Cleaning a NECA Hellraiser Puzzle Box?

Howlrunner

Howlrunner

Sr Member
I just got through the NECA puzzle box that I snagged from eBay for a great (cheap!) price.

Thing is, it's REALLY tarnished. Can I somehow clean it back to it's original brightness?

The box says that the panels are brass - are they really, or is that just what the one in the movie was supposed to be made of and this one is actually something else (copper alloy, etc)?

You can see the original colour of the panel in the top right corner in this photo (the tarnish can be scratched off to see the original brightness underneath):

PuzzleBox2.jpg


Will Brasso work, or vinegar or some other magic formula?
 
Yeah, it is brass but the NECA lament configuration was a huge pile of cr*p! That isn't a tarnish, it's a brownish stain they just painted over the whole box with!

I've done the same (well, i actually bought new panels, took the wood back to the grain and re-finished the whole thing), and recommend using nail polish remover (one that CONTAINS acetate) to take off that brown rubbish.

BE CAREFUL! If you want to keep the stain on the wood then just use cotton wool buds to make sure you just wipe the brass. When you're finished you'll end up with the bright yellow brass finish - you can leave this to allow it to naturally tarnish over time or seal it with some kind of clear lacquer.

Hope this helps!

Dan.
 
Damn, wish I'd waited until I read your post Bromie before impatiently getting stuck in with the Brasso. :unsure

Turns out that Brasso will remove the brown dye. BUT, it also turns out the NECA cube does NOT have brass panels. Rather, they appear to be brass plated. So if you rub too hard with the Brasso it takes it down to silver metal like this:

Puzzle1.jpg


:cry

That was the first side I did (i.e. screwed up). At that point I HAD to keep going so that all the sides matched. After about 2 hours I finished, with just the one (above) panel messed up. It still looks tarnished, but it's MUCH brighter than it was before, and I actually quite like the antique look.

Puzzle2.jpg


I don't suppose there's anything I can do to disguise/hide/correct that spot where the silver shows through, is there?
 
Oh, never got that far - didn't realise they were plated!

Nope, nothing you can do about that, except re-plating them. You've removed the top layer of brass and this is the only way to put it back.

If it's any consolation i think that you've made it look very nice, it really does look like one of the antiqued movie boxes. Mine has more of a new look:

IMAG0005.jpg


IMAG0006.jpg


Don't know what's up with that top photo but it looks like the bottom photo in person, except more yellow (that picture is slightly washed out).

I'd do it differently if i did it again, but i was very disappointed with the quality of the NECA cube, especially seeing as though it was £50! You can see in your photo that strange fake grain effect they've created on the wood - this is just thick layers of lacquer pressed into a pattern.

I really like that photo of the cube in the bell jar, it really looks like a shot straight out of the film. I wish i'd stained the other four sides slightly when i'd done mine...

Cracking job! :thumbsup
 
Yours looks great. Where did you get the brass panels?

I'm glad I only paid £15 for my NECA box. I think I may have a go at stippling some brass coloured paint over the silver areas.
 
Ta! I actually can't remember where i got them - it was a few years ago now, but i think they were about £30.

And at least you didn't pay as much for the box! :rolleyes
 
Yeah, I've seen that on a lot of the NECA cubes - really, how hard can it be to glue down a flat panel to a flat surface without getting kinks/bends in it?!

Thankfully I got lucky - there's virtually NO bits of the panels lifted on the one I received.
 
I cleaned mine up 8 years ago and it still looks great. I just wet-sanded it with a little love and never touched it again. The panels are indeed brass. Again, I 'sanded' these slowly yet deeply. As you can see, they buffed up just fine.

5992-picture-036.jpg
 
Last edited:
Yeah, mine started peeling too:

HalfCleanedPuzzlebox.jpg


You can just about see it here and on the side panel at the top. This is half cleaned here, was just using acetone to remove that cra*py lacquer stuff. You can see the difference in the quality of engraving between the NECA rubbish and the new ones i bought. Well worth the money.
 
Brass is an alloy which means it's made up of two different metals. In this case, copper and zinc. It can change color on you for any number of reasons. If I had to guess, I'd say you simply buffed too hard considering I've layed into these 'slowly' with sandpaper and had great results. Keep in mind I sanded really deeply to get to the woodgrain between the panels, too!



Howlrunner said:
Rylo, if the panels are indeed brass, why do they look silver when stripped back too far?
Click to expand...
 
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