Im doing the Tamiya 1/35 Churchill Infantry Tank. Pictures from WW2 often show the front fenders either OFF or severly dented, without rubber mud flaps tamiya suggests installing....

The kits front fenders are seperate from the hull, I would like to mildy (or severly) "DENT" these plastic pieces to look more realistic.....

An example is shown below


Any Ideas?

I have had success in the past VERY carefully heating fenders and adding dents with the backside of an ex-acto knife or a pencil eraser. If you are going to try this I would highly recommend practicing on an old model first.

Shaun

Let your 1/35 scale teenage son drive it?

I find it easier to thin out the back of the plastic using files, X-Acto knife blades (chisel ones), sanding sticks, etc. until I get it to an almost paper thin (scale) thickness. Then use a suitable object like a little screw driver to add dents by gently but firmly push against the plastic.

Try this. Get one of those thin soda (or beer) cans. Cut a chunk out of it. Cut it to the shape of the fender, and then go to town bending and creasing it. Simpler, cheaper, and more realistic looking. and you get something to drink with it

I'm with blaster76. The aluminum can method is not that hard, avoid putting a potentially essential part at risk through over-thinning, and can be very convincing. In my first, somewhat ham-fisted attempt to use this technique, I made new muffler guards for a Tiger I. If you can get past the bad photography, here's a pic:



Not great, but acceptable. And a LOT better than I expect I would have done with the thinninh technique, which sounds quite challenging to me. The best part is, if you mess it up, just cut a new piece!

You may try carving/sanding a block of balsa to shape first.Then with a hot soldering iron or gun form some thin sheet styrene around the block and of course watch your fingers when molding it.It 's a poor mans vacuform but it does work-with practice it gets easy! After that you can dent and ding to your hearts content.

I would suggest duplicating the fenders in aluminum and then denting to your hearts content. The heated plastic method, IMO, is very hard to pull off convincingly. I've tried it a couple times and have never been happy with the results.

Another method i read about is to take some aliminium(?) foil from the bottom of a pie dish, and place over the actual plastic piece and then shape it the piece by using whatevers neccessary to shape it with. Attach it to the model and then it is quite easy to dent naturally. This stuff is stronger than what you think but easy enough to work with. I think this is an Ian saddler trick ??