Re: [OT] Princess Bride and Lead Rot

>On Mon, 10 Jun 2002 13:24:53 -0400, "Tomb" <tomb@dreammechanics.com>
wrote:
>
>>Lead Rot: Could a bath in some solution (perhaps slightly acidic or
>>basic?) clean/sanitize the figure? If the figure is cleaned, could it
>>not be painted to prevent a recurrence? Does the rot affect non-lead
>>white metal? It seems there ought to be some recovery possible.
>
>I'm not sure if the lead fixtures the US Navy talk about were painted
or not.
>I do know that I had some significant lead rot on some Star Frontiers
ships. I
>carved out the rotted bits (made it look like battle damage), and
painted the
>figures. I haven't had a problem with them deteriorating further, and
that was
>back in '97 that I painted them.
>
>I think white metal is less of a problem because there is more tin(?)
in the
>mix. Pewter (initially zinc and lead) used to have lead as part of the
>mixture, but apparently now it uses other metals like copper. Of
course, this
>is just a little I found out, and possibly wrong! Jon could probably
give us
>some information on the GZG figure metal mixture, and any experience
he's had
>with lead rot.

We use C90, which is classed as an "English Pewter" and is mostly tin
with
a SMALL percentage of lead and traces of a few other things (antimony,
copper etc IIRC); I've never experienced "rot" problems of any sort with
stuff we cast, but I HAVE seen it a few times on very old, soft-metal
castings from my own collection.

 I'll talk to our metal supplier today if I can and try to find out what
they know about the subject of the lead rot, see if I can get you all
some
professional technical answers.

Jon (GZG)
>
>I know the Star Frontiers miniatures were shrink wrapped and stored on
foam.
>The foam, being oil based, may have some acetic acid in it (just a
>guess/possibility, I don't know for sure) and could inadvertently
started the
>whole rotting process.
>
>>Someone mentioned (Henrix?) not storing figures cold. How cold is
cold?
>>Air conditioned chilly basement cold? Or freeze-your-ass-off winter
ice
>>cold?
>
>I would think that cold temperatures would slow down the chemical
process, not
>speed it up. Perhaps someone has stored figures in a basement and
assumed lead
>rot was from being cold when it was something else entirely. A root
cellar,
>for instance, may have a higher concentration of CO2, which was part of
the
>chemical reaction cycle.
>
>
>Allan Goodall			agoodall@hyperbear.com
>http://www.hyperbear.com
>
>"At long last, the earthy soil of the typical,
>unimaginable mortician was revealed!"
> - from the Random H.P. Lovecraft Story Generator:
>http://www.darkicon.com/Library/randsent.htm