Hi,

As a little side project while building a Mig-21, I dug out a 1:35 figure from my stash, soldier reloading his rifle from Dragon's "Winter combat" set, #6154.

I decided to spice it up a little by using a Gen2 helmet, an open ammo pouch, and of course, a new kar98k with an open bolt.
In addition to these, I feel the hand gripping the ammo clip should be modified to actually hold the clip, as the gap between his thumb and fingers is three or four times as wide as the clip.

I reasoned that it would probably be easiest to modify the thumb, since there's least plastic to do surgery on. (and it's least visible, in case something goes wrong) But how?
The most obvious option I first thought of was gently heating the part so I could bend the thumb to a better position, but there's always the risk of melting and ruining the part.
Another method I can think of is cutting off the thumb and repositioning it.
Or I could sculp a whole new thumb, although I don't know if I can pull off such a stunt (at least yet).
What's your opinion?

Try to make a couple of V shaped cuts in the thumb on the side you want to bend and put a dab of glue in then bend the thumb in. Use a razor saw instead of a scalpel as it is very easy to cut your own thumb if you're not careful.

By the way what's the weather like in Finland I'm heading over to Pori next week.

Cut a V shape wedge in the thumb ( the side you want to bend it to ) and bend it down.
Just put some glue on it and your done.
It's that easy!?

Happy modelling,
Frank.

put it in some real hot water and bend it. then run it through some cold water to set it.

Thanks for the pointers. I sat down yesterday and searched the same method, cutting grooves and bending the part.
I opted to bend the fingers instead of the thumb. Worked out pretty well I think.


It worked better than I thought, I don't even need any putty on the palm side.
But now with the right hand grip corrected, I feel I just have to modify the left hand as well to hold the rifle firmly, although the grip is much better, but still a bit loose.

About the weather, don't expect too much of a winter up here. There was already some snow a couple of days ago, with temperatures a few degrees below zero, quite nice, but now it has turned to the usual December stuff. Few degrees celcius and the little snow's turning into slush. If it stays the same, the snow'll be gone very soon.