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It's my first time working with metal miniatures and there I was, filing away the mould lines from my Anglo-Danish warrior, when it occured to me that it probably wasn't a great idea to be doing this without a face mask and/or gloves. Are such precautions neccessary when working with metal minis?

No, the metal mini's are lead-less pewter.

On the other hand, the antimony and bismuth are still toxic metals - only just NOT accumulative toxins like lead.

As long as you aren't huffing lines of the filings, you should be right.
If you are, then get thee to a hospital, pronto.

chromedog wrote:As long as you aren't huffing lines of the filings, you should be right.

And if you are doing that, I'd say you have bigger issues than the metal in your nose...

He's entirely right, though. Filings are big enough for gravity to keep them out of your lungs without the need for a dust mask (let alone a fancy respirator). I'd say gloves are overkill, as well, at least when using hand tools. Power tools represent their own set of potential dangers, regardless of the materials you're working with, but the metal used in modern miniatures is relatively harmless, even if you are a bit stupid, and totally harmless under normal conditions.

It might be worth washing your hands before eating. Though that advice holds true for pretty much any activity (especially the fun ones!)

Thanks guys. What if the blisters actually say to wash your hands due to lead. Is this precautionary - as per those "This product may contain traces of nuts" labels?

GWs blisters haven't contained products with lead for almost 2 decades. Doesn't mean you shouldn't wash your hands. Lead is only one of the toxic metals used in toy soldier making (and many companies stopped using it in the 90s). On the other hand, Bismuth and Antimony ARE still part of the metal alloys used by many of them and they are also toxic (but not in a accumulative toxin - mental degradation way).

Other companies stuff where it does, will generally also has a caveat of "THIS IS NOT A TOY" - and in those cases, yes. Washing your hands is advised.

OK thanks again. I checked last night and these particular miniatures are Gripping Beast, and it does state that they contain lead.

Wash your hands, wipe down your workstation and vaccum the area around your workstation and you'll be fine.

I work with alot of lead models and it's really no big deal.