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Lots of space marine parts have little ribbed hoses. I've always tried to de-flash them the same way as other stuff - careful scraping with an xacto knife. But this doesn't really satisfy me. Even being very careful, after they are painted there's still too many obvious problems. Flash in the recesses of the ribs is the primary issue. But you also end up inevitably smooshing parts of the ribs themselves from the pressure of the knife.

Anyway, are there any genius alternatives here? Seems like someone must have come up with something clever.

If it's light enough, you can get good results by repeatedly scraping your thumbnail. As you say, using the knife is a good way to damage the cable.

I've ordered a hose maker, I was hoping I'd be able to just replace them. Along with all the other uses of the tentacle and hose maker.

Or try synthetic steel wool, which would be a bit gentler than a knife - but is only suitable for light flash. It's also great as a final flexible smooth-down for filed/sanded surfaces before painting.

I sometimes use a razor saw.

Careful filing (triangular or the edge of a shallow half-round, depending on the spacing of the ridges - same for mold lines on fingers/knuckles) gives me the best results, but it's painstaking work. More often than not, I'll simply do a rough job with gentle scraping or an emery board and take care not to pick out the problem areas as strongly while painting.

Thin flash wouldn't be nearly much trouble, but all of my models' ribbed/ridged areas always seem to have obvious mold shift.

I just got over it.....easiest solution I found.

A very stiff toothbrush would do wonders on it. The flash is pretty thin on those parts.