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legoburner wrote:I hate mould lines, flash and resin blobs - I spend about a third of all time modelling/painting removing them. It is incredibly annoying. One normal imperial guardsmen grunt takes me about 25-30 minutes to clean :(

It takes me longer to clean a guardsman than to paint it!

If I could paint anywhere near a decent standard, then I would consider it. However, my painting is best described as table-top standard at best so it really isn't worth my time or effort to clean them up when there are more productive ways for me to improve the aesthetic.

I would say that it's especially important for people painting to a lower standard as all the quick and easy methods of painting (washing, drybrushing, dipping) make mould lines look much worse.

Here's one of mine for an example - the mould lines have been cleaned up pretty well but there was a tiny bit left on top of the pistol and on his left boot. These were essentially invisible before painting but the paint has made them more prominent.

Bear in mind that your high resolution image shows the model more than double its real-life size on the tabletop.

The point of speed painting with dips and so on is to do it quickly, so spending a lot of time cleaning mould lines is counter-productive.

I think your figure looks great. If you are really worried about the line on the boot, cover it up with basing material like a tuft of grass.

I'm not worried about it, I would say that's more than acceptable for tabletop standard.

The point was that those mould lines were basically invisible (that's what was left after they'd been cleaned up) but the paint has emphasised them. An uncleaned mould line is much worse and after being emphasised by drybrushing or dipping can be terrible.

It's unfortunate that most of the quick-and-easy painting methods need really good prep.

Being OCD, all mini's must be lineless...

To make it seem like less of a headache, I take all my mini's to work, and clean the mold lines and flashing there, between calls (I work as a dispatcher, who'd've guessed?). It's a nice way to break up the monotony of scraping plastic, and I don't notice how long (or little) it takes to clean them up. With that said, I can usually manage about 15 smaller figures, and 8-10 larger figures while at work one day.

I drybrush, therefore I strip mould lines.

Seriously, nothing uncovers a good old cheaty paint scheme like tell tale mould lines!

I take most of the mold lines off. Personally they annoy me on MY minis. If you dont take them off and post a pic, Ill suggest taking off the mold lines and drilling the barrels if possible, but that wont make me hate people

Its just the way I do things, which Im sure can be said the same for another person

I dislike mould lines, but I only have so much patience. If it's not going to be seen or it's too fiddly to get at, I don't bother. I usually have a stab at filling gaps which look a lot worse IMO.

mould lines are the enemy, and must be obliterated...
'nuff said...

cheers
jah

God I'm real anal about mould lines, I have to remove them, even to the extend of removing them from an area being painted.
Though like Mad Doc Grotsnik I many dry brush, so they do show up some-what

My big thing is mould lines on gun barrels. They're obvious, and most of the time they're extremely easy to clean. So why wouldn't you do it?

A couple of times I've commented on mould lines on the painting and modelling forum. I did this not in the spirit of DOMINATING ANOTHER PLAYER, but in the spirit of "If you don't want people to comment on your model, you shouldn't have written 'C&C?' in your message."

Unless its staring me in the face... i dont really bother with em!

The only thing more annoying than mold lines is gaps on an organic figure. You glue some model's arm onto their shoulder or whatever, and there it is--a visible seam in what's supposed to be a smooth surface.

Mold. Mould. Accursed English spelling and the wandering vowels.

I hate putting together the minis because of this. It takes me a lot time to eliminate every mould line, and I HAVE to do it because my hate for the mould lines is stronger than my hate for the process.

It's the main reason for me to avoid new projects. "No, not this again :("

My painting isnt that good, its not "bad", it just isnt as good as I'd like it to be. So anything I can do on the prep side of things that makes my little figures look better is worth it in my book.

I remove mold lines, but when I remember to, I leave the ones that I know will be almost completely invisible on the model - on the torso under the arms, the inside of the upper legs, etc. There will always (especially on large models) be lots of mold line that no-one aside from the man painting the models will ever see. So take a good look at the bits on the sprue, and consider how much effort is really necessary.

I invest a healthy amount of time in removing mold lines. Before I assemble, I try to remove as much flashing as I can.

For stuff you're obviously not going to see, like the bottom of some guns, th bottom of the arms, and something that will be covered (with a cloak or gun), I don't spend a bunch of time on it.

While it's true that the location of the mould line is important, I still think that a once-over with a hobby knife makes a huge difference.

I would never point out someone else's mould lines, however. Not unless they asked me specifically to be brutally honest. Why put-down someone else's hard work?

Minis without mould lines look like little pieces of art. Minis with mould lines look like some cheap toy mass-produced by Mattel.

Mould lines break the illusion of reality, like when you break the 4th wall in a play. When you see miniatures, they are supposed to be symbolic of some sort of reality that your imagination can pick up and run off with. It is much harder for your brain to let itself be drawn in when you see the reminders that the mini was mass-produced.

Few things detract from a miniature like mould lines, and few things are as easy to fix. The only excuse, really, is rampant laziness. That's fine if you're just fielding a bunch of grey minis, but why go to all the trouble of painting them to look more realistic if you're just going to shatter the illusion by not taking all of ten seconds to scrape the moulding off?

Kill them all! Even in areas I know won't be seen after assembly, I must destroy any and all lines. I clean each bit separately before a model even sees glue.

Ailaros wrote:Minis without mould lines look like little pieces of art. Minis with mould lines look like some cheap toy mass-produced by Mattel.

Mould lines break the illusion of reality, like when you break the 4th wall in a play. When you see miniatures, they are supposed to be symbolic of some sort of reality that your imagination can pick up and run off with. It is much harder for your brain to let itself be drawn in when you see the reminders that the mini was mass-produced.

Few things detract from a miniature like mould lines, and few things are as easy to fix. The only excuse, really, is rampant laziness. That's fine if you're just fielding a bunch of grey minis, but why go to all the trouble of painting them to look more realistic if you're just going to shatter the illusion by not taking all of ten seconds to scrape the moulding off?

More like a minute per model, Ailaros. I don't have that time when it is so tedious and dumb.

Ailaros wrote:Minis without mould lines look like little pieces of art. Minis with mould lines look like some cheap toy mass-produced by Mattel.

Mould lines break the illusion of reality, like when you break the 4th wall in a play. When you see miniatures, they are supposed to be symbolic of some sort of reality that your imagination can pick up and run off with. It is much harder for your brain to let itself be drawn in when you see the reminders that the mini was mass-produced.

I think that's part of my problem Ailaros, I can live a bit too much int he real world much of the time and therefore see these plastic miniatures as, well, plastic miniatures. I admit to having a good imagination, but I don't see a 1" high plastic dude on a inverted plate as realistic, with or without mould lines.

However, people that can actually paint well should, by all means, remove mould lines as they would detract from the mini's attractiveness, however, particularly with my painting ability, mould lines dont really matter to me.