I found a very informative web site showing how to make noses out of PET plastic recyclable lemonade bottles (recycle symbol 1). Simply put bottle on a wooden mould and hit it with the heat gun. Cut off the thread at the top and --- instant nose for your electric or unpowered model! The site is www.harborside.com/~birdworks/nosecone.htm

The results may be too heavy for really slow electric flying or indoor electrics, but good for speed 400 models and larger. May particularly suit the challenges of making a scale nose, such as for a Cessna. For making almost indestructible noses for unpowered gliders, after shrinking the bottle, saw off the neck and thread and tape on a nose block of Styrofoam, EPP foam, closed cell foam or balsa then cover it.

I have recently built a 2.25 metre 7 cell electric glider using this technique with a 1.25 litre bottle using the suggested method plus a few things I found myself. To make the mould, I used a "sandwich" of 3x1 pine, then ply, then 3x1 pine again, lightly glued together with CA. The ply gave me an opportunity to establish the integrity of the mould as I carved it down (with a sanding disk on the electric drill, an electric plane and belt sander) as the ply always marked the middle. I put the bottle on the mould and shrank it with the heat gun, this took about two minutes with care being taken not to burn the plastic. I used gardening gloves to protect my hands. For motor ventilation, I built a "scoop" into the mould shape and, in the resultant shell, I carved an intake hole.

By coincidence, I’d carved off too much for the model I'd built and had to widen the mould. I did this by putting a bolt in as a wedge between the ply and one of the pieces of pine at the blunt end. This ended up to be very much to my advantage as the bottle shrank to the extent that I was unable to pull it off the mould, but because I was able to pull out the wedge, I was able to reduce the thickness of the mould and then get it off. (After carving and breaking apart the light CA glue joint I had put a nail across the sharp end to hold it together and keep the two sides of the mould aligned.) To stop the bottle shrinking too much lengthwise, I clamped the blunt end of it to the mould so it wouldn't ride up as it was heated and shrank.

I chose a bottle which did not have any "designs" moulded into it. I made a double skin for underside of the nose, using half of another output from mould, but later took this off to save weight. The see through green plastic is great for my trainer plane as I can show trainees the inside workings (gearbox, fuse, controller etc.) and I can see the LED indicators on the speed controller.

If painting, paint the INSIDE. Or, use a coloured bottle (limited color range). If covering with solarfilm or similar, put it back on the mould whilst using the iron or heat gun to avoid the heat causing distortion.

I also use this to make canopies. To ensure your canopy is not too thick (and thus heavy), pack out the mould (ie the "underside" of the canopy) with scrap wood so the bottle doesn’t have to shrink as much to acquire the shape. Roughly cut the result off the mould then trim it with a pair of scissors. Clamp the bottle onto the mould so it doesn’t "ride up". For really light canopies, use the clear tray that comes with packs of Kraft Cheese Slices. Tape or staple it to your wooden mould, heat shrink it, then cut it off. Wheel spats are also a possibility.

And the name I have given to this 7 cell electric glider with a lemonade bottle nose? The answer came as an inspiration but was of course obvious. The "7up" !!!