Oh!pEnions: Termite recovery Part I

Termite recovery Part I

19082012 2255

Woke up this morning and well, I had some time to kill after helping out with more cleaning. So, what did I do? Well, its time to face my sadness.

Stashed away in my so-called 'workroom' are some of the unfinished business. These are the termite infested model kits which I bagged and put them away for when the time was right for me to deal with it. It all started years ago when I needed to put away all my things so that I can start with my next stage in Life. But then, when the neighbours started to renovate their houses, the termites needed a new place and so, our house was their new holiday retreat. My boxes of delicious pulpy stuff, that is. By the time we saw termite trails, it was too late.

The end result was that most of my priceless toys/props/model kits were literally eaten. What was once boxed delights were now soggy mess. So, I had to recover a lot of... stuff and put them into big pails until I have the chance to clean them up. Some, I put into a big basin and soaked them with water, only to have it accidentally washed into the drain during a fit of anger.


Flashback: Picture from June 30th, 2008 This was what was left of my Limited Edition Star Trek Voyager model. As the model kit was never opened, the shrink wrap plastic kept everything together. Inside was cold, wet & soggy pulp plus termite waste mixed with the hard plastics of the kit. In fact, its like holding a dead cat by its skin.

So, for today, I decided to start with something small so that I my memories of sadness does not come flooding back (like a flash-flood, that is). There are a lot of stuff but I will only show you that are about 90% recovered parts.

1/35 Vinyl Patlabor during the time when Bandai only had them in 1/60. Vinyl 1/6 Stormtrooper and a Vinyl Bubblegum Crisis Nene (I think) in hardsuit.

My four necelle Starship. This was one of my serious foray into lighting. Now looking back at it, I was very foolish with the LEDs because I did not use any resistors. Also, the LED technology was still in its infancy and so, it was not very bright. But one day, maybe soon, I will rework the model again.

A recent 1/700 Typhoon class with a Dragon 1/350 version

Why I got a Ohio submarine in there, I too, have no idea.

One of the surviving Terrahawks toys when I was in Ireland.
Too bad I drilled it.

Now, its time to go deeper into the mess. See anything familiar?

Original Jin-Roh Vinyl Kit.
Missing: Spike on its backpack, the MG42 machine gun, metal cast hose for the face mask


Part of a Heavy Metal 'The Embrace' resin kit. Not sure of the source but this is how it looks when done.

This is part of a Final Fantasy of Cloud Strife in his FFVII on his Hardy Daytona bike. Sadly, there are so many parts, I don't think this can be completed at all.
The again, there is the toy...

Ooh... a nice surprise!
Parts of Enterprise-C!

Alright. Now I am going in deeper. This is the first box...
Curious what was in the black rubbish bag,

See anything you recognise?

All the stuff that came from the box

Star Trek:Voyager's Maquis ship.
All I need are some clear parts from Don's Light and Magic as some of them are really missing.

The Limited Edition Voyager (left) and the first release (right) which has square windows and because of that, I had to drill my own accurate windows which turned out to be a disaster.

Once the windows are done, I used a 2-part epoxy to act as window panes. Three weeks later, the epoxy turned dark brown instead of clear.

The Original Monogram Cylon Raider with completed parts, I think

AMT's Deep Space Nine with most of the parts minus one or two docking ports

Original Geometrics Star Trek:The Next Generation Data (Left) and a resin Virtua Fighter 2 Sarah (right)

AMT's Moonbase Alpha from Space:1999
The termites have gone through the box.

This is one of the few models, apart from the Star Wars series to have vacuformed base. And just like every model in that era, the Moonbase looks like it, feels like it but on closer inspection, is not it. Then again, its still a decent model kit one can buy at that time for a very good price.

I had to remove the plastic bag carefully in case these dried gunk spills all over the floor. Sometimes, there is a panic that they might contain still alive termites which would then infect the new place. But fortunately, I do not see any bodies. Just waste. And in this case, the box, the model kit's instruction manual and possibly its decals.

Thankfully, I can vouch for the fact that 100% of the plastic parts are intact.

But alas, the termites have gotten in there too because of the holes in the bag. I know its a diorama kit and more of like a representation of how the command centre architecture looks like because the figures and the Eagles are not in the same scale.