Many scale aircraft models with a tricycle landing gear configuration tend to “sit” on their tails because of the lack of weight in the front section of the model.

Mistake

Some manufacturers put an instruction to add some weight to the nose area in the build manual, and some not.

Inexperienced… as I am, I chose to trust the manufacturer… so I ended up with a “tail sitter” Academy MiG-29 (9-12). Of course, you usually find it out too late. I noticed that at the end when I added the exhaust nozzles and the weight distribution moved a bit to the tail of the model.

Solution

If you can, you should remove the nose cone (radome) of the aircraft and add some weight, but I was afraid that the procedure could cause more damage… so I decided to glue in some weight (ball bearings) into the front landing gear bay. The bay doesn’t look pretty anymore when looked at from below, but it solved my issue. So… I’m not going to turn it on the back and look at it 🙂

Extra tip: I didn’t use real glue in this procedure. I’ve used the “Blu tack” (reusable putty-like pressure-sensitive adhesive) so I can remove it if I need to.

What I have learned

Never trust the manufacturer and, just in case, always add some extra weight into the nose area of the model when it is a tricycle landing gear configuration.