Sir Revert, a boiling test

[mangochutnee]

One trick to remember (Flit is a good example of this) is that if you want the Bones to bend into a certain form (say, upright) then when you do the boil n' bend trick bend him too far backwards. When the mini eventually settles into its final form, then you'll have closer to what you want because the reversion will be absorbed by the more extreme set angle.

 

Thanks for this advice, I will try it out. I have boiled about eight or nine different figures now and none of them stayed exactly the way I positioned them. I boiled them for two minutes, reshaped while they were "flubbery", and then dunked them into ice water for about five minutes the first time. They looked great, but then overnight all reverted to more or less their original positions. The second time I let them boil longer and sat them in the ice bath for over ten minutes. This worked better for the most egregious models (I got some where the base was parallel rather than perpendicular to the figure) but I still ended up with warped swords etc.

 

Does anyone know if humidity has much to do with it? I live in Denver, CO and it is bone dry out here.

[Broken Toy]

If your mini returns to its former shape after a while, that's because you didn't heat it enough. Here's why.

 

There are two kinds of deformations happening to solids: elastic deformation and plastic deformation.

• Elastic deformation is when the solid accumulates forces but is able to release them (like a spring).
• Plastic deformation is when you go beyond the elastic deformation threshold; the remaining forces work on the structure of the solid.

In short: You must go past a solid's elasticity threshold every time you want to deform it.

 

When heating a solid, you bring it closer to a liquid state thus lower its elastic threshold and make it easier to deform permanently.

To make things simple when it comes to deformation, imagine that solids are elastic and liquids are plastic.

 

Therefore you must heat your Bones as much as possible (without melting them!) so that your deformation takes hold.

Even when boiling, they remain elastic so you must still deform past their elasticity threshold to do permanent 'damage'.

 

Freezing has no effect, except to bring the mini faster to a low temperature where it becomes more solid (elastic) and less liquid (plastic).

What freezing really helps with, is to make the time you need to hold the mini in position much shorter.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Broken Toy

[DocPiske]

Having worked for a major automotive supplier on injected molded plastic parts, I can tell you that injected plastic has a "grain" from the flow of the material. If the part is deformed while hot from the mold (while de-molding or shortly there after), that will become its "natural" shape; i.e. the one it will try to return to when deformed again. In order to permanently deform it, you need to "break" the grain. This can be done by heating it up and bending it past the desired shape as mentioned. It can also be done by stretching the softened material along the long axis and then holding it in the desired position while it cools. Sometimes you simply have to cut the material and re-glue it into the desire shape; no amount of heating and repositioning will work.

Edited June 30, 2013 by DocPiske

[Golden_Esque]

In my experience, boiling water isn't necessary. I held a bone under a hot water facet for about ten seconds and it heated up to the point where I could easily reset it.

[Magnus Mercury]

 

 

In my experience, boiling water isn't necessary. I held a bone under a hot water facet for about ten seconds and it heated up to the point where I could easily reset it.

I think it depends heavily on the thickness of the part you're trying to bend; the heat needs to thoroughly penetrate the part in question. So, a quick dip under a hot faucet might work for something like a sword or spear, but maybe not so well for a large monster's torso.

 

Also, thanks to Broken Toy and DocPiske for the more in-depth explanations of what's going on.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Magnus Mercury

[DixonGrfx]

When I got my Vampire Pledge Reward, I separated out 50 or so figures that had varying states of "bent out of shape". Then I grabbed a big pot of water, set it on the stove and got the water up to a Vigorous Rolling Boil. At that point I just dumped all those figures in the water and made sure that they weren't crowding each other. I let the whole pot, with the figures in it, sit and boil for 10-15 mins while I got out my cooling pot ready. I should note that my stove is a flat surface electric range. If your using a gas range, your results may vary. While the BONES were boiling I set up another equally big pot of water with lots of Ice cubes. I then started fishing out one figure at a time with a slotted spoon and as fast as I could safely move the figure into the cooling pot I would drop them in. The smaller figures don't need a long time to heat up or cool down, but I have found that it has no adverse affects on them, so I do all my figures the same. Ten to fifteen mins to heat up and 30 to 45 mins to cool down. The results were pretty great. A few of the figures will need another hot tub treatment, but for the most part that one go around was sufficient to take the bend out my BONES.

[Broken Toy]

It shouldn't have any adverse effect; the very nice thing about boiling water is that it stays close to 100°C all the time so the heat can safely diffuse itself and there should be no risk of melting as long as the minis don't stay in contact with the pot (same as when cooking, really!).

 

That said, I've only used hot faucet water on Descent minis (still waiting for my Bones shipment to Canada...) and it worked fine, only I had to constantly check the temperature didn't go too low as I kept reusing the same water in a pot.

[HisstKa]

I still reccomend a hairdryer over hot water. It gives you the heat you need, and is faster. Works like a champ!

[burnsides]

 

 

Yeah, this guy seems to be the one that most people are having issues with. I think I'll try pinning him while flubbery from being boiled and see if that works a bit better when I get my greasy hands on him.

I nominate "flubbery" as the official term for that bouncy soft feel of hot simmered Bones, full credit going to Laoke of course.

I love being present when a new word is coined ---however this one might already exist--- but it is kind of a cool reference.

 

 

Oh how I REAAAAAALLLLYYYY wish you'd had a picture of Fred Macmurray there instead of Robin Williams... Sigh. But I'm old now and the world doesn't care what I think. And punk music is quaint and dated. And mohawks are a classic look. All cars look like mazdas and toyotas now. Meh. All restaurants are Taco Bell. I went into a Chipotle the other day and I said "is this a Taco Bell? " and the guy said "yep."

Edited July 9, 2013 by burnsides

[bojesphob]

I had a few that sprung back immediately, but a couple bent back to what they were before I did the boil. Looks like I'm going to have to redo them, and do the push them beyond the elasticity point thing. That's ok though, because I forgot to boil the wings for Nethyrmaul (the tips look like gnarled roots), so I was going to have to do a second boil anyway.

[psyberwolfe1]

If your mini returns to its former shape after a while, that's because you didn't heat it enough. Here's why.

 

There are two kinds of deformations happening to solids: elastic deformation and plastic deformation.

• Elastic deformation is when the solid accumulates forces but is able to release them (like a spring).
• Plastic deformation is when you go beyond the elastic deformation threshold; the remaining forces work on the structure of the solid.

In short: You must go past a solid's elasticity threshold every time you want to deform it.

 

When heating a solid, you bring it closer to a liquid state thus lower its elastic threshold and make it easier to deform permanently.

To make things simple when it comes to deformation, imagine that solids are elastic and liquids are plastic.

 

Therefore you must heat your Bones as much as possible (without melting them!) so that your deformation takes hold.

Even when boiling, they remain elastic so you must still deform past their elasticity threshold to do permanent 'damage'.

 

Freezing has no effect, except to bring the mini faster to a low temperature where it becomes more solid (elastic) and less liquid (plastic).

What freezing really helps with, is to make the time you need to hold the mini in position much shorter.

As a note ReaperBryan said the liquid temp and freezing temp of the bones material was a few degrees apart. Short of having an industrial heater you won't melt these. Boiling water is sufficient to thermoset Bones. However this was an interesting read.

[buglips*the*goblin]

In my experience, boiling water isn't necessary. I held a bone under a hot water facet for about ten seconds and it heated up to the point where I could easily reset it.

 

Boiling is probably overkill, I think I even mentioned that when I did the first boil tests - but in this case it's better to overkill than underkill. It gets a lot trickier to reset after paint and finishing product goes on, so if you're going to err best to err on the side of getting it done the first time.

[TGP]

 

 

 

Yeah, this guy seems to be the one that most people are having issues with. I think I'll try pinning him while flubbery from being boiled and see if that works a bit better when I get my greasy hands on him.

I nominate "flubbery" as the official term for that bouncy soft feel of hot simmered Bones, full credit going to Laoke of course.

I love being present when a new word is coined ---however this one might already exist--- but it is kind of a cool reference.

 

 

Oh how I REAAAAAALLLLYYYY wish you'd had a picture of Fred Macmurray there instead of Robin Williams... Sigh. But I'm old now ...

 

If it is any consolation: so is Robin Williams.

 

Again I apologize for not referencing the original films... (which are the ones I vaguely remember) ...I was led astray by the RW version having the coined word in/as the title.

[Talae]

I read Fred Macmurray as Freddie Mercury...that would have been a VERY different film.

[Nocturne]

I read Fred Macmurray as Freddie Mercury...that would have been a VERY different film.

 

That would have been an AWESOME film!