Disintegrated foam - help please

[Clarence3815]

I have a number of brass models from the 1980/1990s which were enclosed by some sort of foam that has disintegrated leaving sticky deposits on some of the models. Some were wrapped in tissue paper and plastic and some were not. I`ve spent most of today rescuing the models from the foam but how do I get the gunge off the models without causing damage.

 

[Stephen]

I had a similar issue with some plastic Swiss models - for that I used warm soapy water and a few different brushes, including a clean tooth brush on parts where there was no delicate detail.

I could be wrong, but I would have thought brass should be quite forgiving, so at a minimum you should be able to use warm soapy water and soft brushes as well, just take your time. If it’s just the compressed foam, that should come off quite easily, although it does feel ‘sticky’.

What it might worth doing is if you have an airbrush (or can of compressed air), blast as much of the deposit is off first before giving it a wash. I remember the models I had, it saved a bit of time shifting any solid residue before working with soap/water.

Cheers,

Stephen