I'm not sure if this is going to help you in your situation, but I thought I'd throw it out there to "do with it what you will". If the plane is a "balsa" type plane, I remember my father-in-law's answer to this question when I asked him one time what he did about this when it happened ( he was a MAJOR balsa modeller! He's built 20-30 of the most incredible balsa models I've ever seen. "The Spirit of St.Louis" in 22" wingspan is hanging from my son's ceiling ) What he did was use a 10-to-1 mix of windex to water and soak the plane in it for anywhere between 10-20 minutes (for "single strips") or 1-3 hours for parts already assembed and then "test" the wood to see if it was pliable, and then he'd carefully bend it and put it into a preconstructed "jig" (usually a series of c-clamps + wood blocks or leather strips to keep the metal off the wood) and leave it until it dried.

Considering he's not only done aircraft, he's done SUPER intricate work on ships (which have all KINDS of curves in the hull and decks and whatnots), he knows what it takes to re-shape wood to do what he wants it to.

Like I said, I don't know if this will help you in your situation or not (you may need a 5 gallon bucket just to get it wet!!!) Most likely this won't help you at all, but JUST IN CASE.....

although it sounds like your original game plan is probably the best > revisit the store..... [&o]