very oily resin kit

jgoldader · Post by **jgoldader** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:57 pm

Hi all,

I've got a small resin model (just a few inches long) that's got a very bad petroleum smell. After handling it, my hands smell like I spilled raw gasoline on them.

I'm soaking the thing in Simple Green now to try to clean off any mold release. My plan was to prime with Rustoleum Painter's Touch spray primer. However, I am concerned that there are going to be oils leaking out that will ruin the primer coat.

Is this one of those cases where I have to heat the resin with a lamp to drive out the volatiles?

Many thanks,
Jeff

Marco Scheloske · Post by **Marco Scheloske** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:13 am

It may be one of those cases where you have to throw it into the waste, as it may NEVER stop to be oily - mostly this happens because of a badly mixed resin.

Alex Dumas · Post by **Alex Dumas** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 8:11 pm

Your other option might be to use it as a pattern to recast yourself a good kit. A slightly oily surface should not prevent the silicon from curing but that remains to be tested.

robiwon · Post by **robiwon** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:10 am

Could it be that the resin is till curing/gassing out? When I got my Anigrand Star Destroyer I got a contact high when I opened the box from the fumes!!!! It wasn't oily but the smell went away after a few days. Maybe soak it and let it sit for a few days before primering.

Lt. Z0mBe · Post by **Lt. Z0mBe** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:22 am

This is just a thought for you guys who run into this. I have never tried it, as I have had excellent luck with resin kits. If the issue is uncured resin leaching out, what about going to Wal Mart and purchasing some of that fluid clean up granules? Then, take affected kit and bury it in a bucket of said oil/fluid cleaner granules for a month. The stuff will pull oil out of concrete. My little batches of resin are certainly not nearly as thick as motor oil, burned or new.

I hope this helps.

Kenny

Beaveranger · Post by **Beaveranger** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 7:47 am

Lt. Z0mBe wrote:....and purchasing some of that fluid clean up granules?

Just get a bag of kitty litter, it's the same thing. Got a local cabinet shop nearby? Sawdust works just as well, and they'll let you have as much as you can haul away.

Rocketeer · Post by **Rocketeer** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:52 am

My luck with resin which is exuding "oil" is poor. I have had some luck with grinding away the oily area and replacing it with Milliput. Once long ago I was able to save a piece by mixing Milliput and water to a thin slurry and then applying multiple coats over several days to "seal in" the oil.

In my experience this happens when the resin gets too old.

Marco Scheloske · Post by **Marco Scheloske** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:54 am

I own a very old resinkit from the 80ties which is STILL oiling. Strange stuff. I wish it would produce gold the same way "out of thin air"...

jgoldader · Post by **jgoldader** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:11 pm

Marco, your old oily kit must be violating conservation of mass at least!

I soaked the thing overnight, and the odor is basically gone. I will let it sit a couple of weeks and see what happens. If it seems good, I'll prime and wait a while before finishing.

I'd take a mold and cast my own copy, except I've never done either of those things before. The startup cost is about $75, so I've never been willing to take a go at it.

Thanks to all,

Jeff

kenlilly106 · Post by **kenlilly106** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 12:32 pm

I had a figure kit that wouldn't stop oozing after multiple baths in Simple Green, Bleech-White, etc. I ended up returning it to the mfr. and got another one with the same problems.

Over the course of 6-8 months I cleaned the new kit on a fairly regular basis with strong degreasers in warm water, after a day or so the oily residue started coming back out. I eventually soaked and cleaned it several times in lacquer thinner and that seemed to work, the seeping stopped long enough so I could get some lacquer primer on the kit to seal it.

Turned me off of garage kits for several years, it was the last straw in a series of bad kits.

Ken

Lt. Z0mBe · Post by **Lt. Z0mBe** » Fri Apr 01, 2011 9:48 pm

Beaveranger wrote:
Lt. Z0mBe wrote:....and purchasing some of that fluid clean up granules?
Just get a bag of kitty litter, it's the same thing. Got a local cabinet shop nearby? Sawdust works just as well, and they'll let you have as much as you can haul away.

I've got oodles of sawdust and it doesn't seem to pull the oil out of the concrete like the granules do. As for the kitty litter versus oil wick stuff, I've heard that, but I've never been able to verify it (not that it matters

).

LiebeVision · Post by **LiebeVision** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 1:18 am

It depends on the kitty litter. Both are designed to absorb any nearby moisture. How well they work varies by brand.

But there are some that'll do a great job on spilled oil.

And some that don't do as good a job.

Just don't ask me to remember which is which it's been a decade since I worked in a shop.

Ew. that made me feel old

Beaveranger · Post by **Beaveranger** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 6:39 am

Lt. Z0mBe wrote:I've got oodles of sawdust and it doesn't seem to pull the oil out of the concrete like the granules do. As for the kitty litter versus oil wick stuff, I've heard that, but I've never been able to verify it (not that it matters ).

The trick to the sawdust is patience. It doesn't work as fast as the kitty litter, and sometimes I have even had to put something heavy on the spot to assist. But it will do the trick. Of course, I rarely worry about actually drawing it completely out of the concrete. This is an area of the workshop that is for working on cars, so a black spot does not bother me.

And yeah, some brands of kitty litter work better than others. As a general rule, the cheap stuff is the cheap stuff. You get what you pay for.

Alex Dumas · Post by **Alex Dumas** » Sat Apr 02, 2011 8:08 am

I have tried many things to stop bad castings from 'bleeding' (simple green, baby powder, oven, primers of all kind, etc.) and nothing worked on the long run except sealing the affected area with a very thin coat of CA glue (Wave's black CA in this case). Of course casting a new one is best if it is worth the cost.

AbsoluteSciFi · Post by **AbsoluteSciFi** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:15 am

robiwon wrote:Could it be that the resin is till curing/gassing out? When I got my Anigrand Star Destroyer I got a contact high when I opened the box from the fumes!!!! It wasn't oily but the smell went away after a few days. Maybe soak it and let it sit for a few days before primering.

MMM fuuuummes...

If a kit is shipped too early, and is wrapped up tight, the fumes can often re-gel the resin, making it softer where it condensed on the parts. They would pretty much have to pop it out of the mold and shove it in the box!

Sadly there is not a good cure from that point forward, but it will harden slowly, but it may take longer than you want to wait. This is one possibility, another is that the resin was mixed poorly, as stated above, and there will be no cure for that. In either case, warm sunshine will help. UV light hardens the resin, and too much makes it brittle and yellow.

I have heard about cases in which the resin itself is shipped from the manufacturer in a bad batch, and does just what you stated, never stops giving up residue, this is pretty much a game ender.

jgoldader · Post by **jgoldader** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:54 am

Hello all,
I realized I never said how the story turned out! The little model had been left to soak. After it came out, the smell was basically gone. I let it sit for a week or so, still no smell. I sprayed it with Rustoleum semi-gloss black (it was an X-15), and crossed my fingers and waited.

The paint seems to have taken, and, hopefully, that's the end of the story.

Thanks to all for your advice and sharing your experiences.

Jeff

Glorfindel · Post by **Glorfindel** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 6:51 am

Lt. Z0mBe wrote:This is just a thought for you guys who run into this. I have never tried it, as I have had excellent luck with resin kits. If the issue is uncured resin leaching out, what about going to Wal Mart and purchasing some of that fluid clean up granules? Then, take affected kit and bury it in a bucket of said oil/fluid cleaner granules for a month. The stuff will pull oil out of concrete. My little batches of resin are certainly not nearly as thick as motor oil, burned or new.

I hope this helps.

Kenny

Dolomite is the name of the product. It was used as a substrate in saltwater and african cichlid aquariums as it would help maintain a high PH. I had 4/5 gas station slash repair shops buying 100lbs. of the stuff from me at a time back in the day. They would sprinkle it on top of the oil leaks, tranny and brake fluid spills, and any other liquidy mess that would hit the floor. It would absorb the spill over night then they would sweep it away in the morning.

jasonius · Post by **jasonius** » Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:02 pm

Hi, thought I'd add my two cents. Same thing happened to me, tonight, after a wash with some Simple Green. It was a VA 22nd century Romulan BoP, and after washing it there was an oily residue on the surface of the yellow resin, but not the clear. I washed it again, thinking I just didn't get everything, but same story. Let it soak for 30 minutes, along with a few JH bug fighters from Odyssey Slipways (which were NOT leaching prior to soaking) and a Gizmo BoP (grey resin), and same story, only JUST with the yellow resin. Every yellow-resin kit had the oily residue after the simple green soaking.
I know association is not causation, and I always wash with simple green and haven't had this happen before, but I think there's a connection here... come to think of it most of my other resin work is either with Forge World grey resin, or Godzilla kits from Japan (and if I recall correctly I started using simple green after I stopped building those - soapy water only). I'm certainly not going to test any more of my resin to find out if I'm right or not, but just be wary that it may be the simple green that's doing it, as it seems to be a common factor.
-Jason

Lt. Z0mBe · Post by **Lt. Z0mBe** » Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:42 pm

jasonius wrote:Hi, thought I'd add my two cents. Same thing happened to me, tonight, after a wash with some Simple Green. It was a VA 22nd century Romulan BoP, and after washing it there was an oily residue on the surface of the yellow resin, but not the clear. I washed it again, thinking I just didn't get everything, but same story. Let it soak for 30 minutes, along with a few JH bug fighters from Odyssey Slipways (which were NOT leaching prior to soaking) and a Gizmo BoP (grey resin), and same story, only JUST with the yellow resin. Every yellow-resin kit had the oily residue after the simple green soaking.
I know association is not causation, and I always wash with simple green and haven't had this happen before, but I think there's a connection here... come to think of it most of my other resin work is either with Forge World grey resin, or Godzilla kits from Japan (and if I recall correctly I started using simple green after I stopped building those - soapy water only). I'm certainly not going to test any more of my resin to find out if I'm right or not, but just be wary that it may be the simple green that's doing it, as it seems to be a common factor.
-Jason

Good thinking. I'd never considered that in this line of thinking.

Well, I do know that Super Clean will leave a film if it itself is not washed off or rinsed off with really hot water. Perhaps try hitting the suspect pieces with Windex; when I strip painted pieces with Super Clean, I have to then wash with Windex or Dawn to clean the oily film off.

Kenny

PetarB · Post by **PetarB** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:33 am

Here is another 2 cents.

Good resin is expensive stuff. Manufacturers in the GK industry are always looking for ways to save money. One way is using an 'extender' for resin. A very commonly used extender is kerosense, because it's easily available and cheap.

Kerosene is also sometimes used as a release agent, with diluted petroleum jelly.

The problem with kerosene however, is twofold. It smells, and it can cause the problem you're experiencing. Personally, I would avoid any kit with this issue, but as always, you don't know it until you open the box...

jasonius · Post by **jasonius** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:12 pm

Ok well I can't smell it, but that doesn't mean much. I can't smell anything half the time...

So what's the solution? Dawn? Window cleaner? Comet or Ajax? I can't very well coat the whole model in CA glue to seal it... I'm afraid to prime and paint these now, and I have about 10 small models that are doing the same thing with bare resin staring me in the face.

kenlilly106 · Post by **kenlilly106** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:50 pm

Have you tried any of the high-strength degreasers like SuperClean?

Ken

Alex Dumas · Post by **Alex Dumas** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 12:56 pm

I wonder if letting your casting set in a 'bath' of baby powder (talc based) for a few weeks would do any good? It's pretty absorbant...

jasonius · Post by **jasonius** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:17 pm

Well I have 5 jem'hadar bug fighters that are pretty small... maybe I could try a different approach on each of them and see what turns out best before I move on to a more expensive piece...

Good thread.

Post by **TER-OR** » Wed Jul 20, 2011 9:18 pm

Sometimes a little extra heat will do the job. Leave it near the oven, place it on the windowsill etc...

phantom_phantic309 · Post by **phantom_phantic309** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 7:22 pm

I've had a few 1/35 military figures that are doing this. They've sat in boxes for the last few years till I figured out what the hell to do about them. Might have to give a few of these suggestions a try.

Antenociti · Post by **Antenociti** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:03 am

I have a professional degreaser agent used by rolls royce engines (aerospace) which cleans pretty much any "Oily" residue off resin, plastic or metal.

It will soften most glues though, including CAs... cant think how i'd get it to you in the USA though, however another solution is...

"SUgar Soap" - the problem is, again, that I dont know if you can get that in the USA< or if you can it has a different name, but it will also remove pretty much any oily residue.

Haivng said that.. "Petroleum smell" sounds bad... is this a polyester resin kit then?... cant abide polyester myself and never, ever use it.

Wasnt there stories about people buling out polyester reins with diesel some time back (many years ago)? Diesel is too expensive nowadays mind you, well int he UK anyway..never found ou if the "diesel thing" was true or an old wives tale.

Any resin that continues to leech any residue though - return to the manufacturer, aint worth the itme messing around with it and its their problem to fix, not yours.

We'd replace such a kit immediately. /em shrugs cant say i have ver had the problem though except if a mix hasnt been fully mixed, but that almost always leaves soft-spots in polyurethane resins... is polyester any different?

Certianly tings like mould-rlease agent are easy to remove with sugar-soap or professional degreasers and wont "re-appear"

aussie muscle · Post by **aussie muscle** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 7:27 pm

Marco Scheloske wrote:It may be one of those cases where you have to throw it into the waste, as it may NEVER stop to be oily - mostly this happens because of a badly mixed resin.

correct, i received a slush cast car body that is still oily, even after cleaning, sanding, etc. the caster admitted he stuff up the mix and sent a replacement.