Bending Lead - Re-posing arms on 15mm figures

I have number of 15mm cavalry figures in poses that expose the figures swords to being inadvertently bent while handling. These poses appear to be done to make the casting process easier.

Recently I decided to try and bend the sword arms on these cavalry figures in positions that provide more protection from damage during handling on the wargaming table. The figures are Essex and have already been painted so this exercise was going to test both the malleability of the lead as well as the paint job.

The end result was surprisingly good. I did break one arm early on but I was able to glue it and learnt from that experience to successfully bend 15 other figures. Below are some photos of the original figure next to a figure with the arm bent.

The key to doing this was to slowly bend the arm using my fingers while carefully watching for any signs of distress at the bend point. It might also have a bit to do with the quality of lead in the figure.

Anyway, it was successful enough that I've done it to all my cavalry figures that have exposed swords.