FFG has gotten a bit of flak lately when it comes to their mishapen figures (Middle Earth Quest in particular). Chaos in the Old World is no exception.
Most of my Warrior and Daemon figures were in pretty decent shape but they have a lot more plastic to keep them together. A few had some wavy bases that made them a bit wobbly on the board. But almost every single Cultist had a drooping star and looked pretty rough. Literally, some of my pieces were nearly doubled over on the staff.
I have suggested this on other threads for misshapen figures but even I was surprised by how well it worked here: Give them "the Bath."
The Bath is a hot water / cold water treatment to soften up the plastic figures and let the internal stresses in the plastic relax enough to reshape the figure. But with the Cultist, just dropping the figures in hot water caused the staffs to instantly straighten on their own. It was like watching magic as they practically fixed themselves.
So for those not familiar with the procedure, here are the quick easy steps.
1) Get adult supervision.
2) Place some water in a small pot. You need about an inch or so, just enough to cover the figures in water if they are standing.
3) Bring it just to a boil (bubbles starting to form but not so much that it's time to make mac and cheese).
4) While that happens, get a bowl and fill it with cold water. Some ice will help. Alternately, you can just run the faucet with cold water.
5) Remove the pot from the heat but keep the water in there
6) Drop groups of figures in carefully. If you can, do it one at a time so they land standing up. Don't splash yourself - the water's hot (if you do, let the adult supervision take over)
7) After a while, remove a single figure at a time. I recommend using tongs - especially plastic coated ones - and try to pick them up by the base instead of a fragile part.
8) Slightly shape him to the desired pose. Press him on a hard surface (like the counter) to get the base more flat.
9) While holding him in position ("pinch" him a bit), dunk him in the ice water / run him under the faucet. This will harden the plastic with the new shape. Keep him in the water until he is hard again.
10) Repeat with your figures until done.
11) Once they have had a Cold Bath, set them on a paper towel to air dry before you put them back in the box.
I did them in two batches: all the Warriors/Daemons. Then reheated the water and did all the Cultists. For the Warriors/Daemons, I put the Daemons in the water first (since they are thicker and took longer to soften up) but removed the Warriors first. I put them in / took them out in color order so they would get enough time in the Bath. (But don't take so long that the water cools down).
For the Cultists, as I mentioned, they practically self-straightened as they retook their original molded shape. I just slightly adjusted the staff again as I dipped them in the cold water.
If you are using the faucet, just make sure you "pinch" the pieces in place so the force of the running water doesn't reshape it before it hardens (what I mean is use as many fingers as you can fit to hold the different extremeties in place). If a figure is particularly stubborn, you may need to give them the Bath a couple times. If they won't hold their shape, try overcompensating by bending them more than they need to bend so when they "unstraighten," they are in the correct position.
As long as you don't put these over the flame or squeeze too hard with the tongs or get crazy with the reshape, you should not damage these figures in any way. I have done this succesfully with many different games (War of the Ring, BattleLore, and a couple others). The figures come out near perfect. And like I said, even I was surprised about how easy these Cultists were to fix.
Hope that helps your game look more presentable and gives FFG Customer Service a break if the complaints come in!
-The Lord of Change
- Originally posted on BGG: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/437217
of course Chaos is suppose to be twist
ed