cleaning terrain

[pjz]

Good news: local craigslister sold me 7+ RotV sets, plus some lava and forgotten road sets for a steal! Over doubled my terrain in one swell foop!

Bad news: apparently a smoking household as the faint aroma of tobacco pervades the multiple bins and boxes of gear.

solution so far:



Any other suggestions? or pitfalls to avoid?

[i_r_beej]

I think you've hit on the right solution. Dish soap and warm water. Just don't get the water too hot (to prevent possible warping).

[Xorlof]

I've been wondering the same thing for almost the same reason. I thought of doing what you did (soaking in sudsy water), but haven't tried it.

What I *have* done though is using the dishwasher with the drying cycle off, but the high heat wash/rinse cycles on (which heats the water up to 140 degrees according to my dishwasher's manual). I used a Cascade-brand gel tab which was top-rated by Consumer Reports a few years back.

The result? It worked great! No warping, and no more smokey smell. Also, many of the pieces were just plain 'ole dirty (some had sticky oily stuff on it, others a tightly adhered white substance in the surface cracks) and it got all of that off too without affecting the paint. The terrain still interlocked well.

So while I can't say it is 100% safe to do in all dishwashers or with all detergents, it worked fine for me and my dishwasher. I only did a couple of terrain pieces the first time to test that it was OK before doing a whole bunch.

The bigger problem for me is cleaning the figures. They have a softer plastic, as well as the base stickers, so probably shouldn't get too hot or wet. Plus they seem to absorb odors easier. There is a professional service around here that I can hire and they do get them clean, but I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has experience cleaning figures.

[pjz]

Xorlof: I thought of that after I had a tub full of terrain Good to know it's safe to dishwash terrain (with the heater off, of course). As for figures, it so happens that this giant lot included a bunch of duplicate RotV figs that I don't mind sacrificing to such an experiment, so I'll try it and let you know how it goes.

I'm pretty psyched about my find: turns out it's not just a huge pile of terrain (including at least 1, maybe 2 Volcarren Wastelands) but also about 3-4 waves worth of figs, including 2x Orm's Return and 1x Raknar's Vision. Way to jumpstart my collection

[Dad_Scaper]

Congrats on the find, pjz. Do you mind if I ask how much you spent, so we can all ?

[mac122]

Originally Posted by pjz

Xorlof: I thought of that after I had a tub full of terrain Good to know it's safe to dishwash terrain (with the heater off, of course). As for figures, it so happens that this giant lot included a bunch of duplicate RotV figs that I don't mind sacrificing to such an experiment, so I'll try it and let you know how it goes.

I'm pretty psyched about my find: turns out it's not just a huge pile of terrain (including at least 1, maybe 2 Volcarren Wastelands) but also about 3-4 waves worth of figs, including 2x Orm's Return and 1x Raknar's Vision. Way to jumpstart my collection

The base stickers will be the problem with washing figures. I'd definitely suggest trying on 1 before doing the lot of duplicates. Also, the plastic used to mold the figures is softer and more susceptible to heat than the terrain.

[winonavampire]

I picked up a RotV for $10 and they too were very "icky". Fortunately not smokey... just grimey and greasy.... McDonalds and Cheese puff hands kinda stuff.

I did the bath tub thing as well, except a kitchen sink because there wasn't that much. The terrain I soaked in the warm soapy (Dawn) water, rinsed them off and let them air dry. They came out good as new.

The figures were also in the same shape, but with the sticker issue, I didn't want to soak them. So what I did with them, was I ran a new sink of warm soapy water. I took a couple figs and quickly swished them around in the water and then rinsed them in some more warm water. I then took a towel and dried the stickers and let the fig air dry after that. There was no damage to the stickers.

Now, with that, while the terrain was soaking, the glyphs were also soaking the whole time. I rinsed and let them dry just like the terrain. There was also no damage to the sticker on the glyph. So, I don't think you have to worry too much about the stickers on the figs. I would still not let them soak, but a little bit of washing doesn't seem to hurt them.

Good Luck!

[Xorlof]

Originally Posted by pjz

Xorlof: I thought of that after I had a tub full of terrain Good to know it's safe to dishwash terrain (with the heater off, of course). As for figures, it so happens that this giant lot included a bunch of duplicate RotV figs that I don't mind sacrificing to such an experiment, so I'll try it and let you know how it goes.

Let us know how you're bathtub soaking turns out.

Regarding the dishwasher--dishwasher detergent is pretty strong, so its safety might depend on the detergent. I can only say that it did OK with the "Cascade with Dawn ActionPacs" detergent and my Frigidaire dishwasher, and suspect it will be fine with others.

And as others noted, the base stickers probably wouldn't do well in the dishwasher (getting too wet), but if you're feeling like experimenting some extras, let us know what you find out!

Originally Posted by pjz

I'm pretty psyched about my find: turns out it's not just a huge pile of terrain (including at least 1, maybe 2 Volcarren Wastelands) but also about 3-4 waves worth of figs, including 2x Orm's Return and 1x Raknar's Vision. Way to jumpstart my collection

Sounds like a great find. Congratulations!

[Just_a_Bill]

Couple of related questions:

1. Anybody know the best way to clean feline urine off of plastic? I bought some Mage Knight castle walls on eBay to use for 'Scape customs and they reek of cat pee.

2. Anybody know the best way to get the actual official paint off the tops of the tiles? I want to strip some grass tiles down to 'all brown' but nothing I've tried seems to take the green paint off.

[pjz]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

Congrats on the find, pjz. Do you mind if I ask how much you spent, so we can all ?

What was claimed to be:

7 master sets(rise of valkeryie), 1 castle, 2 roads through forgotten forest, 3 lava sets(forgot the name) and about 10-12 expansion packs.

Which looks about right, though there're at least twice that many booster packs. My census is:

1 huge tub of terrain which contains the 2x forests, and 4(!) lava sets.

One unopened RotV. One other unopened RotV w/Elite Onyx Vipers.

One castle set.

~ 4-5 RotV fig sets. Raknar's vision. 2x Orm's Return. and about 30(!!) booster packs, waves 1-6, heavy on waves 3-4, lighter on the others.

...all for

Spoiler Alert!

$300

[pjz]

Originally Posted by Xorlof

Let us know how you're bathtub soaking turns out.

Turned out okay. I did two cycles of warm water + dishwashing liquid (DAWN, orange scented) and then rinse and then drained and let them dry for awhile (turned on the bathroom fan to speed that up), then put them all in a clean container. No noticeable smell, though I suspect that the trees and ruins may still have a bit on them since they have more crevices for the stuff to hide in.

Originally Posted by Xorlof

Regarding the dishwasher--dishwasher detergent is pretty strong, so its safety might depend on the detergent. I can only say that it did OK with the "Cascade with Dawn ActionPacs" detergent and my Frigidaire dishwasher, and suspect it will be fine with others.

And as others noted, the base stickers probably wouldn't do well in the dishwasher (getting too wet), but if you're feeling like experimenting some extras, let us know what you find out!

I just ran 6 Mimrings and 3 Gruts through the dishwasher (simultaneously) on a 'rinse only' cycle (my dishwasher doesn't seem to have a 'no-heat' wash cycle), and it seems to have done them a world of good smell-wise. The only downside is that they didn't dry too well, which is to be expected.

[Dad_Scaper]

Great googly moogly, that's a lot of stuff. Congratulations, pjz.