yellowing the test

[Roar]

Wow, I wonder if that would work on a Thundercats Pumyra?!?

A man after my own heart.........

Catgut, your method is a marvelous discovery!

I know that this isn't Transformers and everyone please forgive my digression.........

I have a Thundercats Pumyra figure where the plactic isn't liver spotted, but around the neck and arm there was a copper based paint. Over time the copper in the paint corroded and green has leached into the plastic. Do you think that this method would take it out? This is a different type of plastic though. Does it hurt paint on I guess PVC type plastic?

I most definitely want to get those rings out!

[Ramjet]

I didn't think of that! There are a lot of MOTU Extendars with that problem, too.


Totally off topic: I think Pumyra looks good with the spots, I just wish they would appear more evenly. (Thanks Roar!)

[Catilla]

please note i carnt take the credit mate, im just the second to test it out (also the gobby one ) my mate found this worked on tfs ,i just added the other figure lines to test the plastics see if it worked on them too.
so far the good news is i havent found (any ive tested) that it dosnt work on or damages it (so far my tests have been going a week only, my mates comeing up 4 weeks same thing for both no negative effects to report ).
humm PVC is this the hard type plastics used in corps figures?, or the softer rubber like gundam action figures?
im not sure as i dont have a thundercats figure to test.... what about the wepons is this the same plastic , mum ras knife type plastic ?
if its the same i have one some were and ill test it, the only other thing i can sugest is try it out on a junker figure first and see if it works before placeing you good one in).
also the rings might well come out if there like the liver spots (sorry i carnt realy help a lot here as i dont have a sample ).
hot shot this is for you mate i took the pin out at 12 noon today and no change (well its shiney ), once i get 5 mins ill take a photo (i only placed 1 in the gear)

[Catilla]

heres the photos of the pin after 24 plus hours in the stuff, the one on the left is the one which has been treated also in the now finished brainstorm head too

the one at the bottom is the one that was treated

[Commander Megatron]

Are you still testing Catgut?

[Catilla]

hi sorry i aint be posting much as of late, i have had other problems i need to see to first (i have been checking back every day to see if there was any p.m. though) i can say though the weather up here hasnt been to good (lol very wet and over cast) this stuff definitly works best in the sun, or a heat lamp.
to be honist i dont realy have any other figure lines to test the plastic and see the affects on them, so ive started doing things from my own collection.
these are the final results off the parts ive done so far :-
the metroplex parts were realy yellowed(thay all were yellowed but hte M.P. were the worst) but now :-

this is the colour items (also ive noticed that the colour of the decoys have gone more there proper colour, as the red went a bit pink) :-

these are both the swords now (the bottom one is the first one i did, but due to matter i wasnt able to fully watch the second one as it was doing so it was in longer, which ended up a good thing as it got more of the liver spotting out ).

ratchet now (lol with kitbash stickers) :-



airwave just finished (he wasnt yellow but brown!!)

this is what im working on now.
its not a transformer but an old bandi figure i bought ages ago, i dont know the line or figure name, i just liked it (it dose have the word SHAIDER VAVILOS on the front ) it transforms into 3 modes (ship,gun and robot)

note these g2 sideswipe parts,inferno,ultra magnus and a few other bits among em) also in the jar is both the feet/ship nose of the figure im working on, its quite a size.

before and after (all the parts next were as yellowed as the part here)



next is the ones which ill be working on next

all the parts shown so far done are all from the same 100ml bottle of soloution, which is still working so ill keep at it until its turned .

[Catilla]

whoops for got to add i do check my p.m. on all the site i post normaly each day, so if anyone need any advie or help and im not around, drop me a p.m. and ill get back to yer .

[Time Traveller]

Hey. Lookin' good, thar, but how are the parts doing from when you started? any signs of unnatural decay caused by the peroxide? Further, your ratchet's looking great these days, but the tires look shot to crap, did the peroxide do that, or were they already goners?

[Rattrap]

Just a note I'd like to make before everyone buys and handles 35% Hydrogen Peroxide. It is a level 3 Health Hazard on both HMIS and NFPA. Meaning that "short exposure could cause serious temporary or moderate residual injury." The vapors can cause serious lung damage. Contact with the eyes is also extremely hazardous. In short, be very careful highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide.

For anyone who wants more safety information:
MSDS for Hydrogen Peroxide at 20% to 40% concentrations (Materials Safety and Data Sheet)

[Catilla]

this is to add on from rattrap (this was posted already in page 1 but isnt on here page 2)

firstly i must repeat:-
this is realy only at test stage this has now been going on for aprrox 3 weeks only so more tests are needed, not only to stop anyone destroying any figures .
also please note use at your own risk .

this is a statment from the lad (my mate) who found this idea:-

HI there i'm new to the boards, but by way of introduction I'm catguts mate, (the one who has been trying out ways of removing the yellowing from figures, in my case transformers). and the suggestion to use this method was given to me by a friend who uses this in labs all the time and stated that it "lightens the colours" on their coloured plastic equipment and therefore may be of use here.

The trial i have been conducting is using a 30% Hydrogen peroxide solution, which can be obtained with a little research on the net (apparently you can get this as a health supllement??)

Anyway i have been soaking the pieces in a glass container and placing this in direct sunlight (ironic i know) , this appears to react with the peroxide causing it to "bleach" the plastics back to their original colours. Unlike conventional bleech this does not appear to cause a brittleness in the plastic after cleaning, however its earlly days yet so use this method at your own risk. The figures i have tried this on were either spares or in dire need of attention.

Now heres the warning part Peroxide is listed as harmful, and so gloves and care should be used when working with this stuff, the contact times vary depending on the plastic and the level of yellowing seen.

If you spill this on skin rinse immediately with plenty of water, the skin will turn white but should return to normal after about 30 to 60 minutes and is associated with a pins and needles type of sensation which lasts for about 10 minutes.

Again use this material and method at your own risk,so far i have had success with all of the figures i have tried this on but i am only trying it on hard - not waxy or rubbery- plastics so the effect on these is currnetly untried.

I'll keep forwarding pics as time and the trial goes by but so far its looking promising.

this also contains the infomation which you need to try this out
also ready my test above to find out the follow up tests which i did and my results.

time traveller sorry to say my ratchet tires were realy shot, i tryed to take em off but the rubber has lost its elasticity (if yer look at the first post i made here you can see the tires already starting to split) but the good news is ive been told that skids tires are the same which i have a spare, when i sort it out ill put em on , so far apart from the change in yellowing theres no change to the plastic or rubber which ive done, the photos above was taken yesterday of the all the parts ive done so far.
i will post the photos of my mates seacons and cerebros as soon as the repo stickers arrive and he sends me the photos (also his ratchet and parts are all doing and looking great also )

[Catilla]

time traveller sorry to say my ratchet tires were realy shot, i tryed to take em off but the rubber has lost its elasticity (if yer look at the first post i made here you can see the tires already starting to split) but the good news is ive been told that skids tires are the same which i have a spare, when i sort it out ill put em on

i think i should have added to this (sorry when i posted the reply id just gotton up ).
the tires were already shot and i did try to take them off to repair, but not with the solution but with a liquid seal (its used on car repairs for plastic joints and windsceen seals, it turns into a rubber when dryed) but the liquid stuff had turned off so it was no good.
the tires and wheels were never in the solution as the front wheels are connected to the black back plates of the ratchet arms (i also removed these as thay werent yellowed) also i removed the pins of the rear wheels so these too were never in the solution.
lol i never though to test this type of rubber but i do have a few junker op primes with tires and ill test 1 to see the affect

[Catilla]

these are the photos of the ones my mate has done (these were treated aprox a month ago)
before :-

after treatment (this photo was taken about 30mins before been hosted)



also this is a prowl next to a reissue prowl which has just been completed (reissue is on the left )


all have no signs of any change to the plastic apart from the yellowing

[Time Traveller]

Alright, volk. I have tested catgut's methods myself as of late.
I've been using the 3% concentration that you get at the dollar store in a brown bottle. It takes an afternoon in the direct sun, and you can't pile as much in the jar at a time, but it still works. I've done some scrappy sideswipe legs, and an old pee-yellow stormtrooper from 1977.... both were quite successful. And the stormtrooper, i should note, had a hard rubber for limbs, which was unaffected and undamaged by his bath this afternoon. I'm looking into some sources as to the exact chemical method of this phenomenon, and I haven't had time to witness any possible long term effects yet.

Basically, this is just saying that 3% works, too, if you're patient.

[Catilla]

cheers time traveller for the input, its great to hear anothers results too.
heres the photos of the next lot done (i posted an early before photo above) :-

[Dinobot]

My ROTJ Imperial shuttle is in rough shape. Can you use this stuff in a large tupperware pan?

[Catilla]

to be honist im not sure ive only used clear glass jars (mainly so i can see the effect), butthe soloution dose come in a plastic bottle not glass (this is the 35% version im useing please ask time traveler on the 3% )
also ive found no damage to any of the plastics ive treated so i think itll be ok to use (im not 100% though so might be worth testing the container first with the solution also sun light is needed so if useing a frosted plastic it might take longer) .
for bigger items ive be useing pirex dishers you can get some pritty big ones (cover the container with clingfilm it works like a lid, just make sure to keep it in a safe place away from small children and pets also A MUST use rubber glooves to take the film off, clingfilm tends to draw near yer skin when useing it and if its got the H P on it it might get on your skin, also use gloove when testing,placeing and removeing items from the solution )
the the glass seems to help speed up the process as it traps the heat and magnefise the sunlight too
but ether way please let me know the results if you do deside to try it

[Time Traveller]

Yes, 3% comes in a plastic bottle. I had pretty good luck with some smiley-yellow Gobot shuttles today. Actually, i was just thinking of using one of those disposable glad-ware thingies or a clear plastic donut box
as long as you can seal it shut, because the warm sun will evaporate that stuff so fast...
I have noticed that i haven't been getting the stark-white like catgut gets.
I'm going to try some second-iteration whitenings to see if it works with a fresh jar of juice, and if it does, i'd recommend the 3%, since it's much safer, and dirt cheap ($.50/ liter). That way if you spill some, it will sanitize the area of the spill and nothing else. Also, if your dog gets into it, it's probably dilute enough as to be pretty pet-safe...
like i said, you just have to be more patient with it. the good thing is, you don't have to watch it as carefully, or at all really

[Catilla]

thanks T.T. (ment to say that earlyer ) im also over the moon with hearing youve had good results too .
maybe a daft thing to say but im just please it works, its took a long time for something been found to work, and as time traveler said 3% may take longer but its doing the job (even if it only gets back to 50% its better than yellow ?) also again safer too.
dose anybody know if the hairdye stuff is higher ( i was told it has a bottle of 10% in it, but the type my partner uses has a blue colour soloution in it ?)

[Time Traveller]

Have you seen any long-term effects on your first projects yet? remission of the discoloration, or surface damage, or hardening of the rubber decoys?

[Catilla]

no not realy apart from some types of metals go rusty or end up with a white fuzz on it (removable with brasso and a soft cloth) the pins i tested for hot shot are still 100% perfect but has seen rusting on screws treated so id still recommend removeing the screws, painted metals (ratchets and other g1 metal body bits seem to be fine).
oh nuts i forgot to say, try a very light rub over with brasso on yer treated figure bits (very light and only a touch of brasso, to make a light film on the figure, then clean off ) it seems to make it shine better on the finished figure.
also anything so yellowed its turning a green(shows more on gray plastic) it will turn it back 100% itll turn it gray but looks tainted (this is only very heavey yellowing)
if you look at the finished bits photo above the slugslinger wing hasnt turned to its normal colour but looks as though it has a light yellow on it, but im retreating to see if this gets any better.
other than that (any thing yellow to dark tan) seems to work a treat (ratchet was brown now hes white).
and no theres remissions of the yellowing returning or any weaking on any ive done or my mates ether (his has been going now for well over 6 weeks to a month) ive also got new photos to add off his new items too.
whoops forgot to add the decoy bit, also seems to have worked, figures still bendy and colours still the same too