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So I've got a model where part of the base is hollow and I want to drill into it and then pour a material, like sand, into the void then seal it up. I need a heavy material so that it acts as good counterbalance. Sand itself is just a bit too light as, being a model, there isn't a huge amount of room.

Anyone got any suggestions for something affordable that will do this job easily?

Lead?

It’s been forever since I was more active in fishing, but you could get easy home use setups for making your own lead sinkers/weights. ingots, molds, little crucible. This was around/before the whole “lead in toys” thing, so I don’t know if it was hit.

And it’s a metal synonymous with being heavy.

Edit:
Just checked Amazon, it’s still out there. Not sure how “affordable” your range is. You could also look into lead foil

Edit with more thoughts:
If you don’t want to deal with melting, lead is soft. Get some sinkers and a hammer. Bang them into shape.

Iron powder seems to be readily available. It’s about 3x as dense as sand.

Lead shot (tiny pellets) mixed with epoxy is the classic solution for ballast. That does mean handling lead, but at least doesn't require melting it, which is much more acutely hazardous.

You could also buy tungsten powder and use that. It's more expensive, so might depend on how much you feel you need.

Edit: Or yeah iron powder will work if you need a larger volume. Be sure to seal it well or it will rust.

Or tungsten powder if you want to pay 10x the price for 3x the density of iron

Yeah I'm just adding weight to a model so melting metal would be a -- bad idea on model plastics.

I need probably about a genestealer's worth of material if it were a solid bock (that's roughly the volume of space I'm filling - ish)

Yeah, lead shot sounds like your best bet. Just don’t eat it or anything.

The tungsten is expensive; at the same time this model is stupidly heavy on its front.

Can you extend the front of the base a bit to change the lever arm?

Lead sinker size #6 or #8. They are tiny and cheap if you don't buy something like drennan) so you can easily pour then in small hole