Advice needed - banana shaped fuselage halves!

[Leading Observer]

Can any one recommend a simple solution to what I am sure is a not uncommon problem? The two halves of my recently acquired Shackleton are distinctly warped

[Steel Penguin]

if resin you could try the really hot water soak, clamp to board and cool water trick, it also works on plastic, but if too hot can lead to other unpleasant bowings.

[kitnut617]

The hot water treatment works with styrene too ---

I've got a Maquette Dart Herald with the same problem, I think it must be where the plastic is removed from the mould to quickly because it seems to be a common problem with the Frog-Spawn crowd.

[Leading Observer]

Thanks guys. Looking at it,it will need some careful treatment as it appears to be warped in several places - the section cut out for the bombay also curves inwards, so that will need to be pushed out at the same time as the fuselage is straightened out

[McColm]

I found that out whilst building the Shackleteer. I'll try the hot water treatment on my other Shackletons.

[Captain Canada]

I'm going to try the hot water and clamped to a board trick....those Convair 880 fuselage halves are pretty warped.

[Hobbes]

Be very careful using hot water with styrene. I did that on my L-1011, and ended up making dents in the fuselage instead of straightening it out. The water has to be very hot: I had to use my electric kettle, the 60°C water from my hot water tap wasn't enough. This meant pouring small amounts of nearly boiling water onto the fuselage, leading to spot heating. There's a very small temperature band where the plastic is soft enough to straighten things out but not soft enough to lose its shape altogether.

[Dizzyfugu]

I'd also warn to be VERY careful with the hot water method. It works (even though I never tried it on a fuselage), but...

a) the water has to be boiling hot; I used a large kettle on the hearth
b) when you warm the styrene or PVC, it becomes flexible in 3 dimensions and loses integrity. The aforementioned dents are the result, you can do more damage than correct a flaw
c) the border between "adjustable" and "firm" is small, the change comes quickly in both ways - the stuff suddenly becomes flexible, and once it cools down the hardening process happens in an instant, too, making delicate adjustments IMHO impossible.

I had some success with this method when I changed arm or leg positions on large scale figures, and created a sea surface with wide, shallow waves from a piece of acrylic glass - but I have serious doubts that you can successfully straighten out a warped fuselage (half).

Hot air might be considered, too, but does not work either. Air is a bad heat medium, a hair dryer has IMHO not enough power, and if you use an industrial one you only heat a very limited area - the blown air will rather create a dent and obsure surface details than allow a clean adjustment.

I had the warped fuselage case with a Matchbox Wellington, many years ago, and I solved the problem simple by glueing the halves together (with lots of glue) and firmly tightening them with tape, leaving the stuff 24h to bond. That actually worked, but the warping was not more than 4mm, at best. Not certain how bad the Shack is, but I'd recommend a "cold" method.

[The Wooksta!]

The bomb bay insert and the bulkheads should give the fuselage some rigidity, plus you could try adding some strips of plastic card along the mating surfaces (as you'd do with a vacform) as extra grip.  Tape, clamps and elastic bands are also your friends.

Really depends how warped it is.  Some 1979 tool (but produced recently) Airfix Lancasters are a real pain with regards to warping.  Ditto Heller Spitfire 16s in the black plastic which are very prone to it.  So much so, the fuselages are unuseable but I just use those as donor kits.

[Leading Observer]

One thought was to get a second kit with [hopefully]  straight[er] fuselage sections, and then warped left with straight right and vice versa. Is the Revell kit the same moulding?

[kitnut617]

Is the Revell kit the same moulding?

Yes --

[Gondor]

One thought was to get a second kit with [hopefully]  straight[er] fuselage sections, and then warped left with straight right and vice versa. Is the Revell kit the same moulding?

I have a pair of Shackleton fuselage half's spare. They are slightly bent but nothing that can not be cured by carefully glueing and clamping the fuselage half's together piece by piece.

Yours for the postage once I find a box to ship the parts in. Any other parts your after while I am searching out bits?

Gondor

[Leading Observer]

Hi Gondor,

That is extremely kind of you. Everything else looks to be OK, unless you want to include the bombay floor and any bulkheads going spare?

[Gondor]

PM sent

Gondor