious if the lead is tight packed with no room to expand. Never the less, I'll stay with my epoxy now I think.

Steve.

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