Getting rid of yellowing?

TWOFOOT

Jedi Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
998
Location
ipswich , suffolk
I have bought a couple of wrecked stormtroopers with an idear of making a stormtrooper Han. One of the stormys is really yellow so I want to try and clean it.
Does anyone know how deep the yellowing goes?
I was going to use some t-cut on it but if anyone gas any better idears then I'm all ears.
 

PGowdy

Grand Master
Joined
Apr 11, 2010
Messages
6,738
Location
London
A guy on here called TigerHam, experimented with using food grade peroxide with either the sun to bleach them or you can use a strong UV light. Apparently it works quite well.
You can get the peroxide off ebay.
 

TWOFOOT

Jedi Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
998
Location
ipswich , suffolk
PGowdy said:
A guy on here called TigerHam, experimented with using food grade peroxide with either the sun to bleach them or you can use a strong UV light. Apparently it works quite well.
You can get the peroxide off ebay.
Anyone got a link to that post or know what strength hydregen peroxide and/or method to do this?
 

PGowdy

Grand Master
Joined
Apr 11, 2010
Messages
6,738
Location
London
Here's the thread form SWCC
http://www.starwarscollectorscantina.com/vintage-star-wars-collecting-f1/hydrogen-peroxide-t419.htm
 

TWOFOOT

Jedi Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
998
Location
ipswich , suffolk
Omfg!!! Why has nobody ever mentioned this method before???
It's amazing!! I used the store bought 9% hydrogen peroxide and mixed it with a thimble full of oxy cleaner (as a catalyst) and put 3 figures in it today leaving it on a windowsill and 3 and a half hour later the yellowy yellow stormtroopers are now allmost whitey White. I can't believe how well it worked!!! Why isn't everybody doing it???

PGowdy said:
Here's the thread form SWCC
http://www.starwarscollectorscantina.com/vintage-star-wars-collecting-f1/hydrogen-peroxide-t419.htm

Thanks for that link. Nice one!!
 

Joe

Grand Master
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Messages
10,435
Location
Here
I think its probably been done already, I think many of the minty whiter than white Stormies may already be bleached/treated as per the threads.

The reason a lot of people won't do it is because we simply don't know what the chemicals are doing to our 30 year old plastic or what will occur in the future as a result of messing with them.

If the stormies suddenly become brittle and crumble to dust because you wanted white ones then it would have just been a quick fix to a problem without a real solution (think of plastic surgery, you can't really slow down time just cover up the effects of it) and of course done in vain, you might as well just use tipex or paint.

It was discussed over on RS and it got far too technical and scientific for me to really grasp all of it but the jist of the "against" argument (and many people agreed) is that it a change to the chemical make up of the figures plastic is probably a bad idea, it also has varying degrees of success - some figures not reacting at all, others coming up super white on the first time yet needing "top ups" down the road.

All I would say is that if you decide its what you want to do- please let any future buyer of your white figures know you did this to them and they are not naturally white.
 

TWOFOOT

Jedi Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
998
Location
ipswich , suffolk
If you look at my first post on this topic you will see that I am just using it for a custom Han figure and not on actual vintage figures as such.
I have no intention to sell said figure when it's made.
I only just found out about this method but as you say , we don't know what this will do to our figures in the future but you are probably right about a lot of the minty White troopers on eBay being bleached.
 

Joe

Grand Master
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Messages
10,435
Location
Here
Oh wasn't accusing you of anything as I read about the custom figure earlier, it's just that you asked why others aren't doing it to all their figures and seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of whitening figures -

TWOFOOT said:
Omfg!!! Why has nobody ever mentioned this method before???
It's amazing!! I used the store bought 9% hydrogen peroxide and mixed it with a thimble full of oxy cleaner (as a catalyst) and put 3 figures in it today leaving it on a windowsill and 3 and a half hour later the yellowy yellow stormtroopers are now allmost whitey White. I can't believe how well it worked!!! Why isn't everybody doing it???

Just thought its best to show the flip side of things before you try it on other figures etc, I didn't mean you would open up a new ebay store selling minty white imperials hah :)

I personally wouldn't do it for a few reasons, I think restoration has its place in other hobbies and its weird that in vintage Star Wars its frowned upon but I do understand the reasons, these are only 30 years old figures after all and there are enough out there in nice condition to not warrant a restoration side to the hobby just yet.
 

TWOFOOT

Jedi Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
998
Location
ipswich , suffolk
tigerham said:
Glad it worked for you dude. ;)
Well it worked about 90% which was fine for me. The torsos came up minty White but the limbs were a little off colour. I was very impressed how well it worked though. However I can easily see how this method could be used by unscrupulous eBay sellers.
 

tigerham

Sith Lord
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
3,164
lol, never even thought about that until this thread about whitening the figures for a higher profit on re-sale! I wouldn't bother if that was the case, for what and extra few quid! :roll:
 

Joe

Grand Master
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
Messages
10,435
Location
Here
tigerham said:
lol, never even thought about that until this thread about whitening the figures for a higher profit on re-sale! I wouldn't bother if that was the case, for what and extra few quid! :roll:

Well, it might seem a little silly but with ebay you never know.

I can see it now-

Mr ebaycuntface has a bag of 25 old beater stormies, he cant shift the bastards on ebay as they are so grubby and yellowed, mr ebaycuntface then finds out he can whiten them up and make 8 quid on each one because they are nice and white, his 25 shitty stormies make him 200 quid !

It's been said before but worth saying again - Mos Ebay - a wretched hive of scum and villainy :twisted:
 

AssyrianDrummer

Padawan
Joined
Nov 16, 2010
Messages
96
Location
Derbyshire
Was thinking of trying to tidy up the piss yellow on a Stormy i just bought off ebay, in hoth gear. But after reading what you have been putting Joe, i don;t think i will :lol:


Anway, i guess the piss yellow gives it an "authentic" look eh?
 

Imperial nut

Sith Lord
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
1,348
Location
Ireland
As i now have some seriously yellow troopers that are brown i am gonna do the peroxide experiment.
But first a few statements of intent.

- I am only doing this with 6 of my brownest troopers, the lightly yellowed ones will remain as is.
- they will be marked as treated
- they wont be sold on. and if for whatever emergency means i do i will let folk know.

and finally i wont be listing ingredients and tips and tricks here, as not to help evilbay cuntface :lol:
If folks want info on how i go PM me.

ok first up the before pics, I have only used two of these guys i am saving the really brown guy for a different test.

BEFORE

IMGP0893.jpg


24 Hours into soak

IMGP0895.jpg


IMGP0898.jpg


IMGP0897.jpg


it is working well but i am also watching closely for signs of black paint or anything else going.
i will give them another 24 and then record the results and post em up.
 

Imperial nut

Sith Lord
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
1,348
Location
Ireland
the before and after should be up tonight,,

With a bit more research and some discussions with chemically minded mates i have came up with a theory on yellowing.
When i mentioned it to my girlfriend while holding a jar of fizzing stormies she shook her head and commented that i was now a nerd and uncool and i should get out skateboarding asap. :lol:

Anyway here is imperial nuts thesis on Molecular contamination removal from polymers.


when i started getting yellowed stormies i wondered as everyone does are they just dirty. The simple answer is yes, however they are not dirty as we know it.

Often i noticed that they were yellowed on different parts of their bodies or limbs , this is explained by different parts being made from different plastics. And experiements with craft knifes and toothpaste showed that the yellowing was IN the plastic not on it.
Also almost all had a "suntan effect" as they had been exposed only on one side or put simply as if exposeure to a certain direction had cause the yellowing to be predominatly on one side.
This did not always match the seams of the mould and often markedly different in comparison to the whiter side.

So my question was if the body is prone to yellowing due to it being certain type of plastic,, why only one side?? should not all aspects of the plastic be an even colour?

Which brought me to the cause,, i looked at compatabilty charts for differnt material with Hydrogen peroxide and discovered that often it is used for etching plastics and cleaning other polymers.

And the main aspect of the cause of the staining is HEAT.
When a plastic or polymer is exposed to heat its molecues expand leaving microscopic gaps these gap are vunerabale to contamination from particles such as dust and other substances such as sweat and oily residue from human hands.

So this conclusion explains both why the stain is like a Suntan as the area most affected by sun or light source is affected worst by yellowing (think or a figure lying on a shelf exposed to the sunlight or figures in an attic in a box and the ones closest to the nearest heat source yellow more)
It also explains why some figures yellow on different limbs as they are made of different plastic and have a different tolerance to heat than the neighbouring parts.

the process i am using above reverses that process coming a active cleaning solution with the ambient heat that put the dirt there in the first place.

I thought that all this might damage the plastic with frequent and prolonged expansion of the plastic , but actually this happens everyday with all our figures as the expand and contract on our display shelves and from heated lights in or cabinets.

it leaves some questions though ,, what exact plastic did they use for the figures that yellowed,, was it many types? are there some COOs or manufacturers more prone to yellowing,? Is this now chemical dusting??

What do folk think? anyone out there know anything more about plastics than my ramblings?

steve
 

Imperial nut

Sith Lord
Joined
Mar 15, 2010
Messages
1,348
Location
Ireland
Yeah james hard and soft torso,, but were the hard and soft torsos individually made of different plastics from time to time.

Any way after 48 hrs of soaking here are the results, with the brownest trooper as a comparison. (he wasnt dipped)

Before;

IMGP0893.jpg


After ;

IMGP0903.jpg


as you can see its a marked reduction with no damage to the black paint, i have to admit the best results were in the first 24 hrs , after that they still fizzed but not amazingly so.
I have put in another two ,, one pretty bad one and the brown-brown one.

i will be away for 4 days so i will see what happens when i get back :)
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 365 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.
Top Bottom