Repairing warped DR dinos

[Seijun]

Does anyone here have any experience repairing warped DR dinos using a heatgun / hair dryer? I have a kentrosaurus with one back leg warped inward about an inch, and my recently acquired bronto has one back leg warped outward several inches. I would love to repair both but I don't feel much like experimenting on either.

[stoneage]

May 11, 2011 8:19:48 GMT Seijun said:

Does anyone here have any experience repairing warped DR dinos using a heatgun / hair dryer? I have a kentrosaurus with one back leg warped inward about an inch, and my recently acquired bronto has one back leg warped outward several inches. I would love to repair both but I don't feel much like experimenting on either.

Check with Blade, he does that kind of stuff all the time!

[emperorkrulos]

Be sure to let us know how it goes.

[Seijun]

Is this a normal issue with the bronto? When three feet are flat on the ground, the foot of his warped back leg is completely off the ground.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I recall the one I had was supported by 3 feet and it's tail so one was slightly off the ground. After it sat around a years it did finally sink down and rest on it a bit.

I would use a hairdryer instead of a heat gun..a hair dryer's heat level even at it's max shouldn't melt or disfigure anything....heat guns are faster..but I've boiled some paint and charred a few things with one by lingering just a smidge too long. ou can wear gloves or use a pair of pairs to test how flexible the heated part is periodically.

When you get where you want just run under cold water or use the cool setting on the hair dryer. I actually did this today restyling a Jasman Galli's feet.

[Seijun]

My concern is mainly that the paint will crack or flake off. Have you ever used a hair dryer on a DR dino?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I may have it's hard to recall the fixes I've done..I believe I fixed a Struthi's leg once ...but toy paint is quiet durable..I would imagine it's no better or worse than what Safari, Bully, Jasman or Hasbro uses and I've had no problem with them in the past. the only time paint should come off is if it's not bonded to the surface in the first place..that's not usually an issue with toys though. Think of all the kids that left their toys in the sun and in hot cars..I've never seen a DR with flaking or boiled off paint before.

[emperorkrulos]

Seijun,


would you mind writing a tutorial while you're at it?

[Seijun]

Its not much of a tutorial, but here is what I ended up doing:
After blasting the brontos leg for 15 minutes with a hairdryer, there was bascally no change. The plastic had softened a little, but it wasn't enough to reposition the leg. So I took two 5lb weights tied together with string and hung them over the ankle of the bad leg, then turned the bronto on his side so the weights were pressuring the bad leg inward. I hit it again with the dryer for about 2 minutes on the highest setting, then switched the dryer to cold and cooled the leg off completely. I removed the weights, checked the leg position, and then repeated the whole process two more times. The leg is very close to the correct position now. I ended up doing this on all four legs. The two legs on one side were too far out and the other legs were two far in. The tail will need to be bent upwards a little since it is lifting his whole back end off the ground about a 4th of an inch. The paint was not damaged or cracked from this process.

I have not touched the kentro yet, his leg will be a lot harder because it is solid plastic. The bronto leg was hollow.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

The Kentro's leg is also smaller though...might not be as bad..or just as bad. A heat gun would have done the job faster, but it's really best to experiment with one of those a lot first.