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So i’m Building a GSC Apocalypse army and I think (I know) I’m spending to long cleaning up mould lines and assembling each miniature. I told myself I wouldn’t be so nit picky for this project because of the sheer mass of work I have ahead of me but it’s not really working out so far. It’s taken me on average 45 minutes just to clean and assemble each cultist, I try to get all the mould lines even ones out of sight like at the bottom of guns or under arms, does anyone else bother with out of sight mould lines ? I think it’s a step I could skip but im a little ocd about such things.

How long do you guys take assembling and cleaning up a similar miniatures ? I’m currently using a modelling knife to clean up the mould lines, would it be worth investing in the specialised GW tool ? Would it speed things up or just give a neater finish ?

Man I spend, assembling, cultists about pfft 2 min a model to get it ready for priming.

If you want some advice here is what I can give you, first, save up and buy a pair of god hand clippers. They will absolutely change your hobby life. The other tip, is come to terms with what you are doing and why you are doing it. Your assembling a lot of cultists but your worries your spending to much time on them.

Ask yourself, are you getting more enjoyment outta assembling and building? Or do you just wanna play those big games. If the answer is the latter, cut and flatten the nibs you clicp off and scrape with your knife once across the seems call it good.

Not much. Major joins, super obvious mold lines, etc. I will soap/wash resin, that's it.

Yeah same as elbows, i just quickly scrap and cut all the sprue joints until its completely flat etc and the major noticeable mold lines, although i notice ones i forget often after finishing painting it.

 Tank_Dweller wrote:
So i’m Building a GSC Apocalypse army and I think (I know) I’m spending to long cleaning up mould lines and assembling each miniature. I told myself I wouldn’t be so nit picky for this project because of the sheer mass of work I have ahead of me but it’s not really working out so far. It’s taken me on average 45 minutes just to clean and assemble each cultist, I try to get all the mould lines even ones out of sight like at the bottom of guns or under arms, does anyone else bother with out of sight mould lines ? I think it’s a step I could skip but im a little ocd about such things.

How long do you guys take assembling and cleaning up a similar miniatures ? I’m currently using a modelling knife to clean up the mould lines, would it be worth investing in the specialised GW tool ? Would it speed things up or just give a neater finish ?

I used the GW mold scraper out of necessity during a kitbash contest at my local store (I forgot to pack my knife...). I think it's in every way inferior to a knife and wouldn't recommend it. YMMV, of course.

30-45 minutes per model sounds about right for me, too. I look at it this way: it's work now to remove those mold lines, but if you don't, they're still there in a year, in five years, in ten years, and so on. A flaw left on the model will stay there forever unless you do something about it. So I prefer to put in the work.

The thing is whilst you can go super fast that tends to mean you miss a lot of mouldlines. That means when you come to spray it and paint it those lines will drive you nuts! If you already care about mould lines then I think you just have to bite the bullet and take the pain of taking ages to put things together.

YES it can be demoralising and I think that you've got to pace yourself well so you don't burn out. Building an Apoc army is possibly a bit extreme all in one go if you're going to pay attention to mould lines. A majority of apoc armies are simply peoples collections that grew over time, though there's a few sneaky ways to get a lot of points very fast with most armies (mostly taking superheavies, heroes, monster etc...). For infantry its just going to be a long slog .



Remember its a lot faster to remove mould lines now than it is after you've applied any paint, because then you've not just got to remove the line, but also deal with replacing the paint. A pain if its one layer of spray; a nightmare if its several multiple layers of colour.

I use an xacto knife, and spend abour 30-40mins on a single resin mini also using various pin files

It took me 4-5 hrs to build a land raider after cleaning up each piece

I easily spend 45 minutes per miniature getting rid of mold lines. I'm of the same opinion as Overread, it's better to get it done before any paint is applied. If it makes you feel any better I also use sand paper after scraping the mold lines as I need the miniature to be smooth as well as line free. It can be soul destroying on models with fur!

Clear as much as you see, don't be afraid to clear more or even use putty even after model is primed or painted to fix issues you noticed because you couldn't when it was all grey. Lightning bolt won't strike you and model would not collapse into thin grey dust; it's normal process.

Clean it up generally before priming, then give it a once over after priming to clean up bits that have been highlighted by the priming process. If I've missed enough lines I'll re-prime, but generally I don't need to.

Hack them off the sprue, glue them, base them and lash on paint attempting a TTS.
Done

prolly spend about 1H per regular sized 28mm plastic toy.
every single part is cleaned before glued/painted no matter how small it is.

why?
cuz there is nothing worse then having a nice paint job ruined by a butt ugly mould line!

I remove all mold lines. Otherwise what's the point in painting it? Doesn't usually take me that long though. Maybe 10-15 minutes per model? I use a scalpel. Hold the blade perpendicular to the surface with the mold line and scrape it off. An emery board is useful for certain parts too.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I’ve decided that I will try to keep the quality up and just take it slowly and try not to burn out.

 Overread wrote:
YES it can be demoralising and I think that you've got to pace yourself well so you don't burn out. Building an Apoc army is possibly a bit extreme all in one go if you're going to pay attention to mould lines. A majority of apoc armies are simply peoples collections that grew over time, though there's a few sneaky ways to get a lot of points very fast with most armies (mostly taking superheavies, heroes, monster etc...). For infantry its just going to be a long slog.

As far as Apocalypse goes there are no Super Heavies for GSC as you most likely know but I have a little bit of IG including a Baneblade that I plan to run as Brood Brothers so that will help mitigate things a little bit but I do have my work cut out for me.

 Tank_Dweller wrote:
Thanks for the replies everyone, I’ve decided that I will try to keep the quality up and just take it slowly and try not to burn out.

 Overread wrote:
YES it can be demoralising and I think that you've got to pace yourself well so you don't burn out. Building an Apoc army is possibly a bit extreme all in one go if you're going to pay attention to mould lines. A majority of apoc armies are simply peoples collections that grew over time, though there's a few sneaky ways to get a lot of points very fast with most armies (mostly taking superheavies, heroes, monster etc...). For infantry its just going to be a long slog.

As far as Apocalypse goes there are no Super Heavies for GSC as you most likely know but I have a little bit of IG including a Baneblade that I plan to run as Brood Brothers so that will help mitigate things a little bit but I do have my work cut out for me.

Honestly its Apoc - for Genestealers I'd just steal ALL the IG Superheavies Then just throw down a few superheavy Tyranids for good measure

Haha to true it is Apocalypse and funny you mention that... I want to build some massive tall ruins/buildings because I have a vision in my head of my GSC up high in the ruins jubilantly looking down as the Star Children swarm through the streets below devouring everything... so Nids maybe coming as the prophecies foretold but I’m concentrating on GSC for now.

While I still remove every mold line I can get to, because spotting an errant mold line on a painted model is painful to see; I no longer over-spend my time painting.

Backspacehacker sums it up really well "come to terms with what you are doing and why you are doing it". Though I think I heard it from Uncle Atom @ Tabletop Minions originally.

It took me many years to realize the wisdom in these words and that I don't need to paint every model to an 'Eavy Metal standard. It saddens me to think about how much fun I missed out on over the last 10+ years because I was putting too much time into painting my models.

Don't allow the thing(s) you don't enjoy in this hobby cause you to miss out on the thing(s) you do enjoy in this hobby.

 Geifer wrote:

 Tank_Dweller wrote:
So i’m Building a GSC Apocalypse army and I think (I know) I’m spending to long cleaning up mould lines and assembling each miniature. I told myself I wouldn’t be so nit picky for this project because of the sheer mass of work I have ahead of me but it’s not really working out so far. It’s taken me on average 45 minutes just to clean and assemble each cultist, I try to get all the mould lines even ones out of sight like at the bottom of guns or under arms, does anyone else bother with out of sight mould lines ? I think it’s a step I could skip but im a little ocd about such things.

How long do you guys take assembling and cleaning up a similar miniatures ? I’m currently using a modelling knife to clean up the mould lines, would it be worth investing in the specialised GW tool ? Would it speed things up or just give a neater finish ?

I used the GW mold scraper out of necessity during a kitbash contest at my local store (I forgot to pack my knife...). I think it's in every way inferior to a knife and wouldn't recommend it. YMMV, of course.

30-45 minutes per model sounds about right for me, too. I look at it this way: it's work now to remove those mold lines, but if you don't, they're still there in a year, in five years, in ten years, and so on. A flaw left on the model will stay there forever unless you do something about it. So I prefer to put in the work.

The mold line scrapper was designed and implemented purely due to UK knife laws. Its strictly illegal to sell even the small scalpel blades to anyone under 18 and must have ID. I know because when I bought my GW knife I had to get my dad to get it for me as I was underage. But they can sell non-bladed scrapers to anyone, and it removes another barrier to entry for younger players. GW's main focus these years has been getting everyone of any skill level or age into the hobby, with kids novels, contrast paint, the scrapper, etc.

But yeah, if you have a knife, use a knife.

I find the scraper works well with its main problem being that the tip is far too blunt and the thickness of the whole blade end too broad to get into the small gaps frequently present on models. It works, its just not as good as a blade with a sharp point.

So for beginners and those more casual builders I can see it being a popular tool since they will likely only go for the big mould lines and not worry about the smaller ones in the corners.

I used to go crazy on it. but now take a file, zip across all mold lines

remove nubs

then paint over the area with super thin plastic cement to "burn" all the areas smooth again.

still takes like 1 min per model.

Embarrassed that it took me this long to learn about it, but I would recommend experimenting with different blades for Exacto style knives. I finally tried chisel tips and they were a real game changer for mold lines on terrain and flat surfaces. See if a different blade helps you out on particular shapes/models, and then do all of those before swapping blades.

My time is about 5 minutes a min for mold lines etc. I use a small round file (it seems strange to use a round file on flat surface with mold lines, but it works super duper quick (as others pointed out) if you go at an angle). I am actually not a fan of the x-acto method. For me it rarely gives a smooth line (it tends to hop and leave serrations). I do second others points on clean it up now, but there is a give and take on what is obvious, exposed, and detrimental and what won't be seen.

One thing I sometimes do, esp on models with lots of tricky bits to clean, and when I'm feeling less enthusiastic is to do a model twice. First pass you get all the easy smooth areas and big chunks of mould line off. You get a decent chunk done but don't get into all the little bits.

Then put it to one side and do something else. When you come back there's far less to do and its often easier to focus on "finishing it off"

 Deadshot wrote:

 Geifer wrote:

 Tank_Dweller wrote:
So i’m Building a GSC Apocalypse army and I think (I know) I’m spending to long cleaning up mould lines and assembling each miniature. I told myself I wouldn’t be so nit picky for this project because of the sheer mass of work I have ahead of me but it’s not really working out so far. It’s taken me on average 45 minutes just to clean and assemble each cultist, I try to get all the mould lines even ones out of sight like at the bottom of guns or under arms, does anyone else bother with out of sight mould lines ? I think it’s a step I could skip but im a little ocd about such things.

How long do you guys take assembling and cleaning up a similar miniatures ? I’m currently using a modelling knife to clean up the mould lines, would it be worth investing in the specialised GW tool ? Would it speed things up or just give a neater finish ?

I used the GW mold scraper out of necessity during a kitbash contest at my local store (I forgot to pack my knife...). I think it's in every way inferior to a knife and wouldn't recommend it. YMMV, of course.

30-45 minutes per model sounds about right for me, too. I look at it this way: it's work now to remove those mold lines, but if you don't, they're still there in a year, in five years, in ten years, and so on. A flaw left on the model will stay there forever unless you do something about it. So I prefer to put in the work.

The mold line scrapper was designed and implemented purely due to UK knife laws. Its strictly illegal to sell even the small scalpel blades to anyone under 18 and must have ID. I know because when I bought my GW knife I had to get my dad to get it for me as I was underage. But they can sell non-bladed scrapers to anyone, and it removes another barrier to entry for younger players. GW's main focus these years has been getting everyone of any skill level or age into the hobby, with kids novels, contrast paint, the scrapper, etc.

But yeah, if you have a knife, use a knife.

Law's that strict over there, huh? Wow.

 Overread wrote:
I find the scraper works well with its main problem being that the tip is far too blunt and the thickness of the whole blade end too broad to get into the small gaps frequently present on models. It works, its just not as good as a blade with a sharp point.

So for beginners and those more casual builders I can see it being a popular tool since they will likely only go for the big mould lines and not worry about the smaller ones in the corners.

In purely technical terms it's a really silly tool if you ask me, given it's from GW. The bluntness requires you to put a lot of pressure on the scraper to get the desired result. On the flip side, modern GW kits come with so many loose cable, antennae and other delicate bits you want to protect from anything but the lightest touch that you can't use the tool to scrape off mold lines from them. That just doesn't go together.

 Geifer wrote:

Law's that strict over there, huh? Wow.

I don't recall the laws being quite that strict, but I think that it might have got tighter because there has been (esp in urban areas) a knife gang culture problem. So one way to start curbing it is to get much tighter on regulation, esp for blades of a certain kind. You can likely still walk into any store and buy a set of cutlery without any problems. However things like hobby knives, blades, scalpels etc... might well be regulated. At least for shops, I don't recall any regulation or restriction for internet orders, though being as I'm registered over 18 on stores that require an age (not that I can recall if ebay requires one) it might be that I've just missed it.

for IG, up to half an hour per model ( send help) - flashing, pinning all joins, and pinning to the base.

I use swan mortonn surgical scalples, strips of flexible wood sanding paper, and usually a pneumatic drill.

In other news, i'm recieving treatment for RSI which may be related :/