# Is there any way of straightening out warped model parts?



## Cro-Magnon Man

Is there a way to 'unbend' styrene parts which have warped over time? I've just got hold of a kit where a soldier holds a long spear, and the spear has become so warped that if I build the kit it will look ridiculous. 
I tried to correct the slight warping in the halberd/spear of the Blue Knight kit recently, and slight pressure to reverse the curve made the part snap violently and fly out of my hand, so I don't want to try to do this by hand again.

Can the plastic be returned to its original shape by, say, dropping it into very hot water? 
And is the warping a result of time, with the part becoming more warped over the years, or is the warping something that happened immediately, when the part first came out of the mold and cooled down?


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## Dave Metzner

Hot water might work. There is no way to know for sure when/how the warpage occurred. If the piece is a straight rod you can always replace it with a suitable size of plastic rod.
Dave


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## Cro-Magnon Man

Thanks Dave. I'm hoping that hot water will work, so that I don't have to use any more drastic measures.


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## MadCap Romanian

There's another way, but it is tricky and I can't be responsible for any possible dammage....

Plastic has a "memory" built into it. Sometimes when a part is warped, heating it will revive the "memory" and the part will return to it's original position. 

In the past I have has a few warped model car frames. I've used a cork board, held the frame down in it's right position using sewing pins, balsa wood airplane style, and heated the frame using a hair dryer, passing it back and forth over the part.

You just have to be very careful with this method because too much heat will jog the plastic memory back to the time when it was a molten lump of plastic. (I destroyed a 1932 Chrysler frame that way once.)

The best way is to count the number of times you passed the heat over the item. Start with a small number, like 4 and then let your part cool down before removing it from the corkboard. If 4 times didn't work, try 5 to 7 times and so on. 

It's risky, but it does work.


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## John P

If it's just a round spear staff, you can always replace it with plastic rod (or a wooden dowel, for that matter).


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## Cro-Magnon Man

Thanks, guys. I think I'll try hot water, a hair dryer, or replace it altogether, in that order!


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## wolfman66

I've used hot water and a hairdryer in the past on problems such as this with very good results.But once you get it to the postion you want it at run it under cold water to hold its form.


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## Cro-Magnon Man

Thanks, Wolfman, and that makes sense. The reason I was wondering at the beginning whether the warping takes place when the part is first removed from the mold was because I expect that if it has always been warped, then it can't really return to its original shape, as the warping sort of is the original shape, the only shape the part has ever been. 
Anyway, I'll get round to the operation soon and will post the result.


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## big-dog

I used boiling water the curve a part made of styrene for under the deck of the Time Machine, worked great. I used bamboo tongs (i got with a non-stick wok set) to hold the plastic in the water. I'd guess it should be possible to use the trick to unbend a part, though in honesty I think replacing it with styrene rod would be way easier.


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## Cro-Magnon Man

Then spear has a hand holding it all as one part. If I replace the spear, I have to put the new one into the hand, etc., so the water method is better.


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## StarshipClass

You can cut out the spear above and below where the hand grips it and then drill a hole through the hand in line with the spear's position. That would be the best solution.

I've had pretty good luck unbending the Batplane's wings by putting them in very hot water, bending them past where they need to go and then dunking them into a bowl of iced water. It go 90+% of the bend out of them.


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