26 replies to this topic

[Tom Geiger]

I blame that on the tires.  There's nothing like opening an old sealed kit and finding a tire stuck to the windshield!

 

Still, beware of packing peanuts. They are good for shipping but I'd be wary of long term storage in the same way you only would use archive quality plastic pages for baseball cards or other collectibles.  There's no telling how they will break down over time as they dry out and age.  Also, some of them now are water soluble for the environment.  I can imagine what humidity could do to these. Mush!

[carrucha]

The first thing I do when I get any model kit that I open or is already open is to put the tires in a Zip Lock bag, the clear parts in a Zip Lock bag and the decals inside the instruction sheet. For kits I want to leave sealed until I need them, I just pray they'll be safe!

I do the same thing!  I also like to keep the store receipt for the kit in the box so I know when I bought the kit.  Once I found that the ink from the receipt ruined part of the decal sheet so since then I make sure the decals are either in the instruction sheet or bagged.

Edited by carrucha, 17 March 2013 - 10:24 AM.

[Casey]

 

[Austin T]

WOW! I see you have one of the extremely rare Goodyear floor pans! I hear that only a handful were ever produced in scale.

[charlie8575]

I wonder if prior to assembly it I might be advisable to airbrush, or even brush-paint, a coat of Acryl or some other water-based semi-gloss or flat clear on the tires to seal in the the chemicals?

 

I just try to make sure the wheel rims are very thoroughly coated in at least primer.

 

In the meantime, I suppose we should start looking for a new material for the tires. As radical changes are occurring in polymer chemistry, it might happen sooner than you think.

 

Charlie Larkin

[Pro Wrench]

You have to be careful using ziploc bags to store things in. They are made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and that stuff can wreak havoc on things also if the conditions are right. I suspect that the problems people are seeing with the tires ruining stuff is the result of the kits being stored somewhere that's exposed to excessive heat causing a reaction that makes the tires "bleed" the chemical out of them. All of my kits are at least 20 years old and none of them have any of this reaction occuring but they have always been stored in areas that aren't exposed to excessive heat. Just to be sure though, I have started removing all my kits from their boxes, cutting the parts off the trees, and storing them in seperate containers that I store inside plastic "shoebox" containers with the rest of the model.

[Tom Geiger]

I wonder if prior to assembly it I might be advisable to airbrush, or even brush-paint, a coat of Acryl or some other water-based semi-gloss or flat clear on the tires to seal in the the chemicals?

 

 

I don't think it's all tires,  just tires from a specific era that had that chemical make up. Someone once said you could avoid the melt down by putting a layer of BMF on the inside of the rims and then just painting over it.  I haven't had this experience with any of my good builds, but I have noticed some tires shrinking on their rims over time... cars I built 15-20 years ago.