Anyone heard of 'plastic corrosion'?

[Dubbya]

Yuck, I'd never even considered 1/72 models disintegrating.

Every hobby has similar problems I guess. Poorly stored vinyls warp, books mould. Plastic on toys degrades (I've had the same "soft plastic turning to sticky rubbish" on a few old toys saved for my kids. Toy collectors have to replace brittle parts.

One hobby I'm not in so much any more is old video games/computers. Parts fail, white plastic yellows, casset and floppy disks lose data. Power supplies go bad, batteries leak and so on! The cords of a few of my C64 and Amiga controllers went sticky.

Similar to plastic, I know some 3d print movie prop guys who have said they know the shelf life of anything they printed in filament.

(I wonder how long resin print models will last?)

[Storm Wolf]

Yuck, I'd never even considered 1/72 models disintegrating.

Every hobby has similar problems I guess. Poorly stored vinyls warp, books mould. Plastic on toys degrades (I've had the same "soft plastic turning to sticky rubbish" on a few old toys saved for my kids. Toy collectors have to replace brittle parts.

One hobby I'm not in so much any more is old video games/computers. Parts fail, white plastic yellows, casset and floppy disks lose data. Power supplies go bad, batteries leak and so on! The cords of a few of my C64 and Amiga controllers went sticky.

Similar to plastic, I know some 3d print movie prop guys who have said they know the shelf life of anything they printed in filament.

(I wonder how long resin print models will last?)

To the last point, I`m wondering that as well. In my polymer compounding days, such things as a printed polymer resin would have been the stuff of witchcraft!
How times change.

[Tom Dulski]

 I know some of my old Star Wars figures, stored in a box for 40 some odd years have become discolored and the surface has a distinct tacky feel.

[Daeothar]

So apparently this is an actual thing.

I had to check for myself, as I have a set of Airfix NATO Grond Crew, which I must have bought almost 40 years ago, but they're still as spry and bendy as they were back then. I suppose there was a large range of plastic types and qualities back then, just as there are now.

I've always advocated varnishing miniatures, and not only on top, but also on the bottom. Because the vast majority of my miniatures are on either slotta bases or Renedra plastic ones, and those can still interact with their environment through their undersides.

Now, my miniatures are mostly displayed in glass cabinets with glass shelves, but I know many will store their miniatures in foam trays, on wooden shelves or on magnetic strips. And most of those materials can potentially chemically interact with plastics.

So sealing everything would be a smart move IMHO. I am of no illusion about the eternal value of my miniature collection, but I would like for them to not deteriorate in my own lifetime

[carlos marighela]

Yes, but you need to think of future archaeologists. How else are we going to convince folk hundreds of years hence that there was a small but seemingly influential warrior caste who bore miniature armies to their tombs as grave goods? 

[Daeothar]

Why, by sealing them in airtight containers and placing them strategically around my barrow of course! 

[Tactalvanic]

As with lead rot and other material breakdown, its partially material quality, as with metal miniatures, some of them are better than others and some even down to batches depending on what the manufacturer ordered and received in regards to casting metal.

Its possible to have a very good old mini, but someone else have a crap one of the same type from roughly the same period.

So I am not surprised there are issues.

I am the same page as Daeothar regard completely varnish/sealing minis,  with a good varnish to reduce or stop the outgassing or chemical reactions leading to degradation/further degradation.

I will be interested to hear in years to come about how "old" resin prints etc degrade over time.

Sadly Currently, my Barrow plans are on hold, as I need to dig it and my better half veto'ed the idea of me using the garden  or under the house.

The local council are also unsupportive as apparently Barrow building on the allotment is NOT the type of barrow allowed on the plot 

I may have to settle for being buried under the lead mountain instead.

But i like the idea, so will give it further thots. My main concern though is grave robbers, small scale thieves looking for any OOP stock they might have heard are buried under my knackered and lacquered, triple varnished outgassing corpse.

[carlos marighela]

How does your local municipal authority feel about Pyramids? 

[Daeothar]

Not my first choice, but they denied my request for a burning drakar, so I have put out some feelers just in case 

[mikedemana]

they denied my request for a burning drakar

So, I have been told that someone actually did this in the gaming industry. I am not a primary source on this, but a friend told me that he attended the burning Viking Ship burial for one of the main people behind Ral Partha Miniatures (located here in Ohio, my state). They said it was very hush hush, and only people who were close friends were invited.

Once again, second hand info that I can't vouch for its accuracy... 

Mike Demana

[carlos marighela]

Of course being a 28mm MDF longship, it only went a little way towards the total immolation of the corpse.

Fortuantely, old car tyres and petrol are your friends in these circumstances.  If you have a sufficiently steep incline and can manage to wedge the corpse into the tyres it can make for a spectacular spectator event

[Pattus Magnus]

Ah, no worries there, just upsize to a worn out tractor tire. You can fit two or three corpses in one of those. The only challenge is getting the heavy bastard rolling. One it’s in motion, though, impressive!

[SteveBurt]

one thing in common with all my plastic figures which went brittle; they were all painted or undercoated with enamel paints. The ones painted with acrylics are fine.

[Daeothar]

Yeah; I understand the oils are a bit of a catalist when it comes to drying out.

Makes me a bit apprehensive about my copies of Hero Quest and Space Crusade as I painted all of the minis in there with enamels back in the day as well.

However. It would be interesting to see what experiences scale modelers have on this front. I mean; they've been lathering their planes, tanks and cars and what have you with oil paints since the advent of the hobby. Wouldn't this have become a well known issue by now if model kits from the fifties, sixties and seventies had been crumbling away? Or are they being held up by the glue and paint alone?

Perhaps the 'corrosion' effect does not hit polystyrene (as hard)?

[Cat]

I had some big batches of Airfix from the late 70s, unpainted but based (mechanically wedged on with wood putty).  Ankles and arms crumbled to dust within 20 years.  They had a really bad formulation going for awhile then.

I have styrene models and ROCO vehicles from the late 60s and 70s, painted with enamels that are all holding up fine.