Tutorial - Fixing a Warped Leg

One of these days I'll have a clever title for these things.

Today is not that day.

I'm sure you can find tutorials all over the internet on the topic, but I had a foal that needed her leg fixed and I figured it was time to post a tutorial - so here we go!

I have a Proud Arabian Foal that I got with a warped leg. She could still stand, but she looked funny.

Most warps are very slight, but this was an extreme case to where the pose was almost altered completely.

To fix this, I grabbed my handy lighter

and started heating the area of the leg that needed to be reshaped.

It's best to wave the flame much like you'd do a hairdryer to your hair, to keep the plastic from burning. Make sure you get all angles to ensure the plastic is heated all the way through.

It is OKAY for the flame to touch the plastic, but remember that too much heat too quickly can cause the plastic to burn, and the flames may leave soot and yellow the plastic. So if you're simply trying to fix an original finish, new model, give a little distance between the flame and the plastic to keep from yellowing or burning the plastic or paint. The more distance you give it, the longer it takes, but the safer you'll be to save that leg.

I plan to customize this horse, so I wasn't afraid to let the flame lick her leg.

Once the plastic is heated, gently push it in the direction you need to, to get it straight. Only push it as far as it's comfortable. If it threatens to buckle the plastic on the side opposite your finger, leave it alone and heat another area to get it straight.

This was as far as I could push it, but there's still a slight warp going on. The lower half of the leg was straight, so I re-heated the warped area

And repeated the process.

And now we have a perfectly-straight leg!

Here's the video of the process, so you can see all of the steps in action!

I hope this helped! If you have any suggestions for a tutorial, let me know and I'll see what I can do!