Sad day for a Belknap

[Quaralane]

Yesterday, I primered my 1/1000 Gizmotron Belknap class model in hopes of getting it off the WIP list.
Here were the build pics.
http://s432.photobucket.com/albums/qq45/quaralane/Trek/Federation-non-Canon/Solaris-Belknap/

Being without an indoor spray booth, I primer out on the back deck.
Yesterday, it was well into the 90s.
The heat did its damage on the nacelle struts, warping and softening them terribly.
I tried to straighten them back out, but didn't have much success.
Today, I figured I'd try taking the struts off and straightening them via hot/cold water.
Sadly, the struts had no strength left in them. They snapped like weak styrofoam.
Sadly, she's become kit-bashing material now.
Luckily, I was able to salvage the saucer and nacelles.

 

[Beork]

Can't you scratch new ones?
Would be a shame if it can't be build.

 

[Grendels]

Or maybe use some wire to re-enforce? I have done this before with mixed results. The part was still pretty fragile at the end, but it held together. I was not using anything near as stiff as the wire below. From the photos it looks like those pylons are pretty thin, so embedding wire might be hard. I do have some pretty stiff wire in a small diameter I got from Hobby Lobby. (It was in the train section, K&S, no. 5005 music wire. The diameter was 0.025) That might work. Just take your pin vice and drill a few holes. I tried using it for an armature once, but it was so stiff, that I had to give up on it. I used a different kind of wire instead.

 

[JMac]

Can't you scratch new ones?
Would be a shame if it can't be build.

I agree, it would be a shame not to finish this one up. The Belknap would look great beside your 1/1000 scale Enterprise.

If you do decide to make new struts, I'd reinforce them, the resin nacelle might be heavy for just sytrene construction...

 

[Jeep]

I recommend evergreen plastic for the nacelle struts, use a section of brass tube inside for strength, You may be able to just drill out the resin struts and insert clothes hanger wire and or brass tube to reinforce them originals.

 

[Grendels]

Or maybe contact the kit manufacture and see if you can get new struts? Some companies would do this, but you might have to pay a small fee.

 

[Quaralane]

--shakes head--
She won't be getting finished as a Belknap.
Struts made a mess of the hull with how they broke on me, and I made a further mess of it separating the secondary hull from the saucer.

Bought this kit as a "gotta have it" then wondered why as I looked her over later on.
That was part of why it stayed in the WIP pile for so long.
The Saucer and Nacelles will likely become part of a bash later

Mostly wanted to share my misfortune so that you could all learn from my mistake

 

[DreamKnight]

Awe man That's horrible. I didn't know heat would warp resin like that.

 

[Quaralane]

I knew you could do it with really hot water, or a heat gun. Never knew you could do it with sunlight, though.

 

[JMac]

Lots of power the sun, I think I read something along the lines that the solar radiation is 1.2 kW per Sqr Metre to the Earth.

 

[Grendels]

Lots of power the sun, I think I read something along the lines that the solar radiation is 1.2 kW per Sqr Metre to the Earth.

Funny, I just worked out that today at work, you are pretty close to what I calculated, we got 1.1 kW per square meter, at the equator if you are facing the proper direction. This number does decrease as the angle between you and the sun changes. Moving away from the equator causes this angle to change, so the power is lower as you go north or south....

Heat does affect most plastics, but different materials behave in different ways. I think resin shares some properties with structural steel. With structural steel, too much heat weakens it. Allowing it to bend easily, and retain that shape when it cools off. Steel can take some flexing, but if you bend it beyond its elastic limit, it will break or deform to the point where you cannot get it back to it's original shape.

Styrene is a very different type of plastic. It will take flexing better than resin. So the abuse you give styrene will not work with resin. It will just break. Heat will melt styrene, but not resin, it just softens resin, and probably weakens it. (enough heat and both with burn.)