Hot water wouldn't get a bend nearly far enough. If you don't mind losing a little detail you could remove the spiked parts on the outside edge of the tail, cut it along the join, drill and pin the gap, rotate until happy and glue it together. If you want to keep the spiked parts you could cut every other section and turn each one a few degrees so it looks like its curling up around. You could also just ditch the tail altogether, only the first few notches of it are of any structural importance.