Anime-Beta v9.1

[GuyvarIII]

On the recommendation of Toonybabe, I’m posting the return of my “Prodigal Cel.”

In July 2006, I purchased a cel of the climax of the early-1980s TV series “Aura Battler Dunbine”. After purchasing the cel with some other items, it was suddenly removed from my order and then later re-listed as available on the site. After asking if it was in stock or not, I was told it was, it was added back onto my purchase, and I was sent the piece.

When the cel came, it was affixed to two ancient, gruesome sheets of paper. And it wasn’t the paint from the cel that kept it stuck to the paper; instead, it was a long strip of tape holding the two paper sheets together, which had long ago burned through them, and was now either keeping the paper and paint stuck, or had eaten through the paint, completely removing it from the cel and transferring it to the tape’s own surface. You can’t exactly see this in the dealer’s image, because the tape is up against the back of the cel.



On top of this, there was mold. In the picture above, you can see what looks like dirt on the left, and a large black area below the two figures where the mold had eaten through the paper and had caused it to shred. On Sho Zama’s (the dark haired guy) arm you can see small discolored sections. This is where the fungus had gone through the paint, and was growing between the paint layer and the plastic.

Not only was it a real shame that this great scene from an influential anime was turning into garbage right in front of me, but, it being covered in living plant matter, I didn’t exactly want to store it with the rest of my collection. So, I took it to S/R Labs on September 8, 2006.

Two years, six months, twenty-one days, and almost $300 later:



Sho and Bern will now continue to be locked in the classic struggle between good and evil …
for many years to come.

EDIT: I had a missing word. It sounded like I was covered in "living plant matter."

[Killua]

Great restoration job and great cel, but what on Earth took them so long?
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[ReiTheJelly]

You pay less if you're willing to wait several years. *lol*


They look great! I'm glad you have your artwork back, safe and cleaned. I would have a heart attack being separated from some of my artwork for that long...and not having a set end date would kill me, for sure.
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[Belldandy16]

yeah i was going to say does it really take that long to clean cels??

[cutiebunny]

Wow, the restoration looks incredible. You would never be able to tell that the cel was affected by such horrible damage had you not seen the 'before' picture.

I'm sure S/R Labs has quite a back-up. There is a lot of animation artwork out there, and I can only imagine that many of them(now over 50 years old) need some kind of restoration...especially since things like polypropelene bags weren't around back then.

[GuyvarIII]

I was disappointed with the amount of time it took. I was told it would take 18 months.

But now I have the cel, I have no issues with the result; and I couldn’t even have stored it in its previous condition.

[moonrabitt]

Maybe it took a long time to get rid of said fungus????
Or maybe it took a while to find the right type of paint?

The cel looks in great condition!
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-'Ello...'Ello

[sailorsv13]

Wow! The cel-fungus from hell! I'm so glad you were able to get it restored! Animation history should forever be preserved!

[toonybabe]

This is a great post. I've been considering taking some of my cels to S/R Labs. I bought these (the first four) Gay Purr-ee cels on Ebay last spring:

http://likeabutterfly.rubberslug.com/gallery/master_query.asp?SeriesID=28718

They came in the mail with the damage you see in the photos - basically paint chipped/flaking off. The pink cat is the worst. The seller claimed they were damaged in the mail and I got my money back from the Post Office but I think he sent me damaged cels. It was stressful waiting to see if the Post Office would accept the damage claim but in the end I think I made out because I got four Gay Purr-ee cels for free (they usually go for at least $400 each). Plus they all came with their original sketches.

Its good to know that S/R Labs did a good job with your cel even if it took them forever. How did the pricing work? Did you send them a photo of the damage and then got a quote? Were they up-front with the price? I am very curious to see how much it would cost me to get mine repaired. With four cels I imagine it easily costing over $1,000. I just don't want to pay more than what the cels are worth. They are gorgeous, though, great poses and no line fading. Its just that darn paint missing.

Thanks for posting and again, congratulations about the homecoming of your cel!

[dbzmomma]

Congratulations on getting that back. But, holy bovine, that was a long time! They did a great job.
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Vicci

Grand Reopening of Momma's Addiction Rubberslug Gallery!

[iceman57]

I had a short e-mail exchange with Ron Stark, director of S/R Labs in January when I was planning my unstuck tests.

For my "Arcadia OP" (stucked area of 2" by 9"), the estimation was 30 US$ by S/R Labs, but they only judged the work on a photography.
Main issue for this operation was air freight and insurance, so I judged this non possible from France.

I had a long discussiong with a 12th century paintings restauration specialist if she can handle this unstuck operation in Paris.

She used some stamps with water, and surgery knife.
The longer part of the job was not to unstuck cel and material (this took one hour), but to remove all the fibers stucked to the anime cel without damaging the back paint, fiber by fiber with the surgery blade.

As a result, the "Arcadia OP" took four hours of work, for a non "anime cel" initiated, but painting specialist.

Before : http://toshiro.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_info.asp?ItemID=269794
After : http://toshiro.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_info.asp?ItemID=276694

IMO dear GuyvarIII, 300 US$ for 2 years of work is a real big gift from Ron.

Why ? Because 30 US$ is only the cost for one hour of work, so that means that it took only 10 hours of work.
You normally had to pay something like 50.000 US$

I may suppose that he saw this unstuck operation like a really personnal challenging work, you're really lucky
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C'est parce que les puissants cultivent la haine pour mieux diviser les peuples, que des hommes de toutes les epoques se dressent pour faire triompher le bien...
Visit my RS laboratory gallery and feel free to offer your comments and ratings.

[GuyvarIII]

Toonybabe:
Those Gay-puree cels are nice. That one of Mewsette is awesome!

Because I live in So. Cal., I drove the cel over, and received a quote from Mr. Stark in person. All the jobs were itemized on a sheet, and I was charged the exact quoted estimate.

The job list was as follows:
Administrative set-up: $35
Lab prep and first exam: $ 25
color keys: $25
Clean and polish: $65
Four finished paint colors at $35ea.: $140
Total: $290

I’m not sure how it works with estimates from photos. Because he told me when I called to schedule my visit that he couldn’t give me an exact estimate until he saw the piece. My estimate was also done in 2006, so I don’t know if the prices are the same now. But, I wasn’t charged until the work was completed on my cel.



Iceman57:
Removing the paper from the cel wouldn‘t have solved the problem with this cel, as large sections of paint were already off the cel and affixed to the tape (as described above). Also, there was the issue of removing the mold from the cel, and then fixing any resulting damage.

BTW: Great Arcadia cel!

Thank you for your comments, Killua, ReiTheJelly, Belldandy16, cutiebunny, moonrabitt, sailorsv13, and dbzmomma.

[graymouser]

I'm a little late to this thread, but I had to chime in that it looks like they did a great job.

I had S/R Labs do some work on removing stuck dougas and layers on some Last Unicorn cels a several years ago. They did a great job, especially in separating the stuck layers. Like you I live close enough to drive to his studio. Did he give you a tour when you were there? It was really cool to see the projects they were working on and how they were set up.

Like with your cel it took a bit of time. I guess I was lucky that it took just a little over a year to do my six cels. Or more likely, it was because that poor cel had so much damage.

Anyways, congratulations on getting your baby back in such nice shape.

[iceman57]

[GuyvarIII]

Graymouser:
Yes, he did give me a mini tour. I got to see the Merrie Melodies and Sleeping Beauty cels, as well as a really great Gertie the Dinosaur drawing, which decorate his office/lab walls.

Iceman57:
Here is the back of the cel: