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I have an idea to heat up some styrene tubes into the oven and heat them up just enough to make them slightly pliable and not mushy (Y'know for Orky roll bars and such). I know it melts at 240C but gets pretty mushy and deformed way before that. Before I begin experimenting, has anyone tried this crazy idea and if so, what is the temperature to go for? Or, is there another safer (and hopefully not too obvious) way? Thanks in advance.

Try a heat gun (like for shrink wrap), and just vary the distance that you hold the plastic from the end of the gun, and see what works best. It will probably get you better results with a heat gun than an oven

Ah ha, good idea and sadly, somewhat obvious.

A heat gun dose a good job, be sure not to heat more then the spot you want to bend. If you heat too much of it, it will pinch.

An easier way to make rollbars for vehicles is to use solid solder. A roll is fairly cheap and the solder can be easily formed to any shape you want.

Everytime I have used plastirod to make rollbars and such, I have simply used a candle (about 600 C IIRC).

It takes a bit of experimentation to find the right distance from the flame and the time, but it works.

A candle works well because you can only heat up a small bit, bend it, and keep the rest of the tube straight.

I used to make muzzleflash effects from sprue and a candle flame - and old-school model enthusiasts still use this method for aerials and so forth.

Hairdryer or heatgun will do the same thing for tube. If you can get a bendable, finely wound spring into the tube, it will help with shaping it and the tube not kinking (it's how electricians bend conduit out here).

Polystyrene softens at 95 C without melting and can be deformed easily by putting it in boiling water.

If you use a candle, be careful not to set the polystyrene alight by accident.

Aerials for wargame models are best made with thin steel wire, for strength.

I get the best results from using boiling water.

Wow, lots of great ideas that didn't occur to me! Thanks everybody, seriously!!

I've used boiling water before too and it worked well, I just held the piece in the water with a set of BBQ tongs. I bet even boiling water steam would work well too.

Don't use tubing, try to get some solid rod. I've tried tubing before and it always collapses.