Need help creating wing dihedral!!!

[mountian-man]

Hello all,

I have both of the Ki-61 tony models that 21st century released in 1:48th scale. They are beautiful models with the exception that the wings are quite flat...

If I apply slight upward pressure to the wings while holding the model, the wings assume the proper dihedral. The plastic is fairly flexible and this gave me encouragement to try and "fix" the flat wings. The first thing that came to mind is if I could safely bend the plastic, perhaps by heating and slowly applying pressure? I know forum members have created wire braces for 1:18th sale aircraft...

Any advice from the talented/knowledgeable modelers here would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You!
- Jeremy

[flyboy_fx]

Maybe a little dunk in boiling water? Not enough to melt plastic, just soften.

[granch]

...and of course maintain the wings with the right angle until the all thing is cold again.

[mountian-man]

Thank you for the comments,

I was thinking of going the hot water route, and I made my move this afternoon. I removed the wings from the fuselage and placed them under hot tap water, while heating water on the stove. Then, I carefully spooned the heated water (not quite boiling) over the center of the wings. When I slowly applied an appropriate amount of pressure with my hands, the wings became somewhat malleable. I propped the corrected wings on a cardboard box with a weight(model paint jar) on top as they cooled. It took a little bit of sanding with a finger nail file/pad along the wing root to refit the wings. I now have two Ki-61's with a dihedral!!! Looking at pictures of the actual aircraft it's amazing how much dihedral they had, it seems to be a major characteristic of the ki-61! Shame that 21st Century always had sporadic issues with dihedral.

[flyboy_fx]

Good job!