What your refering to is known as blocking, and it should be done to most if not all structures. I have used styrene, wood and even light metal in some case
With certain warped parts it is possible to cut them into sections with clean cuts, make them each as flat as possible, and re-cement them together while flattened. This relieves the tension of the warp and if you are lucky it is possible to minimize the mismatches of the sections being mated back together in flattened form.
Another technique I have used, sometimes with success, is to simply bull the part into flatness by gluing it or cementing it (I suppose even screwing it, in some circumstances) to something which is unyieldingly flat and rigid. The hardware store has steel and aluminum "L" shapes that would be difficult to bend, for example, and are fairly lightweight.
The rather flimsy Bachmann enginehouse kit needs this treatment
Dave Nelson
nyflyer Just finished my new, Cornerstone New River mining company model. Unfortunetly one of the roof panels has a rather significant warp to it. I tried pressing between books for several days with no luck. I know I have to try heating and pressing now to fix. Any suggestions for best way to do this? Anyone ever try using a microwave? Thanks Don
Just finished my new, Cornerstone New River mining company model. Unfortunetly one of the roof panels has a rather significant warp to it. I tried pressing between books for several days with no luck. I know I have to try heating and pressing now to fix. Any suggestions for best way to do this? Anyone ever try using a microwave?
Thanks Don
Right idea but you need a more controlled or at least lower amount of heat. An OLD way of flattening out plastic pieces is to take two pieces of plate glass, about twice the size of the plastic piece to be flattened. Place the plastic piece between the glass pieces and simply lay it in the sun. This will take several hours on a sunny day, keep an eye on it, and as soon as it lays flat, move the whole thing into the shade and allow it to cool. Then you can remove the plastic piece from between the glass. The plastic is soft when it's hot, so make sure it's cool before you try to remove it.
OK in the last hour have tried Hairdryer, and a lighter, with no results. Gonna try the oven now, hopfully won't end up with a styrene cassarole.
Wouldn't recommend the microwave, wife's hair dryer might work better. I have a professional heat blower I used in the carpenter trade to bend fromica.