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I said a few minutes but it is probably more like 3-4 per model. As I remove the plastics from the sprues I usually remove all the pieces and clean them as necessary with the modeling knife. Then I assemble and look for any imperfections. I mostly work with plastic though.

I only spend a little bit of time as I only get rid of the worst of the mold lines. On character models I spend a little more time, but for rank and file troops, its just not worth the effort to me (I'm not planning on winning any modeling competitions or anything).

My personal oath is "suffer no mold line to live", so I spend as much as I need to. But rarely more than 10 minutes, because if there are more mold lines than you can remove in 10 minutes... the model is probably a particularly bad cast.

I said a couple minutes, as that's how long it usually takes with a plastic GW figure. Really though the answer is however long it takes. I can't stand finsihed models with visible mold lines. If I miss a mold line and don't notice it until I'm finished painting, I won't hesitate to go in there and scrape or file it off, even if I have to redo the paint.

Probably 30 seconds with a mould line scraper, but I only go after big ones, they aren't something that bother me too much. Although there have been instances where I wish I'd spent more time doing it, but not often.

Generally around five minutes though I could spend up to a half hour, if not longer, if I'm feeling persistent enough or have something to prove to the stubborn flash all over a particular model.

When I first got into the hobby I never even fathomed cleaning flash off my model. Now? I can't see myself throwing away a model I just spent over an hour painting, only for it's paintjob to be completely ruined by leftover lines.

I absolutely hate doing mould lines but it takes me about half a hour for skitarri and less than that for most others, it talks me forever to paint because I have to greenstuff in gaps and remove lines and drill barrels and stuff.

I'm really cba when it comes to mould lines, I just want to get the model assembled.... Don't have the patience for it, yet I can happily spend ages painting lines on a model......

I scrape it all off, or as much as is decently possible. My kids can't understand why I'm still scraping when they've almost finished block painting their mini's, but I want my mini's to look right.

Ive been using a razor blade and its quite quick to get off everything I can see. 1-2 minutes max (on plastic troops).

 mwnciboo wrote:
I used to spend hours and I always missed stuff. My system is now like this:-

1. Drill out the Barrels of any weapons.
2. Remove Mould lines for about 30mins.
3. Light prime in black and allow to dry,
4. Inspect model and remove any other lines that become visible or are still obvious.
5. Final light Coat of Black primer to cover those area;s and any that you missed with 1st primer.

I do 1, 2 and 3. Then curse myself when I see a mould line while painting.

I try to drill out the barrels while the weapons are on the sprue. Anyone else do that? I hate priming loose weapons. They fly all over the place. So what will happen is I'll end up filing the weapon again after priming and removing from sprue. Tedious.

I usually take a few minutes to remove the lines. But as I play guard and paint tons of bodies I tend to not be too irritated if I miss any.

 War Kitten wrote:
I usually take a few minutes to remove the lines. But as I play guard and paint tons of bodies I tend to not be too irritated if I miss any.

I've recently been working on replacing my 80+ infantry model guard army.... and I realized that taking THAT many mold lines off of metal models was simply going to be too much. So, I inspect each model and give a few swipes of the file if necessary just to lessen the severity of some mold lines. Luckily, it would seem that Vostroyans are, by and large a decently molded line of minis, so the work isn't so bad.

Depends on the model, but an hour+ isn't uncommon. Most importantly,

I said a few minutes.....for plastic figs.

For metal figs I spend much more time

The problem I find is that some mould lines are really difficult to remove. How do you guys get round that?

 hutber wrote:
The problem I find is that some mould lines are really difficult to remove. How do you guys get round that?

Since I use the edge of my X-acto knife, I basically just get in there as best I can. In hard to reach, or hard to remove ones (such as on metal), I try to smooth things down such that I'm merely limiting the abruptness of the line, as opposed to getting rid of it entirely.

Till all the mold lines are gone. No matter what the model is.

 hutber wrote:
The problem I find is that some mould lines are really difficult to remove. How do you guys get round that?

If you can't see it, don't bother that much.
Unless it will cause problems later on, leave it.

Yeah, I always make sure that I remove my mould lines. It can take me anywhere from 5 mins up to half hour, but I feel that it is a vital stage of the hobby, and needs to done. When I see people haven't cleaned their mould lines, it makes me sad cos it makes me think that they don't really care about the models. I mean, after all, if you're gonna spend the money on this hobby, you might as well assemble them correctly.

Dont think Ive ever removed a mould line in my life.
Thinking about it, Im not even sure what a mould line is.

 Ratius wrote:
Dont think Ive ever removed a mould line in my life.
Thinking about it, Im not even sure what a mould line is.

Ignorance is bliss, you lucky sod.

Best thing I ever picked up for pesky, hard to reach mould lines are the Testors Master Modeller mini-files. They can pretty much get in anywhere and get the job done. I needs 'em, cause I hates me some mould lines!
As for time. Depends on the model. Average dude? About 15 minutes.

"As long as it takes"
...which is more or less around 10min to put it off the mold and then about 20min if it needs work with greenstuff to remove lines etc (which is normally not the case)

I chose other; however long it takes.
Which usually depends on how tired I am when I pick up my minis. I can spend anywhere between a couple of minutes to a full hour removing mouldiness on a single mini because I can get really obsessive over getting rid of those things.

As long as it takes. Nothing irritates me more than finding a surprise mold line when painting!

Several minutes, unless it is finecast, then it takes a lot longer...

I'm terrible with it. I spend like ten or twenty seconds filing down stuff.

depends on the model. i dont file, but i do use the tip of a knife on all parts of the figure.

but say 15 min on a defualt guardsman.

I remove every mold line I can see, it takes 1 minute for every bitz that I cut from sprues on average.