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Bending plastics...


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I'm wondering how people bend plastics into shapes that better fit their conversions, such as the piping on the plastic Termi arms etc if repositioning the fore-arms...

 

The easiest way would be to heat it, but not sure of the best way to go about this without melting the plastic or being simply a hell of alot of trouble... I had considered a hair dryer, but was not sure if this would work...

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I'm wondering how people bend plastics into shapes that better fit their conversions, such as the piping on the plastic Termi arms etc if repositioning the fore-arms...

 

The easiest way would be to heat it, but not sure of the best way to go about this without melting the plastic or being simply a hell of alot of trouble... I had considered a hair dryer, but was not sure if this would work...

 

 

many people simply cut and paste and use GS ...

 

heating up the plastic and bending it I heard may make the bubbles in the plastic ...

I wouldn't reccomend bending a Terminator arm. I cut them up when I recently converted a squad. For general plastic bending I just put the piece on top of a radiator. I once put a piece under a lamp and forgot about it, melted badly, hasn't happened with the radiator though.

I'm wondering how people bend plastics into shapes that better fit their conversions, such as the piping on the plastic Termi arms etc if repositioning the fore-arms...

 

The easiest way would be to heat it, but not sure of the best way to go about this without melting the plastic or being simply a hell of alot of trouble... I had considered a hair dryer, but was not sure if this would work...

 

 

many people simply cut and paste and use GS ...

 

heating up the plastic and bending it I heard may make the bubbles in the plastic ...

 

 

In fact the only heating of plastics I've ever done was on tank parts to get them to move and articulate. (and that's invisible)

Microwave safe container and water. Zap water for 2-3 minutes on high. Use tweezers or hemostats to grab your plastic item. Dip the part you want to bend in the steamy hot water. Careful, do not leave submerged for very long or could warp, try 10 seconds at a time to start. Test short times at first and increase time submerged as needed. Should make your plastic item pliable enough to bend.
Microwave safe container and water. Zap water for 2-3 minutes on high. Use tweezers or hemostats to grab your plastic item. Dip the part you want to bend in the steamy hot water. Careful, do not leave submerged for very long or could warp, try 10 seconds at a time to start. Test short times at first and increase time submerged as needed. Should make your plastic item pliable enough to bend.

 

 

the old classic way to bend a landhockey blade =) they usualy are in plastic ...

but way stronger then the GW plastic ...

many people simply cut and paste and use GS ...

 

heating up the plastic and bending it I heard may make the bubbles in the plastic ...

 

Reason I want to bend the existing plastics is so I get the texture of the piping without going to the trouble of recreating it with GS, I aint so good with scuplting...

 

 

Thanks guys for the hot water method... I had considered using boiling water, but was skeptical about how well hot water would soften the plastics...

You will not get good results with bending armoured arms. The "piping" is there because the armoured plates are stiff and do not bend. If you heat the arm up you will not be able to just bend on the piping, the entire joint will flex.

It's really not that hard to make new ribbing. Cut the old away, reposition the arm using a metal pin to reinforce the joint (paperclips work well), jam in a blob of GS into the joint and 'roll' a modelling knife (or sculpting tool) to make the ribs.

GW has a guide for working with GS.

I wasn't going to be bending the armour itself... Perhaps I should have explained myself a little better... :unsure:

 

What I was thinking was to cut and rotate/reposition fore-arms etc, and then heat the plastic so that the tubing can simply be bent to fit in with the new positioning of the forearm...

What he's saying, I think, is that he has repositioned the armour parts using traditional methods. He wants to bend the tubing (which he removed before repositioning) so that it fits nicely with the newly positioned armour. Right? :P

 

Exactly what I was trying to say... For instance, I cut the powerfist at the elbow, rotate 45% so that it looks like the Termi is punching someone (on a more traditional punching angle with the knuckles pointing up)... I then soften the tubing from the bottom of the fist, so that I can bend it to 'curve' to match the rotation of the power fist...

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