I have been looking into some of AFV Club’s 1/48 armor sets. I have found some really beautiful respresentations of chained ammo for German MG42 machine guns (Kit AF48007 Sd.Kfz. 251/1A, Item A20). The problem is that these pieces are straight, while ammo chains in reality would be somewhat bent, twisted and turned.
Is there any convenient way to soften AFV Club’s plastic such that one can modify these chains? That is, without destroying the nice ammo rendering. I have tried to melt the plastic with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, but the plastic gets too soft - I destroy the ammo chain when handling it. Even with tweezers.
Of course! I put the part into a shot glass, and poured some boling-hot water over it. Left for acouple of minutes, shaped with tweezers. Set the shape by putting the part in cold water.
Another way to fix the problem of ammo belts, is to make small cuts in-between each individual bullet, then paint afterwards. The paint more then covers the incision, and the result is a realistic belt of ammo.
That’s exactly what I did to the ammo belt connected to the Browning below and the .30 cal to the top right.