Hey guys... I was just wondering if anyone had an idea of how I might stiffen the plastic that CYB Vector Prime's sword & wings are made of?

I've run the sword under hot water, straightened it and then ran it under cold water to stiffen it up. Unfortunately, a couple hours later it is actually bending over from gravity just sitting there in his hand!  

I've never seen plastic this soft on a figure!

 

The chemical makeup of the plastic is just that type of plastic. You can't change it with heat or cold.

 

I understand that, but I was wondering if there was possibly some method (coating with clear nail polish, glue, etc) that had been experimented with before...

I knew the hot/cold was only temporary, I initially used that method just to get the sword straightened out. The second time it bent, it bent to the other side  

 

You might just have to wait for a repro.

 

this is a longshot

why not thread a thin metal lon needle type thing from one end to the other so you give the sword a sort of skeliton

 

That's an idea...It would prob. be pretty hard though to get it exactly straight.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

I went to home depot and got some brown spray paint, made by American Accent, huge can for $3.29 (It has to be water based paint, oil based paint will never dry). I also got some Tamiya primer. I primed the wings and then sprayed the brown on, it seems that the paint made the wings a little stiffer. Hope that helps. I never tried spraying some clear coating on the sword though. Hmmm......

 

Hi, Thanks for the post! That's an idea I considered, though I wasn't sure what type to try(the clearcoat thing).

From searching the web, I've found that people use elmers glue to stiffen some types of plastic. The main drawback is that you pretty much lose any fine detail. I happen to have some krylon crystal clear acrylic that I may just try.

 

Well if you spray, spray at a distance of at least 6 inches, and do it sparingly. In short bursts of paint. Don't drench the whole thing. I learned it the hard way when my first attempt drowned out all the details in the wings. I had to wash them in thinner.