On 3/15/12 11:48 AM, Pieter Roos wrote:
I think the idea of heating up the entire car was to let the car's edges
and sides have a more gentle bend or sag to them. I must have had a
grossly incorrect temperature or time factor involved. I should have
used one of those $1 AF gons from Hobby Surplus.
I once made another mistake that actually worked out okay in the end. I
put too much MEK on a model to where some of ran under my finger that
was holding down a stubborn part. Obviously the MEK melted into the
smooth surface leaving a 3D smuge. I just used a little rust paint and
then the rust powders in a slightly different shade to make great
looking deep rust on a car side. So this done in a more controlled
manor would be worthwhile to experiment with.
Bob Werre
Hi Bob;
I've seen a couple of articles on "denting" plastic cars. Generally,
you want to use a "spot" heat source, like a night-light on an
extension cord or a large soldering iron. Hold it near the panel to be
dented until the plastic begins to soften, then push out on the
plastic with a small screw driver or other tool. Touching the heat
source to plastic must be avoided. This obviously takes some time, as
each panel must be done individually.
Bulged ends can be made the same way, or the car end can be held over
the heating element of a stove and pushed out from the inside once
softened. Bulged ends can be applied to boxcars too, the result of a
loose load. One or two on a layout is probably all you need, whereas
nearly all gondola's could be dented!
Trying to heat the whole car at once is probably a recipe for
disaster, as you found!
I'm not sure if I'm up for denting my brass War Emergency gon or not -
haven't made the other small mods I need to make yet either!
Pieter E. Roos
