Old Modeling Question

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**Audustum**

I like the look of the old pewter models. Does anyone know if GW ever used lead in their pewter alloy mixture?

**nou**

The reason to switch to White Metal was to stop using lead in the mix, so every metal model which you can easily bend a sword or reposition a limb a bit with just your fingers will contain lead. At first glance, White Metal models will be shiny, while old mix metals will be dull and oxidised.

**Grimtuff**

Yup. All the way up until 1997ish when they had The Great Lead Sale and started producing models purely in pewter.

**Radium**

They did, but I believe they switched to white metal pretty early on. If you like the REALLY old models and get the original casts, you may find some with lead in them.

**ccs**

Grimtuff wrote:
Yup. All the way up until 1997ish when they had The Great Lead Sale and started producing models purely in pewter.

Here in the USA they (and other minis companies) switched from lead earlier than that. Around '93/'94.

**Audustum**

nou wrote:
The reason to switch to White Metal was to stop using lead in the mix, so every metal model which you can easily bend a sword or reposition a limb a bit with just your fingers will contain lead. At first glance, White Metal models will be shiny, while old mix metals will be dull and oxidised.

Interesting! I happen to have some so I tested this and they did bend easy, but I figured pewter was always pretty malleable.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

ccs wrote:
Grimtuff wrote:
Yup. All the way up until 1997ish when they had The Great Lead Sale and started producing models purely in pewter.

Here in the USA they (and other minis companies) switched from lead earlier than that. Around '93/'94.

That's good to know! Thank you all!