Deathclaw baseplate conversion

[paintadikt]

Hello, I am working on Karl Franz on Deathclaw and was wondering if it is possible to use hot water or heat to bend this breastplate to fit the contours of the griffons body better. I also though that if I used plastic cement carefully brushed onto the back I could soften the structure and mould it that way. has anyone tried something similar before? The other I option I have is to buy some instant mould and copy the plate design but warp the copy to fit, however I am concerned about losing the details.



Thanks in advance for your help

[The Devourer]

Couldn't you just gently heat the plastic and bend it to the desired shape?

[juxt]

i would go down the moulding a copy route personally.
either cast it in putty and bend it before it's cured, or cast in resin and do the heat and bend technique.

i would be concerned about damaging the detail with the poly-cement idea... could work, but it's a one shot thing, once it's ruined it's ruined.

[paintadikt]

Thanks for the responses guys, @ the devourer, have you performed something similar before, what heat source did you use and so forth, that would be very helpful. @ juxt, I did buy them as a set of 3 so I could practice on one, but I am thinking that moulding one is the most sensible. Thanks for your help, anyone who has heated plastic before and could tell me the dos and donts would be greatly appreciated.

[paintadikt]

I first tried hot water as I hadnt tried to soften it before, then I put it in the microwave for 30 seconds, then a minute, then a little more, and finally the bonds softened enough that I could bend it into shape. If you try this or something similar for yourself 2 minutes is fine, a little more probably couldnt hurt depending on how strong your microwave is, and I practiced on another breastplate before I bent the Karl Franz one. Bend in the middle first, then work bit by bit outwards, being careful not to put too much pressure on details or you might snap them off. Easy as that. Uni holidays coming up and I can finally get painting on this and my 6 demigryphs, I have so far only done their bases and a little paint. Here is the result