Hey people, I heard that subjecting the WSF material to boiling water compromised it's flexibility, making it more brittle. Though, in digging through here on the topic of dyeing, seems everyone uses the hot water method. Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks! Maria
It's actually precisely the opposite - exposing the PA12 to boiling water anneals the material, making it more flexible by relieving its internal stresses. It's a common trick.
My "space dock" got distored during shipping. (The plastic bag may have been too small.) If I put a deformed WSF model in hot water, will it return to its original shape? This seems to work well with resin.
Eventually I'll have to break down and give it a try, maybe by gradually increasing the temperature of the water. It's no good to me as it is. On a related note, I've been soaking my WSF models overnight in Thompson's water seal, thinking it might help seal the pores as it supposedly does with concrete. I don't know if it does any good, but I can report that it appears to do no harm.
I recently received several of my model sailing ships, and I had a similar issue. So, I put them in a pot of boiling water, and the masts, which had been twisted, simply straightened out. I didn't even need to put them in a fixture to get them right where I wanted them.