What the flock? - A warning to all and sundry.
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:39 am
Way back in January of last year, I played a game of Bolt Action at the monthly event and I noticed some white powdery stuff on a couple of US infantry models' bases. At the time I put it down to them having shared a box with some Russians at some stage which have snow effects on their bases. Shortly after that, the pandemic really got going and I stopped playing games on a regular basis.
Fast forward to earlier this week when I was tidying up my hobby room and sorting some minis into the correct boxes.
That wasn't snow effect powder on those minis.
I have multiple minis across multiple boxes that have mildew growing on the flock I used on the bases. Not only that, but it seems that my cardboard army cases and the polyurethane foam trays I am using are also quite susceptible to the stuff too. Some digging around online shows that mildew needs only a couple of things to thrive. Darkness and humidity. Having minis sat in a case for a long time combined with Japan's naturally high summer humidity seems to have been more than enough to trigger this outbreak. So, I would encourage everyone who has minis stored away to dig them out and put them in the sunshine for a few hours if they get the chance.
As for myself, I have a couple of dozen figures that I need to clean up somehow. Best case scenario, I scrape off the affected bits of flock and rebase them. Worst case, I have to bin the figure. But that is not the main issue. I have used the same flock on literally thousands of figures. If it is all potentially going to get mouldy, then it ALL needs to go, or at least get sealed somehow. Plus my army cases are pretty much unusable and I have about 20 of those things.
I'm going to go and cry for a while.
Fast forward to earlier this week when I was tidying up my hobby room and sorting some minis into the correct boxes.
That wasn't snow effect powder on those minis.
I have multiple minis across multiple boxes that have mildew growing on the flock I used on the bases. Not only that, but it seems that my cardboard army cases and the polyurethane foam trays I am using are also quite susceptible to the stuff too. Some digging around online shows that mildew needs only a couple of things to thrive. Darkness and humidity. Having minis sat in a case for a long time combined with Japan's naturally high summer humidity seems to have been more than enough to trigger this outbreak. So, I would encourage everyone who has minis stored away to dig them out and put them in the sunshine for a few hours if they get the chance.
As for myself, I have a couple of dozen figures that I need to clean up somehow. Best case scenario, I scrape off the affected bits of flock and rebase them. Worst case, I have to bin the figure. But that is not the main issue. I have used the same flock on literally thousands of figures. If it is all potentially going to get mouldy, then it ALL needs to go, or at least get sealed somehow. Plus my army cases are pretty much unusable and I have about 20 of those things.
I'm going to go and cry for a while.