accident

If you go to the "Auto" section of the Forums, you'll probably get a lot of answers to your question.

My . Heating the parts in hot water and making your dents and creases with various hand tools to get the look you want then put the part in cold water to set them. A hot hair drier would work too but handling the air and the part at the same time can be a bit tricky.

Hope that this helps a little.

Jim 

Stay Safe.

People suggest melting the panels, but that doesn't look very good. What i did was make a copy of the panels with aluminum sheet, bend them up and back-fill with putty to keep the shape, then paint it. cut out the plastic panel and glue the new one in its place. the advantage of aluminum is it bends like metal and scratches are silver.

eleanor01 by aus_mus, on Flickr

eleanor03 by aus_mus, on Flickr

eleanor04 by aus_mus, on Flickr

You can see the difference between melting them and using foil

eleanor05 by aus_mus, on Flickr

eleanor09 by aus_mus, on Flickr

graveyard1 by aus_mus, on Flickr

Brilliant!

I've built some airplane models in the same way.

I rub down aluminum foil over the kit part and then distress it.

Bill

Soldering iron for small dents, heat gun for larger areas.

OctaneOrange

What i did was make a copy of the panels with aluminum sheet, bend them up and back-fill with putty to keep the shape, then paint it.

I've considered the same technique in attempting my first diorama, showing a plane crash, but using white glue to stiffen the aluminum foil after distressing it but before painting it. What type of putty do you use? Looks like Silly Putty. Do you leave the putty in place?

Bob

thanks for the ideas.  i will try them to see what works best for me

Bobstamp

I've considered the same technique in attempting my first diorama, showing a plane crash, but using white glue to stiffen the aluminum foil after distressing it but before painting it. What type of putty do you use? Looks like Silly Putty. Do you leave the putty in place?

Bob 

i used bondo (auto body filler) and left it there for strength