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Hi All, picked a few models up this week, nothing rare the models are mint but some of the base plates have gone very dull & some have gone white I think they may have been stored in the damp, any tips on how to clean the. I have tried silver foil but that didn't work Pete.

Bare metal baseplates do suffer from playware grime and grease from hands, oxidization from impurities in the air and general discolouring from being bare (unprotected by varnish or paint).

The White stuff is similar to when bare metal gets rusty, but the metal used for metal diecast model does not rust, it does not have the amount of (if any) the mild steel used in metals that do rust, but the White stuff is some sort of reaction with the mix of metals used by Lesney which results in the surface becoming affected as such. It does not as far as we know do any long term damage but as you have now found, it is annoying and difficult to remove.

I am not aware of any liquid agent that can be used to clean Lesney baseplates, but vigorous use of various School and office erasers has given me varying results in the past, not perfect but certainly better and worth the trouble of doing it.

Ghosthunter.

Thanks Ghostie i may try tooth paste tomorrow with a little stubble brush. A mate of mine brought a large collection years ago, they were in about the same condition he spent hours trying to clean them up. In the end he gave it up as a bad job & put them into auction. Pete.

My guess would be that the white materials is a metal oxide. As such, it is unlikely to be soluble in anything benign.(That leaves mechanical removal as the only option.)

I use a chalk cleaner for such things, there is a little acid in it. It takes all the grime and oxidation away and with some luck even the glow comes back. Apply it pure with a cotton swab and rinse it off with water after a few minutes. You better try it with some beaters

But don´t leave it to long in a bath - it also bites the surface and makes it dull. Been there, experienced that...

Some members claim a short soak in Coca Cola does wonders.

Miller wrote:I use a chalk cleaner...

We would call it "descaler".

Tinman wrote:Some members claim a short soak in Coca Cola does wonders.

I too have heard that Coca-Cola is a good universal cleaner. Having once worked for a company which made up the concentrate, I know that it contains significant quantities of phosphoric acid (check the list of ingredients on the label), so if Coca-Cola works, perhaps vinegar or lemon juice might also be options? However, I would be a little concerned about possible effects on the paint.

At the dental office we etch tooth enamel with phosphoric acid gel. It works well on corroded or oxidized metal. You can buy a similar phosphoric acid gel product, "naval jelly" at the local hardware store. To have it as a gel is nice because you can better control what gets coated and what is spared.

These pens are good for cleaning small areas. the fiberglass tips, polish the tarnish of very small brass buttons. I use them on Action man outfits.
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