Ease My Worries About Lead?

[SmidgeGames]

Hey everyone, I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask this question. I’m a newly converted historical player (Warhammer refugee) and I’m looking to buy my first army. The Sash and Saber miniatures look beautiful and I’m very tempted to splurge on them as a birthday gift for myself, but the lead content makes me a little nervous - I found out they are around 40% lead. I know about taking precautions after handling the miniatures, but I’ve also heard about lead rot and am worried about that. Can anyone talk me into diving into it?

[Atheling]

I suppose that one way of looking at it is that all Games Workshop/citadel miniatures from years back, as long as they're looked after/painted in the right manner, have survived a long time despite having a very high lead content. Many you see on the net have decayed but they were probably not looked after very well.

More by happy accident than by design, I  generally buy from manufacturers, like the Perry's/Aventine who have very little or in the case of Aventine, no lead content at all. If you are worried about lead, then buy pure Pewter miniatures; though this will limit the number of manufacturers available to you substantially.

[Patrice]

Good question - but I have no real answer. 

All I can say is that I'm old enough to own a large number of very old (at first intended for RPG) miniatures, Citadel and early GW, I don't know what they are made of but they are still in very good health - some of them after being cleaned (with some very strong paint stripper) from the Humbrol paint I did cover them with long ago, and painted again with acrylics.

OTOH some of my (also very old) Airfix WW1 soft plastic soldiers did break in small parts  after being left too long in an attic where they were exposed to cold and frost.

[Hobgoblin]

I recall reading somewhere that when there was a panic about lead in the US, all employees of Ral Partha were tested for lead levels and all came out perfectly normal. Wash your hands, don't eat the figures and thoroughly seal them with paint and varnish, and I doubt there's much to worry about.

As far as lead rot goes, I've got loads of miniatures that I bought as a child in the 1980s, and I haven't seen lead rot on any of them.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

It’s not so much the problem of lead from using and handling miniatures…the real problem is the lead smelting industry pollution, and lead that potentially ends up in the water supply when miniatures are discarded improperly.

Lead in paint is far worse than lead in minis.

[Cat]

Lead rot not a problem.  Big issue with that was from ship models with fine cast details in museum cases for decades and the acidic gas build up from the wood of the case led to the rot.  My painted minis from the 70s are all doing fine.
 
Safety precautions are really basic: wash your hands after handling, don't lick your fingers, or put pieces in your mouth.
 
Personally I prefer lead; the softer alloys are a lot easier to work with than the lead-free.

[Captain Blood]

40% sounds a very high proportion. The casting alloy used in the production of my figures (Bloody Miniatures) contains only around 10% lead. I thought this was a pretty standard mix in ‘lead’ wargames figures these days.

[black hat miniatures]

40% is not uncommon - I used a 37% mix for my toy soldier casting.

There is a very big difference between elemental lead in its pure form and lead in a casting alloy.

You will not get lead poisoning from figures unless you eat them - in the New York case it was pointed out that a child would have to suck on a lead figure for 5 years to get any effect.

Prep your figures, wash your hands ( and don’t smoke while cleaning up figures) and the prime them.  You will be fine.

I spent 20 years casting figures using lead based alloys and know of no one in the industry that has had lead poisoning from casting every day which is a much higher exposure than any hobbyist is going to get.

In the 80s Games Workshop tested all their staff and found one caster who had elevated lead levels.  They followed him round and couldn’t find anything he did differently.

Then they discovered he live with 1/2 mile of Spaghetti Junction and in those days petrol had lead in it…

[Paul Richardson]

I have collected metal figures for over 50 years and I have never had a painted or an unpainted figure suffer from lead rot. Although my unpainted figures tend to be newer, I still have painted figures from the late 1980s, and these show no sign of rot. I read somewhere that, to avoid rot, you should not store figures in anything made out of wood, so my figures which are not on display are stored in plastic boxes. My figures have almost all been bought new and from their manufacturers - so I've done what I can to avoid fake figures.

[Norm]

And wood would include cardboard boxes.


For prepping lead figures, when using a file, I wear a latex glove and I would certainly avoid using any kind of power tool for filing / sanding that could create airborne lead dust.


All my lead is primed before painting, then gloss varnished, then matt varnished.

[traveller]

Have used lead miniatures for over 40+years. Had a few minis that caught the dreaded lead rot after being stored cold for some years. Otherwise no problems

[Atheling]

40% sounds a very high proportion. The casting alloy used in the production of my figures (Bloody Miniatures) contains only around 10% lead. I thought this was a pretty standard mix in ‘lead’ wargames figures these days.

Exactly what I was saying, the more towards Pewter the metal leans- the safer it is

[Cubs]

1. Health worries about lead content? Don't eat them and you'll be fine. Plenty of tradesmen work with massive quantities of lead day in, day out and it's not a problem. There was a threat in the 80's that a certain state in the US (I forget which one) was going to ban lead figurines because of fears children would swallow them, but it never actually happened. However, miniature manufacturers swapped to white metal in anticipation and actually found it a better medium, so kept it.

2. Lead rot? I've just encountered this yesterday on a model that is over 40 years old. Essentially if you paint them in the next couple of decades, it won't be a problem, because they'll be sealed. If you catch a model in the early signs of lead rot you can treat them to prevent it (or even treat any old unpainted lead models anyhoo) and this is all fine. It's a very, very slow process and only occurs in certain atmospheric conditions (like old storage boxes, unfortunately).

[Atheling]

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/1881/contents

also:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2676/contents/made

[SmidgeGames]

Thank you for the replies everyone, I went ahead and placed an order with Sash and Saber. 60 Union boys are incoming and will be painted/sealed soon and stored in safe conditions.