Seeking Advice on Melting a Vehicle

So I had this crazy idea I was wanting to use for the base of my (chaos) Knight. I was thinking about having a rhino or other space marine vehicle wrecked under one foot, but instead of the usual methods of making a tank look destroyed, I wanted to have maybe half of it melted away. The idea is that it was destroyed by the Knight's thermal cannon.

My working idea was to take my vehicle of choice and then hold a hot frying pan next to one side (without letting it touch the model) until I got the desired result, but I don't actually know if that would work. Have any of y'all tried something like this? Any tips for getting this type of effect?

I have a heat gun. you could try that.

It would be almost like the real thing! You could even role play it!

I made some terrain out of some donated tanks. I took them out in the parking lot, doused them in lighter fluid and went Jim Hendrix on them. The effect was very realistic and my pyro tendencies were put in check for a time.

I like Brandon's heat gun idea moreso than your "burn all the things," John, but mostly that's because lighting them on fire wouldn't give me the desired effect. What I'm sorta going for is if you took a pristine rhino, then stabbed it with rhino-sized lightsaber to melt a hole clean through.

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Originally Posted by Kaika87

I like Brandon's heat gun idea moreso than your "burn all the things," John, but mostly that's because lighting them on fire wouldn't give me the desired effect. What I'm sorta going for is if you took a pristine rhino, then stabbed it with rhino-sized lightsaber to melt a hole clean through.

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For that you need a blow torch. It will just take a second.

A blow torch would be more precision for that kind of work.

In a pinch what will work with out getting the attention of the fire dept or using tools that could end up burning your own flesh is a tea kettle. Put your kettle onto boil and once steam begins to come out and the kettle whistles place the piece of plastic in question in the path of the steam, wear your kitchen mitts for this part, wait a few minutes (no more than 3). Not only will you have warping effects like plasma would have on real metal you will have a very easy to bend and mold section of plastic. Shape it into whatever form you want then let it cool. The over all effect will very much look like something got hit with a super hot ball of energy ie plasma.

Try using a salt bath. Bols had an article on it a few years ago.

Before you go burning your house down, I recommend a butane micro torch. Smaller, more to scale: http://www.harborfreight.com/http-ww...2099-html.html

I might even drill a hole a little smaller than the size you want, and then just melt the edges, that will give you better control.

i would use a wood burning tool to melt the specific area you want melted, yeah not as cool as playing with fire but if i remember correctly they have different tips you can use and also works well did it for a nurgle model years back (xwife had one and was not using it for anything anymore) also could use a soldering iron granted that will mess up the tips

Did you ever end up melting it? What was the end result?

How about using a metal rod of your desired diameter. Heat said rod and push it through the side armour. It should look like the armour was hit by a thermal ray.

That would be tricky, first off metal likes to bend when it becomes heated. Second the plastic used on most vehicle kits tends to be thick. Lastly you would need a way to hold the rod while it's really hot with out burning your skin. Unless of course your into the entire melted hand look like from raiders of the lost arc.

Its not that difficult. This is how professional modelers like Francois Verlinden and Shep Payne do it. Besides you aren't trying to melt the metal rod, just get it real hot. Lastly, there was a new tool invented recently that could be used to hold a hot piece of metal. They are called pliers.

Or like suggested above, a wood burning tool or soldering iron, that is already designed to get hot.

Talk about a necro-post Kevin has played games with this model.

So where's a pic? Dying to see the end result. Like some bad tv cliffhanger.

I think Kevin made like a Splug and brushed his shoulders off.

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Originally Posted by RealGenius

Did you ever end up melting it? What was the end result?

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I did. Used a butane torch, with the unforseen consequence of having to repeatedly blow out fires on the plastic. Still, I'm pleased with the end result:

Attachment 1216Attachment 1217

I need to figure out a better way to mount this on the Knight's base. Thinking of just putting the other foot on a rock or something to match the height of the Rhino.

Just make the crushing keg bend, it has knees right? Or is it another marine inside a marine joke the GW loves to make with the Ray gun range?

Nice! Looks fantastic. Very melted indeed.

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Originally Posted by Geist

Just make the crushing keg bend, it has knees right? Or is it another marine inside a marine joke the GW loves to make with the Ray gun range?

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The Knight's leg is a solid piece, so I had to cut the knee joint to make it "bend," but the problem was also the hip joint. The leg slots in with a hexagonal peg, so I'm going to have to cut that too if I want to mane the leg slightly lifted.

Kevin just make the "peg" round by filing it and you can position the hip however you want.

If it was me I would insert the peg make it solid then break it as needed and repose with the peg solid in providing a firm work base for a re sculpt. Kinda like surgery, break a bone to have it reset more firm. Some times a rebreak is a needed thing.