bending more complex pe railings before attaching them

[leander]

hello fellow modellers,

I'm having quite some trouble with bending more complex pe railings in order to fit them on the model.
here's the situation:




attaching the middle, part of the railing was quite easy. I glued the straight part in place and bent the sides in shape after the glue had dried (maybe I was lucky that the bond didn't break)

but now I really don't have any clue how to work with more complex shaped railings like the two on the outside. I mean, you really have to bend them perfectly according to the shape of the platform before attaching, since with those parts the "glue one part and bend the others later" won't work because of the stronger force necessary.

I was already thinking about cutting them apart and attaching every straight part separately. but I am not sure whether this could damage the parts.

any ideas?

thank you very much!

[ForbesHutton]

For the straight one, dry fit it from one corner and use a pencil to mark your corner on the PE. Without the expensive bending tools try taping the PE down, use one safety razor to pin the top of the piece down while you slide a second safety razor blade underneath, then bend.
As for the curved rail, annealing the PE, hold to with tweezers or pliers and heat until it's red hot, let just let it cool down itself, it takes a lot of the "spring" out of the metal. This should allow you to bend the rail around the curve of the floor it attaches to. There might be a little spring back after annealing, so the curve of the PE might be a little larger than the floor, you can hand bend it a little more or, depending on how it will attach, start gluing down the one end and just "force" it into shape as you glue each leg down.

[krow113]

Use a piece of scrap fret or other material to make a template of the piece w/bends required that way you bugger up the scrap figuring it out.

[leander]

thank you very much for your tips and please forgive my late answer, I really appreciate your help!

kindest regards,
leander