YOU'RE YELLOW! VF-25F turning all sorts of colors

[spacemanoeuvres]

I just noticed that my 171 EX is getting a little off white...mother of pearl?

[borgified]

2 hours ago, spacemanoeuvres said:

I just noticed that my 171 EX is getting a little off white...mother of pearl?

Are you going to use the "Peroxide Treatment" on your 171 EX? My second copy of VF-171EX Alto is slightly yellow and I'm not worried about it. Going to weather it and put it on display with the Amour Parts plus with the rest of my Macross collection when I get a proper shelf.  

[spacemanoeuvres]

I don’t think I’ll try any treatments. Weathering sounds like a fine idea. I have mine in armor already and the discoloration is only noticeable if you look for it. 

Maybe I’ll put it next to a yf-19 so it looks whiter haha

[Ignacio Ocamica]

TV Cannon Fodder ruinned. Will have to experiment whitenning. All other TV 1/60 white v2's are fine though.

[MikeRoz]

Mistakes were made.

[kkx]

I have a Yamato 1/48 that has yellowed somewhat. Brought a bottle of the liquid form (instead of gell, not sure why now but maybe trying to get good coverage) to try fixing it.

A bit concern about the sticker that had been applied.

Any advice? Removing and reapplying these will be a huge PITA.

[Alto-23]

After seeing these posts I can see why Bandai went with the off white/gray for the new DX1/48 VF-1J

[MikeRoz]

On 5/25/2019 at 1:55 AM, MikeRoz said:

Mistakes were made.

Just want to be clear here, in case some people may be getting the wrong impression - the mistakes were mine. All of these items were left in positions that received direct sunlight for a small portion of the morning (before my usual wake-up) or were near enough to a window to soak up a bunch of ambient sunlight. The VF-25 that was in a sealed box is fine, as you can see in the pictures above. I haven't experienced any inexplicable spontaneous yellowing.

I've since moved my collectibles far from the windows in my home. Lesson learned. I will probably try to use the peroxide recovery method on the damaged items at some point in the coming weeks.

[kkx]

29 minutes ago, MikeRoz said:

Just want to be clear here, in case some people may be getting the wrong impression - the mistakes were mine. All of these items were left in positions that received direct sunlight for a small portion of the morning (before my usual wake-up) or were near enough to a window to soak up a bunch of ambient sunlight. The VF-25 that was in a sealed box is fine, as you can see in the pictures above. I haven't experienced any inexplicable spontaneous yellowing.

I've since moved my collectibles far from the windows in my home. Lesson learned. I will probably try to use the peroxide recovery method on the damaged items at some point in the coming weeks.

This got me worrying. My collection is not in a sunroom. I try to make sure that is no direct sunlight hitting any toy. But there should be plenty of reflected light from walls and the floor. I will need to step up my plan to install UV screen on all window. 

[Hiryu]

So, I've used the Salon Care 40 creme on three separate occasions and wanted to share my experience. All three valks were placed in direct sunlight after application. The difference each time was the covering. First time was was no covering. Second, parts wrapped in cling wrap. Third, piece was placed in a clear bin covered with cling wrap.

The first attempt was with a YF-29 Alto that had had noticeable yellowing on white areas. No noticeable discoloration on the red. I applied SC40 to the exposed areas and left in the sunlight as is. After 5 hours, I noticed discoloration did improve. I flipped it over and repeated. In all took 24 hours of exposure and multiple treatments. No damage to surface, tampo or any paint. Discoloration effectively removed.

My second attempt was with a VF-1J Max. Significant discoloration. Looks like it was left in battroid mode in front of a window. Blue chest was much darker than the rest of the blue pieces. Pretty much looked dark green. I decided to disassemble the valk to expose as much of the discolored surfaces as possible. I applied the SC40 to each piece and wrapped them individually in cling wrap. Left in the sun, expecting a slow process and checked after 6 hours. To my horror, the reaction was much faster probably due to the cling wrap. There were splotches of faded blue, lighter than the regular color. In addition, the cling wrap left some streaks of glossiness on some surfaces. Some areas of discoloration still remained while completely gone in others. I decided to call it a loss and stop and never do this ever again.

Some time later, I purchased a VF-25 Alto v2 on ebay, where the description said "Excellent S- Condition". I bought it for what I felt was a decent price. However, when I received it, it had obvious discoloration all over. Like the VF-1, looks like it was left in battroid in front of a window. Other than that, it was in great shape. After complaining to the seller, he was very fair about it and I got a significant partial refund. Needless to say, I busted out the SC40. This time, I put in in a bin and covered the top with cling wrap. I also put foil on the bottom to keep the light bouncing around. I kept it in fighter, treated the top, intending to flip it over later. Interesting thing happened, after 4 hours, about 80% of the discoloration was gone, even on the bottom where I hadn't applied SC40. My thought was maybe the vapor of the SC40 trapped in the bin affected those areas as well?? Anyway. I retreated and left it out for another 4 hours. After a total of 8 hours most of the parts were completely white again. There was stubborn yellowing on one of the wings where the discoloration was the worst. After another 4, I would say the discoloration was about 5% visible. I will probably try one more treatment to get ther rest out.

Hope this was informative.

Edited August 9, 2019 by Hiryu

[Bobby]

^ very informative and appreciate the detailed write up 

Been using SC40 for awhile but never tried trapping it in with a bin and the use of foil...now I'm wanting to go try it!

[nightmareB4macross]

On 6/17/2019 at 2:46 PM, Alto-23 said:

After seeing these posts I can see why Bandai went with the off white/gray for the new DX1/48 VF-1J

The unfortunate truth is weather it’s white, grey, or any other color. The plastic will experience yellowing to some degree.

Bummer.

[Grimgerde]

1 hour ago, nightmareB4macross said:

The unfortunate truth is weather it’s white, grey, or any other color. The plastic will experience yellowing to some degree.

Bummer.

My many Sunstreakers breathe a sigh of relief. They shall ride out this plague care free.

[jenius]

Even yellow yellows.

[Grimgerde]

1 minute ago, jenius said:

Even yellow yellows.

The final black pill.

[DewPoint]

You will ride eternal, shiny and chrome!

[DewPoint]

Based on Hiryu's experience, I do wonder if vapors from SC40 alone is enough to remove yellowing without the need to apply it directly to the item.  That would reduce or eliminate the need to perform any type of risky disassembly.

Some interesting videos on the topic:

Adventures in Retrobrite - New techniques for restoring yellowed plastic!

Retrobrighting with just Sun? This forum says yes

Edited August 10, 2019 by DewPoint
Because research!

[Negotiator]

not sure if anyone has posted this yet.  haven't tried it and don't know what it would do to tampoo print.

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Negotiator

[Atheonyirh]

Pretty sure the general consensus at this point is that it helps temporarily, but the underlying chemical reaction continues and comes back with a vengeance. So the plastic yellows even worse than before and usually gets more brittle on top of that.

[HardlyNever]

On 8/9/2019 at 9:22 PM, DewPoint said:

Based on Hiryu's experience, I do wonder if vapors from SC40 alone is enough to remove yellowing without the need to apply it directly to the item.  That would reduce or eliminate the need to perform any type of risky disassembly.

Some interesting videos on the topic:

Adventures in Retrobrite - New techniques for restoring yellowed plastic!

Retrobrighting with just Sun? This forum says yes

Glad you found this, as I kept hearing things like this but couldn't find any good sources.

So yeah, there are people out there who are reversing yellowing by only putting it out in the sun.  Nothing else.  No retrobrite, or salon care products (which generally involve leaving it out in the sun for a while, see a trend?).  Literally just the sun light.  Which is supposed to be the entire reason this stuff is yellowing to begin with, right?

The amount of misinformation and conflicting information regarding this topic is absolutely absurd.  I guess that is all I want to say at this point.  I won't pretend to have the answers, but I think the takeaway here is that there is no single culprit or solution to the issue.

I think the last 3 minutes or so of that guy's video has a decent explanation of what might be going on (years of exposure to indirect sunlight and non-UV light, vs direct exposure).  So that might be why sunlight seems to be both the cause and "solution" to the problem.  Does it make the plastic more brittle?  I have no idea, but plastic will always degrade over time, regardless of light exposure.  So it might be the correlation of older plastic being brittle and yellowed, so when people try to reverse the yellowing, they notice it is more brittle, because it is older.

Edited August 14, 2019 by HardlyNever

[Sanity is Optional]

So at my job we have glass that gets browned from radiation exposure (X-ray/gamma-ray). The method we use to make it clear again? Bathe it in UV light for a few hours.

[kkx]

I ordered a bottle of SC40 a while back. Decided to test it out.

I have a set of 1/48 Yamato missile that is slightly yellowed. See photo below, it is noticeable but not something that I cannot live with. But it is a good candidate for a test.

The top two missiles seems to be normal (they are from the same set) while the rest shows uniform yellowing (no shadow shape, so no idea how/why it turn yellow).

Using @Hiryu's method as reference I put the liquid version of SC40 into a glass container and suspense the missile on top with a rack. They are all dry when I start as i am worry about the sticker peeling if they get wet. Place a piece of aluminum foil under to get reflection for the bottom of the missiles. Seal the container with cling film to let the vapor do its work..

Place it under the strong California summer sun for 4 hours. Start to see condensation on the cling film immediately, so vapor should be trapped and hopefully working on the yellowed surface.

It get really hot, was a bit worry that the missile receive to much heat. But it seems to be ok.

It does remove the slight yellow. So will try it out on other valk when I can find a big enough glass container. I can just place the whole valk in battroid mode, no need to wet anything, so it is much more convenient.

Will monitor this and see it it last and if yellowing will come back with a vengence as @Atheonyirh said.

[SpaceCowboy]

From my experiments (I was using really weak pharmacy hydrogen peroxide), the peroxide stripped the paint, but this might have been due to the duration (I left it outside for like a month since the concentration of H202 was so weak).

However, I whitened two old jetfires.  Within a few years you can already see the yellow returning, and they have mostly been in a dark cardboard box in a bedroom (air conditioned) closet.

It's fun to try and it does amazing results at first, just be aware it is unlikely to last long.

[kkx]

1 hour ago, SpaceCowboy said:

From my experiments (I was using really weak pharmacy hydrogen peroxide), the peroxide stripped the paint, but this might have been due to the duration (I left it outside for like a month since the concentration of H202 was so weak).

However, I whitened two old jetfires.  Within a few years you can already see the yellow returning, and they have mostly been in a dark cardboard box in a bedroom (air conditioned) closet.

It's fun to try and it does amazing results at first, just be aware it is unlikely to last long.

A few years might be long enough for my effort to be worth while. It took me 10 mins to setup and 4 hours in the sun.

I have found a big glass jar that can hold the a whole 1/48. Will try it out on a VF-1J hikaru that have some mild yellowing.

[SpaceCowboy]

Yeah, I'm curious how it works.  I disassembled the whole thing so that the screws wouldn't rust.  The disassembly + reassembly + masking + repainting was a bit time consuming, but a fun little exercise.  I'm curious if just a 4 hour dunk could remove most of those steps and make it a lot less painful.

[kkx]

1 hour ago, SpaceCowboy said:

Yeah, I'm curious how it works.  I disassembled the whole thing so that the screws wouldn't rust.  The disassembly + reassembly + masking + repainting was a bit time consuming, but a fun little exercise.  I'm curious if just a 4 hour dunk could remove most of those steps and make it a lot less painful.

The valk are suspended above the liquid SC40, so no dunking.

I will try to dunk and suspend some screw and see if there is any risk of rusting. That will be bad so best to best it out first.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

My TV CF will get the whitening treatment this week. Will post some pics with the results.

[sqidd]

On 8/9/2019 at 9:11 PM, DewPoint said:

You will ride eternal, shiny and chrome!

Witness Me!!!!!!!!

[sqidd]

On 8/15/2019 at 12:03 PM, SpaceCowboy said:

 

However, I whitened two old jetfires.  Within a few years you can already see the yellow returning, and they have mostly been in a dark cardboard box in a bedroom (air conditioned) closet.

 

A few have commented on basically MISB Valks yellowing "in the closet". I wonder if there is an additional factor other than sunlight that causes yellowing.

-Temp fluctuations?

-Humidity fluctuations?

-Off-gassing from materials near the Valk?

-All of the above?

-None of the above?

Styrofoam absolutely off-gases as it breaks down. "Regular" foam does too. That's why when you get a new car the insides of the windows gets foggy at an accelerated rate. That is the seat foam off-gassing. Add big temp and humidity fluctuations to the mix and the window fogging rate changes.

And as previously mentioned, the plastic is a factor too. I had a Yamato YF-19 that yellowed pretty bad sitting on a wood laminate bookshelf. No direct sunlight and very little sunlight in the room in general. It was there for about 10yrs. Right next to it was a original Gakken Ride armor. That dude is 35yrs old at this point. It hasn't yellowed one bit.

[chyll2]

I read somewhere that reversing the yellowing is temporary. The age of the plastic will mean, yellowing will happen sooner.

[nightmareB4macross]

On 10/12/2019 at 4:32 PM, Ignacio Ocamica said:

My TV CF will get the whitening treatment this week. Will post some pics with the results.

What mode did you have your VF in? The knees and biceps are half white half yellow? 

Where did you did display this and what mode?

[DewPoint]

Based on the knees, I'd guess GERWALK mode.

[vladykins]

On 10/13/2019 at 6:42 AM, sqidd said:

A few have commented on basically MISB Valks yellowing "in the closet". I wonder if there is an additional factor other than sunlight that causes yellowing.

-Temp fluctuations?

-Humidity fluctuations?

-Off-gassing from materials near the Valk?

-All of the above?

-None of the above?

Styrofoam absolutely off-gases as it breaks down. "Regular" foam does too. That's why when you get a new car the insides of the windows gets foggy at an accelerated rate. That is the seat foam off-gassing. Add big temp and humidity fluctuations to the mix and the window fogging rate changes.

And as previously mentioned, the plastic is a factor too. I had a Yamato YF-19 that yellowed pretty bad sitting on a wood laminate bookshelf. No direct sunlight and very little sunlight in the room in general. It was there for about 10yrs. Right next to it was a original Gakken Ride armor. That dude is 35yrs old at this point. It hasn't yellowed one bit.

 

 

I know that I had a similar issue with some old Gundam toys getting sticky and a bit of research showed that it was the chemical additive that made the plastic more "flexible" breaking down and coming out- it actually was accelerated to an extent by the fact that it couldn't easily evaporate away in the packaging, leading to the toys being more sticky than if exposed to the air. I have wondered if the yellowing might be a similar reaction.

[Slave IV]

On 10/12/2019 at 4:32 PM, Ignacio Ocamica said:

My TV CF will get the whitening treatment this week. Will post some pics with the results.

That looks pretty good! If anything, I'd try to yellow the parts that didn't yellow to match the rest.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

13 hours ago, nightmareB4macross said:

What mode did you have your VF in? The knees and biceps are half white half yellow? 

Where did you did display this and what mode?

Gerwalk mode. And it's the only 1/60 v2 (have almost 30) that has yellowed. It's not the biceps, it's the shoulder pieces (not the shoulder armor) that are made from a different plastic, POM I guess, and those pieces haven't yellowed at all. The white painted parts suffered no discoloration either.

It was displayed on top of a shelf in my new house, and before I installed some blinders there was some sun reflection from a window during the mornings. That must have caused the nasty yellowing. I moved it to a dark room but the yellowing continued. It's some sort of reaction after being exposed to UV light I guess.

12 hours ago, DewPoint said:

Based on the knees, I'd guess GERWALK mode.

Yes, it was displayed in gerwalk mode.

1 hour ago, Slave IV said:

That looks pretty good! If anything, I'd try to yellow the parts that didn't yellow to match the rest.

Yeah that sounds easier