Posted by DonH on 1/15/2010, 6:34 pm



Posted by DonH[pic][pic] on 1/15/2010, 6:34 pm

75.248.229.246

|Can anyone help? Recently I pciked up a beautful South Salem Studios Merchant Ship set of WWII vintage. It has some white |

|spots on some of the models. YES, I know about the lead cancer that destroys these, BUT there is only surface spotting on |

|some of these with no apparent metal or paint damage and it is present on the wood bases as well. I'm not sure it is the |

|cancer. It might be something else. How can I tell if it is lead cancer and how do I clean these without doing any damage |

|to existing paint? Thanks in advance for any help! |

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|Posted by Al Fisher[pic][pic] on 1/16/2010, 4:52 pm, in reply to "WWII ID Model Cancer??" |

|207.200.116.10I've successfully treated mildly damaged models and toy soldiers with a bath of vinegar, followed almost |

|immediately by dipping them in mineral oil. Dry well and hope for the best. |

|Incidently, some hard woods (e.g., oak) used to make model cases . . . such as oak . . . emanate tannic acid fumes which |

|react with lead. |

|Al |

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|Posted by Dick Wiringa[pic][pic] on 1/16/2010, 7:29 am, in reply to "WWII ID Model Cancer??"68.117.136.48 |

|I have two Nordzees, Nieuw Amsterdam and Noordam (civilian livery) that are having a distortion of only the masts. |

|They are stored in a finished wood cabinet with glass panelled doors [built circa]. They are never exposed to direct |

|natural or artificial light. |

|The masts on both are bending in the upper 2/3rds region. slumping slightly but ever increasingly, in the same [westerly, |

|deeper into the cabinet, for what it's worth] direction. |

|I've shown them in situ to my brother, Bob Wiringa, who merely scratched his physicist's head. |

|In case we're thinking direction, location, magnetic declination, [spirits?] having anything to do with it, |

|I'm at 43° 7'7.83"N, 89°35'58.01"W. |

|And my magnetic declination is 1°58'W on this date (per ). |

|Your thoughs appreciated. |

| |

|P.S. No signs of corrosion, just slumping. |

| |

Posted by Michael R.[pic][pic] on 1/16/2010, 3:52 am, in reply to "WWII ID Model Cancer??"

79.220.95.170

|Some days ago a friend of mine discovered three totally distorted models. All other models that were around these three |

|seem to be in good condition. The two Greek boats are only bended whereas the Portugese gunboat is not only distorted but |

|has lost the paint and seems to dissolve. |

|Unfortunately the producer cannot any longer be asked for an explanation due to his bad health. |

| |

|Of course the huge collection of my friend is kept in moderate temparatures in the living and carefully stored in wooden |

|drawers or behind glass. |

|Does anybody have an explanation for these total losses? |

|: |

|[pic] |

[pic]

Posted by Roger Dawson[pic][pic] on 1/16/2010, 6:46 am, in reply to "Re: WWII ID Model Cancer??"

95.144.127.204

|Last year, Dave Willcocks posted that some models had been cast with an alloy with too much antimony in. His models had |

|gone black underneath, so check for that. Never store models directly on unpainted wood. That starts lead rot underneath |

|and the metal salts and oxides take up more volume than metal itself causing upward bending. I have some models from |

|another manufacturer that I have experimented on because they had bent more than 90 degrees. I washed then in an epoxy |

|detergent (no acetate pH buffer) solution followed by soaking in almost boiling water before removing and straightening |

|gently as far as I dared. 18 months on in the open air well away from the rest of my collection and they remain as they |

|were after the treatment. |

| |

|Posted by Tom Vargas[pic][pic] on 1/15/2010, 11:00 pm, in reply to "WWII ID Model Cancer??" |

|24.6.111.102 |

|I have five cases and received this information from the Navy Museum in DC. They recommend that you first remove the model|

|from its blue board and then wash the models in a mild mix of soap and vinegar. |

| |

|"In practice, the lead corrosion problem can be mitigated by introducing a relatively small amount of free air into |

|exhibit cases. Generally, the air should change inside the case about once or twice a day. One rule of thumb suggests that|

|a one-inch (30-mm) diameter hole in an exhibit case is enough to exchange the air in a case containing about one cubic |

|yard (m) volume. Keeping the exhibit case interior and the model cool by avoiding direct sunlight, heat-generating lights,|

|or other sources of warmth will retard the corrosion process too. Air pollutant absorbers (sorbents) like activated carbon|

|will sop acetic acid from the air but these materials, placed in shallow trays to reveal a large surface area, become |

|saturated and must be replaced periodically. Large-volume display cases would require substantial areas of sorbent surface|

|to be effective." |

|Check out this site for more information. Good luck. |

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|Posted by Ulrich[pic][pic] on 1/16/2010, 9:03 am, in reply to "Re: Solution" |

|64.12.117.75 |

|Ventilation and the reduction of acetic acid production by wood cases may slow down lead flowering,according to Dana |

|Wegner, the Curator of US Navy Ship Models at Carderock Naval Warfare Center, |

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|Posted by SanDiegoShipMan[pic][pic] on 1/17/2010, 1:36 pm, in reply to "WWII ID Model Cancer??" |

|72.220.66.68 |

|Generally speaking . . . I have received some American-made mmodels that were obviously cast with an incorrect mix of |

|metals--the result was a soft, easily bendable casting--totally useless, of course. I haven't experienced this in any |

|model from Europe or the UK. |

| |

|A lot of distortion, bending, in some European and US-made models is from the casting getting bent while in the rubber |

|mold. Usually all you have to do is straighten it out. If it's not twisted or has other serious problems then it will |

|probably be recoverable. Some model makers way back in the 1980s or so used metal that was way too soft, examples are |

|older from H-L (or HL?), Hai, maybe others. They seem to be using better metal nowadays and in general, workmanship has |

|improved. These models also used wire that was way too soft for the masts, booms, etc. |

| |

|I have rid myself of most Comet ID models due to the high lead content. Lead, as I recall, is a liquid metal and will |

|distort and evaporate. I recommend not confining these old models in a case or container without ventilation. If you open |

|the container you will get a nice blast of leaden air--not good for the health. It does not smell nice! Most Comet models,|

|however, had a better alloy that will last a long time without decaying or whatever you want to call it, so long as you |

|keep them stored under proper conditions. As a young boy just starting out in the hobby, I remember having to straighten |

|the gun barrels, masts, etc. on my Comet BBs & CAs evey few days because they tended to droop very quickly! |

| |

PS: As indicated by by Roger Dawson[pic][pic] on 1/16/2010 all the three models are black underneath. Though they are stored in a wooden cabinet a layer of cloth covers the wood. Maybe for these unfortunate models the cloth was not thick enough.

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