Hey all, I have been busy purchasing pieces and masks, and some have arrived cleaner than others. I had to scrub at a trans-green Kaukau to get some dirt out of the nose/mouth area. And it got me thinking - what methods do you guys use to clean old/secondhand parts, and pieces, particularly masks and other ones that are particularly displayable?
I generally use q-tips and water, with some dish soap depending on the dirtiness of the part. I have used hydrogen peroxide to whiten some parts, and have used a tiny bit of nail-polish remover but I find that it leaves smudges on some parts.
What methods do you use? Is there any simple or easy strategies for maintaining parts? I’d love to hear from you.
if a set/parts are particularly dirty I’ll let it sit in a small tub with some soapy water (dish soap) for a while, clean them a bit more with a toothbrush if necessary, rinse them, then leave them to dry.
If it’s just dust I scrub it with a dry toothbrush.
I mean, Q-tips and a little bit of soapy water generally does the trick. A soft bristled toothbrush also works. For whitening yellow parts, hydrogen peroxide and sunlight (or other UV light) works really well.
There are more specialized products for this sort of thing, stuff I’ve seen in the 3D printing and Gundam communities, if you really wanna get fancy.
The best things you can use for cleaning anything like this.
Blast the part with compressed air to get surface level dirt off.
Then dip a soft toothbrush or makeup brush in rubbing alcohol and rub over the part getting I to any tight areas.
Dunk it in warm soapy water and repeat the process.
Lastly rinse in cool fresh water then leave to dry naturally not in direct sun light.
I guarantee you won’t get a cleaner part that isn’t factory new but I would skip the alcohol for any rubber parts and obviously don’t put any electronic parts in water.
Acetone is probably a bad idea, it’s a strong solvent and can actually melt certain types of plastic including abs and Styrene which I think Lego is made from.
