Bending My Bones (spider edition)

[Tallghost 391]

Wasn't sure if this should go here or in the Craft Corner, but since it could have info related to the entire Bones line, I went with here. And now, onto my question:

I am assembling my Cadirith, Demonic Colossal Spider, The legs are bent all wonky. I understand how to unbend bones, and have done it several times, but never with a multi part critter like this. My instinct is telling me to glue the thing together, and then dip it in the boiling water, so I can better arrange all of the legs. But, if past performance is any indicator, my instincts hate me and want to see me in pain, so I thought I better put  it before the forum.

Will gluing the mini and then reshaping it cause issues for the mini? Should I try to bend it first, and then glue it together?

 

[Doug Sundseth 56785]

If you try to reshape everything at once, you're going to want all your friends over to help, I think. Simultaneously holding each of eight legs in its correct position will be tricky at best.

 

I didn't find it difficult to reshape each pair of legs separately. Which is good, since I wanted to vary the angle of the connection between tab and leg in two or more directions for each leg as I was moving toward the ice water.

[Slendertroll 7554]

My instincts would tell me to bend first, then glue. I don't think doing it your way would cause any problems though, so you might as well try it. Just make sure the glue is super, super, super dry before you do it, since water causes superglue to react very poorly.

[DixonGrfx 4340]

I boiled all my parts disassembled. Then put him together after the ice bath. Worked just fine for me.

[buglips*the*goblin 93771]

Boiling can (and usually will) break the glue bonds.  This is a similar conundrum to Wyrmgear, where pieces have to fit with some precision to make him stand right.  If you temporarily assemble Cadrith with some white glue or anything else just enough to hold it together for a short time, you should be able to see which legs need correction.  Dissasmble and do these one at a time and it should work okay. 

[Doug Sundseth 56785]

... you should be able to see which legs need correction.

 

For me, that was "all of them, and all in different directions". But I didn't find a need to use an adhesive to hold them in place to test.

 

If you do need a temporary adhesive, poster tack works pretty well.

[DixonGrfx 4340]

I just boiled everything together. Dumped all the parts into an ice bath big enough for all the pieces to rest in without crowding. The legs resumed their "natural" position. When assembled he went together perfectly. No further tweaking needed. I did boil him for 10+ mins.

[etherial 7380]

The first boiling should help them reset to whatever shape they had when they were ejected from the mold. This should get you 90% of the way there, unless your Demonic Colossal Spider is a Misshapen Nightmare.

[buglips*the*goblin 93771]

 

... you should be able to see which legs need correction.

 

For me, that was "all of them, and all in different directions". But I didn't find a need to use an adhesive to hold them in place to test.

 

If you do need a temporary adhesive, poster tack works pretty well.

 

 

Yes, actually earlier when I wrote "or anything else" the something else was poster tack but I didn't have enough coffee in me yet to access that part of my memory.  Poster tack would be my first choice. 

[Dadcubed 1654]

When I did my great worm I boiled the base for over 20minutes and that mostly did the trick. ;)

[Tallghost 391]

Just to let all of you helpful folks know, I tried one set of legs at a time, but I am too shortsighted to see how they would look best when fully assembled. so I went with putting the legs in their slots, holding them in place with one daring thumb on it's belly, and (carefully) dipping one half of the spider at a time. this got me to where I was happy with the pose. This was my first major unbending (other than swords and the damned gargoyle) so  the mentions of increasing boiling time were actually a great help. Thanks to all for your advice!