Getting rid of yellowing?

[TWOFOOT]

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]

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]

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]

Here's the thread form SWCC
http://www.starwarscollectorscantina.co ... e-t419.htm

[Capetown]

You should realise they will be worthless if you ever want to sell them again though.

[TWOFOOT]

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???

Here's the thread form SWCC
http://www.starwarscollectorscantina.co ... e-t419.htm

Thanks for that link. Nice one!!

[Joe]

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]

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]

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 -

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.

[tigerham]

Glad it worked for you dude.

[TWOFOOT]

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]

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!

[Joe]

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!

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

[AssyrianDrummer]

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


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

[Imperial nut]

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
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



24 Hours into soak







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.