Storing Older Figures to Prevent Lead Oxidization, or "Lead Rot"

[ignis-fatuus]

So I've been collecting Grenadier and Ral Partha figures from 1970s/80s for a couple of years now and have built up a sizable collection. I take a certain amount of joy in picking up lots of loose miniatures that I can obtain locally and see if I can identify them and put old sets together--eventually the plan is to display completed sets in shadow boxes on the walls of my office. I've noticed that some have shown varying degrees of oxidization and will be taking precautions to remove and prevent further oxidization. For a while now, my storage solution has been to place each figure into its own small plastic bag on which I record basic provenience information. I am worried, however, that the small airtight bags might promote further oxidization. I was wondering if anyone else has run into the problem and perhaps found a suitable solution. My current idea is to pick up cardboard cotton-lined jewelry boxes and hope that they are airy enough to allow the miniatures to breath and hopefully prevent further oxidization. It might just be a crap shoot as my research has suggested that early lead mixtures could vary wildly with some casts simply have more favorable ratios than others. Either way, I am hoping that I might help preserve some of the history associated with early miniatures associated with the rise of roleplaying games, etc.

[vexillia]

Check this out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQXLPFqWycsJx7UK-Xjo48CF-GqpavJOFJKqHrGcUFL6uKBVRk2XKg7v9xeTytD-oe01iaLXT9dYRk2/pub

And I'd stay away from cardboard.

[ignis-fatuus]

Check this out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQXLPFqWycsJx7UK-Xjo48CF-GqpavJOFJKqHrGcUFL6uKBVRk2XKg7v9xeTytD-oe01iaLXT9dYRk2/pub

And I'd stay away from cardboard.

Wow, thanks, that was a very good article--one that I will be saving for further reference. I've been doing my fair share of poking around the interwebs and have found tons of misleading information being posited by people who have no idea what they're talking about. Initially, I was concerned that the airtight environment would be a contributing factor after reading George R.R. Martin's old blog post on the subject. I didn't think that wood or cardboard would be a major contributing factor. I think I may still try to abate what little oxidization I have been seeing--nothing too bad in most of my collection--with a mixture of pure gum of turpentine and food-grade white mineral oil. It seems that plastic bags was the right move after all; I'm sure a coat or two or primer would't hurt either.

With older high-lead content miniatures being at risk of oxidizing in environments common for displays (wood cabinets, glass domes, etc.), I would be interested to learn how others work to safely display their older miniatures.

[traveller]

Unfortunately I had the same bad experience with Ral Partha. My mistake was to store them in a wooden box in a cold storage area. A great recipe for disaster. That was a great article. I would just add to avoid cold storage.

[Tactalvanic]

sealing the miniature - eg painting it and varnishing helps limit contact with the elements that cause reaction.

Containers whether plastic/cardboard/metal/glass etc - if they allow the necessary combination of elements that lead to degradation  will do so.

some plastic containers, and some card boxes - this is why comic storage is very specific about type of plastic bags and the type of cardboard used are more prone to this.

wrong types cause degradation. hence acid free cardboard and polypropylene bags etc for those

I
Looked into it years ago as have sizable collection of magazines and comics - and that took me down the lead rot path..

tis the combination of all elements with the sometimes poor quality casting material that then leads to rot.

conclusion

- avoid damp, poor air circulation - cold storage area for instance suggests its going to have high humidity/damp?

- remove any already decade material.

- get them sealed/varnished/painted in some way to prevent contact of base material with atmospheric "stuff".

[v_lazy_dragon]

I would just add to avoid cold storage.

Yup - as some of the early figures also had large percentages of tin in, there also seems to be some possibility of a 'tin-pest' like degradation when stored in cold conditions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pest