Here's the pic of another one:

the torso halves are vac metalized separately so when the 'sonic weld' is broken and the coating removed any signs of damage are gone.

on a side note half way through stripping the vac metal. it turns from gold to silver.

James, how does stripping the paint cover up a damaged weld?

Ozio's pic: so here's a true 'non sonic welded' torso, displays crisp mould detail:


not perfectly in focus but the plastic mould detail is less defined


Now a fake one showing a few spots of contact/join(from http://www.imperialgunneryforum.com/t5301-fake-lili-ledy-on-ebay )




so the halves are vac metalized individually


when sonic welded together the only fused sections are the layers of 'gold'.  When stripped the 'gold' 'disolves' leaving just fresh plastic showing no signs of being welded. ie. you wouldn't see the small melt/glue marks



the two main RL C3PO colours are (Derek's pic)

Ah gotcha that makes sense now.

But I really can't see any signs of damage on Vince's just reflection of light. You are right though the pic is a little blurry.

And also like I mentioned over on Rebelscum I've noticed a lot of the stripped C3POs have a very matte finish to them almost like the chemical damaged the surface, whereas Vince's does look nice and glossy.

Hey Guys

I will be moving my SW collection in a few weeks from my parents house to me and the Mrs new house. Before it gets packed up I will take some Macro shots of inside the torso.

Thanks for all your help so far , Oli , Steve and James for taken a few Golden Casualty's along the way.

James I do have one question at the moment I recently Tried Break fluid for the first time on a RL Ledy beater i picked up off ebay and like most of the other pictures I have seen, there is the white substance that has went onto the plastic , there also seems to be some tooth brush scrapes , is there any way to get this removed completely off the figures after they have been in the fluid ? I read an old post on RS and I am sure it was the two you pictured from Derek (it was just checked) he used a Dremmel tool to clean off the white substance but it just came back again which you can see clearly on the yellow one's mostly on the legs.

Of all the Break fluid figs I have seen , you can clearly tell they have been stripped , although I have only tried it the once and am no expert. I guess there may be a way to get rid of any paint damage or this white substance.

Thanks

Vince

I don't see the need to go into details but brake fluid is OK, other chemicals are better. We (the TIG team) did a LOT of experimenting with the whole unpainted helmet thing....