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Hi, all. I've got a fairly major project in the planning phase. I want to use the Flamespyre Phoenix for a project, but it will require some heavy adjustment of the wings' angles. Is there an effective way to easily reposition or bend GW plastic without a major loss of detail? My first thought is to heat the plastic up and bend it, but I'm not sure how well that might work.

I'm okay with having to do some Green Stuff cleanup, but I'm not that great at feathers so avoiding it where I can is ideal.

Thanks!

HIPS quite readily can be heated and bent. I use an alcohol lamp for working with things like plastic tube and other shapes.

The other side of course is how much distortion you may have. When you bend something - the outside of the bend will stretch...the inside will compress. How much will depend on the thickness of the part and the degree of bend you are trying to achieve. Subtle bending, it will be almost unnoticeable. More dramatic bending may create unacceptable levels of distortion.

There is also the question of the location of the bend. You can bend things like tails without much of an issue. Most of the time we see a tail as something with a lot of joints that allow almost fluid movement. Bending an arm can be problematic though since our minds eye knows that if an arm is bent half way between the elbow and the shoulder - something aint right.

Looking at the model in particular - there looks to be plenty of room for bending, but I would also look at real birds flight motions and cut, carve and resculpt the wings as needed in order to avoid the stretch Armstrong look. You can augment that by bending and reshaping the feathers much like a real bird adjusts their feathers to do turns and other movements.

I heat up plastic models a lot.

Sean's advice is spot on. A steady flame (candle helps) and holding the part in both hands while moving it in sweeping motions over the top of the flame helps soften it.

I keep the plastic at least 1/2" to 1" above the flame and rotate the piece (if its thick).

best of luck...