Fixing bent plastic minis?

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

OK, I now officially love minis.

However, some of them are bent, especially the weapons. This is a real distraction. Is there a way to fix a bent mini?

 

[MerricB]

Certainly!

Hold the miniature in hot water for a while, then bend the weapons or mini into position.

Then dunk the miniature into icy water (I put icecubes in mine). Hold it there for a bit.

Repeat if necessary.

Cheers!

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

You do mean the plastic minis, right?

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Merric, that's for plastic minis right?

Because I have a vrock and some skeletons that really need it!

In other D&D minis geek news (well, it's news to me): My head exploded when I noticed that the D&D Basic Game set has stat cards for the minis! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

 

[Wikid Klown]

I'm guessing that's for metal minis, since you heat the metal, form it, then cool it, just like making a weapon or something else. The same thing's happened to a few of my minis, I just bend it back to it's original position, then further, so when it moves back, it takes the old form "naturally". It's worked for a Vrock's arm, a dragonslayer's sword, and a lot of dragon wings/arms.

 

[scourger]

I've heard people say it can be done witha hair (blow) dryer, too.

 

[kenobi65]

I'm guessing that's for metal minis

No, actually, it's for the plastic D&D minis.

A fair number of them get bent in packing / transport, but they are easy to fix, as Merric has indicated.

The fact that Merric maintains one of the premier D&D Minis pages also suggests to me that he's talking about the plastic ones.

To elaborate on his points:
1) I've found it works best if you use truly boiling water.
2) Use tongs to dip the mini into the water for maybe 10 seconds. Don't stick your fingers in there -- it *is* boiling water!
3) Heating it up this way usually causes the mini to spring back into its original formation. If not, you can easily bend it once you remove it from the water (but, be careful, because now it'll be *really* soft).
4) Dip it into cold water (I find running tap water works pretty well) for several seconds to "set" the mini in its new position.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Anyone else finding that the gnoll skeletons won't stand up straight, even after heating and rebending?

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

Anyone else finding that the gnoll skeletons won't stand up straight, even after heating and rebending?

YES! We have two gnoll skeletons (of the 4 we own) that lean WAY back.

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

1) I've found it works best if you use truly boiling water.
2) Use tongs to dip the mini into the water for maybe 10 seconds. Don't stick your fingers in there -- it *is* boiling water!
3) Heating it up this way usually causes the mini to spring back into its original formation. If not, you can easily bend it once you remove it from the water (but, be careful, because now it'll be *really* soft).
4) Dip it into cold water (I find running tap water works pretty well) for several seconds to "set" the mini in its new position.

Does this affect the paint job at all?