Nose weights

It's nice. Since it's liquid, it always fits. The type 160 metal is made of tin, lead, cadnium, and bismuth. Its density is about 6 oz a cubic inch. (That is 10.25 grams a cubic cm). If you would like to avoid lead and cadnium, they have a type 280 metal that melts at 280 Degrees F. It is a friendly tin/bismuth alloy that is slightly less dense.

The problem is not in getting lead or other high density material, it is the packing factor.  For the kits I am talking about, the available volume needs to be almost completely full.  One cannot just chop lead into chunks and glue it in- too much dead space left!  That is why we are talking about making molds and melting the metal.  Gluing odd shaped chunks in does no good if half the space is taken up by air due to chunks not fitting together well enough.

Melting and pouring works well because you don't have air pockets.  Years ago I used to buy lead and beat it up with a hammer and work it in to the shape I wanted and then press the softened lead in to the nose cone of fighter jet  models. I knew a guy who had access to a machine shop and was able to get his hands on a bag full of aluminum and steel powder on and off and used to mix the powder in to a slow set epoxy and pour it in to 1/48 scale as a weight. It seemed to work .  

There is a product along the lines of that powder tungsten,  Its called LIquid Gravity from Deluxe Material. I haven't tried it yet, but cost and quantity is more reasonable for modelers, as its sold specifically for this job.

I use the split-shot fishing weights and lead solder. I like using the split-shot because you can cut it and smash it with small pliers easily to fit in small areas. When I built a 1/48 scale P-39 that had the nose open for the gun bay I filled the ammo can with cut up shot then sealed it with putty, made the ammo belt using copper wire cut and shaped like the 37mm shells, smashed the split-shot into flat pieces and lined the inside of the spinner, the firewall and the underside of the gun deck with 2 layers. Finally I used a lead solder and filled in the hollow area inside the front tire. On aircraft that has a glass nose (B-25, B-29, B-26, B-24,etc) I find that by filling the small voids can provide enough weight to keep the tail up. It also helps to have precision weights so you can see how much weight is required to offset the tail. I piece together the plane with tape and figure out how much weight is required then I balance the weight on a scale with split-shot. This gives me an amount of split-shot that I need to use.

I have ever had the plastic landing gear bend from weight because using the above method keeps the weight down to the minimum required. I tend the keep the aircraft balanced to 51/49% balance.

I am trying to finish this up right now, and came across this thread. Anyway here is my contribution to this thread. I've also done a 1/48 scale PBY Catalina. But here is a pic of the B-24D in 48 scale. I've always used the lead sinkers.

 I have a bunch of sinkers in front of the dash board and a lot more in the compartment behind the nose wheel assembly. I extended the wall behind the nose wheel up to the floor boards above it for that purpose and used tweezers to add weight through the bomb bay into the nose wheel compartment and I super glue them in place. I stacked the tail pieces on the back then used the sinker bags balanced on the nose to see how much weight I would need.