Written by Rob Caso As seen in the Summer 2019 issue of Park Pilot
>> The unfortunate reality of being a scale modeler is that you sometimes need nose weight to balance an aircraft. Although non-scale flying models might avoid this by simply having a longer nose, you’re stuck with the scale outline with a scale airplane. Sure, you can build the tail lighter, but there are scale and structural limitations to this.
An ancillary problem is that often, there is little room in the nose to add the needed weight, so I have resorted to making the weight fit the model instead of simply affixing blobs of lead here and there.
The general procedure is to first determine where the weight is to go and then to make a temporary mold of this area using layers of aluminum foil. The lead is then heated either in a steel can or in the mold itself. The resultant custom piece can then be worked with files or sandpaper, but be careful when working with lead—wear gloves and a respirator.
The sequential photos show how to do it.
Rob ground out some of the balsa nose area to accept the weight.
Two layers of aluminum foil are pressed into the cavity.
Lead-shot pellets are heated with a propane torch.
The lead shot has filled the mold. File off the wrinkles on the reverse side when it is cool.
The resulting piece fits nicely in the model and out of the way of equipment—in this case, the flight motor.
