Well, I am finally back at the workbench. I was right about 0.90 ounces not being enough; I had to almost quadruple it before the center of gravity shifted forward. I took Ray's advice and got some lead fishing weights which I then hammered flat and inserted into the lower equipment bay (under the radio operator's seat). Photo below:
image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr
I ended up putting in five sheets hammered flat, in addition to the weights in the gun turrets and a few more that I added to the sides. As you can see in the photo, I can no longer put the lower gun turret tub in the aircraft, so I'll just glue the turret on. Getting the right weight was a major step because I could not glue the fuselage halves together until I was SURE I had that right.
Now she sits level balanced on a roll of masking tape:
image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr
I also took a shot of the overall aircraft dry fit together again:
image by robertholcomb73, on Flickr
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I called my friend for whom I am making this and we discussed some specific markings and features of his aircraft. The kit has two versions of the radar dome, one a simple cylinder and the other a more aerodynamic oblong shape. I confirmed with my friend that he had the earlier, simple cylinder shape on his bird (and he should know; he was the radar operator!). He also confirmed that the color of the radome was light grey, not natural metal.
I found a two photos of his bird, one with nose art (a simple script "Sweet Sue") and the other without. He confirmed that the nose art was added after the June 1945 mission in which he won the DFC; in fact, it was added after the war was over. That makes my decal problem a bit easier; no nose art.
I also found, in the book "B-29s in Action" a photo of two B-29s on Iwo Jima, captioned as being in May 1945. A close inspection astonished me by revealing it was my friends aircraft! All the markings matched, being 9th Group, 1st Squadron, and bird Number 5. So I sent the photo to my friend and he confirmed that not only was that his bird, it was taken after they landed at Iwo on the June 1945 mission over Kobe, in which they all won DFC's. He said the caption was wrong, because his aircraft only made one stop at Iwo. He said they ran out of engines and propellers, in his usual understatement.
I picked up a cheap model of Messerschmidt with which to practice my Alclad II skills. I have Aluminum, Polished Aluminum, and Stainless Steel to practice with. I tried the Aluminum already, over a coat of Future and also a coat of gloss black, and did not care for it, so I am going to try the Polished Aluminum next and see if I like it better.
Stay tuned, film at eleven!