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I feel like 90% of my mould lining/building/painting is pure mould lining! I feel like I am going crazy! I am very OCD with my mould lines and try to get ALL of them. It even takes a good amount of time for me to build just a Termagant. I PLAN on painting all of my models with dedication but after spending the last 2 years buying and mould lining my Necrons, Tau, and Tyranids I feel like I never to get to paint because I am constantly mould lining and building my most recent model. Luckily I think I have gotten all 3 armies to where I want them. I just need to mould line more Termagants and Hromagaunts.

I may slack slightly on the painting of the smaller models but something stops me from "mediocre" mould line removal.

Help? Hahah

I agree. Your finished model is only as good as your prep work. I hate seeing a good paint job ruined by mold lines and I take great pains to remove all mold lines as well.

You are no alone on this, im crazy OCD about mould lines as well. Every single one as to come off! its easily 90% of my build time is spent doing this.

If you look through my gallery even though my painting is not the best you wont find any mould lines. I also remove every possible join mark if i can. This is made easier since im using a new glue that is pretty strong, it melts the parts straight away and when dry makes sanding away join marks very simple as they are melted together. Only probem is if you glue the wrong parts together there is NO seperating them with cutting

Theres certainly nothing wrong with spending time on this, theres nothing worse then seeing a really nice painted minature with a non drilled gun barrel or a mould line.

Over the years ive found have 2-3 projects on the go helps. It means if mould lines removal gets boring i skip to painting and so on. Really helps.

I tell you one kit that reallu pissed me off, ork truck chasis. I knew i could see it when painted but the chasis was flooded with mould line

To my suprise the ork stompa kit (building at the mo) has very few mould lines. I thought id be forever sanding it!

I agree! I think a mediocre paint job on a mould lined model > good paint job on a mould line infested model. I'm glad I"m not alone in this! Between my job and family it's seriously taken be 2-3 years building my 3 large armies and I have ye to paint one! I agree I have a video game addiction, but still. Hahah =P

I had the same thought a couple of nights ago. I noticed GW sell a Citadel Mould Line Removal Tool... does anyone know if this is actually useful compared to a hobby knife and a file or is this just the usual over-priced gimmicky hobby supplies from the 'Workshop?? I must admit anything that would speed the process up would be worth it

I bought it and it didn't speed up anything... after years of doing mould line removal with just hobby knife, it's not worth it. It can't reach tight corners AT ALL and it's not as clean.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Although the new Citadel Clippers are actually very nice!

I use a mixture of a hobby knife, sand paper and files

No OP, you just feel that way because a lot of people are really impatient when it comes to the hobby half of 40k. They're all "aw man I don't have time for that I'm sure I can get away with leaving the little ones" or something.

I clean my models of mold lines AND join lines. Liquid green stuff looked like it could have been a good filling agent but it turns out it's basically useless for everything. Plus, regular green stuff can fill gaps surprisingly well, especially if you file the area after it's dry. I see so many Bloodletters with that giant gap across their heads and I just wonder how people can be ok with that. Mold line-free models are inspirational.

prep is just as important as paint...
mould lines are the enemy!!!

i spend hours prepping each part of a mini, because nothing kills a paintjob like seeing a gap or a mould line...
in the end, it is so worth it...

patience is definitely a virtue in modeling...

cheers
jah

Agreed! Mold lines are evil and should be destroyed!

Yes, I spend ALOT of time to remove them but it's rather therapeutic to sit with it while talking to some friends down at the club or watching some series so I don't mind really

Perfect model prep won't turn a mediocre paintjob great, but a single flaw in the surface can seriously detract from otherwise phenomenal work. Since I'm merely a competent painter, not a great one, I'd prefer to give myself every advantage I can get!

Granted, I generally tend to be critical and methodical (I wouldn't go so far as to say "anal," but I'm sure someone seeing me work would disagree ) in my work, regardless of medium, so I could scarcely bring myself to leave blatant moldlines, even without having been warned to remove them.

I don't want to be anal, but I know that if I'm anything short of diligent then one of those mold lines that I thought I wouldn't see I end up seeing because I didn't think about it.

I know this to be the case because it's happened...

I hate mould lines so fething much. They are one of the main obstacles to putting together an army quickly. Even if you spray your basecoat, block paint areas and dip/wash them... you're still going to waste a feth load of time cleaning the fething mould lines.

I don't mind mould line removal for important models that I want to be centrepieces or that I intend to spend a few hours painting anyway.

Where I HAAAAAAAAAAAAATE mould lines is on the cheap crappy models where you need 50+ of the little bastards. Especially since a lot of the techniques for speed painting make mould lines stand out even more. When I'm painting another 20 fething termagants I'm always extremely tempted to just leave the mould lines on them.

It's one reason why I prefer snap fit or monopose models. Monopose models usually come in 1 or 2 pieces, so they only have one big mould line that goes around the entire model. It's much easier to clean than having to go round each tiny little piece of a multipose model.

I think mold lines may just drive 3D printing in the hobby game industry! (Okay, not actually, but it'll help!)

I use an engraving pen ($10 at craft stores, $20 at hardware stores), and do most of my mold line trimming in front of the computer while waiting for games to load and stuff.

I mostly paint soft boardgame plastic, and the worst part is finding MORE mold lines after priming, pre-inking, and all the other work.

What's worse are pre-assembled plastics! You have to chop up the miniature, get rid of the mold lines, then assemble them again.

If I'm ever on the fence on a miniatures KS, all I have to do is remind myself of mold lines!

My biggest grump with GW is mold lines in stupid places on MPP. It takes obscenely long to clean up or remediate, especially when it's on a dumb place like down the middle of a plasma weapon or through a ridged feature like a crux terminatus. Messed up shoulder pads are also super annoying.

Incidentally, I find that white metal miniatures by privateer press take a fraction of the time to prep.

BROTHERS!

Yeah, I lit up my airbrush the other day and realised it had been at least 2 months since I turned it on. In that time, I have been playing with this bloody dice tower, cleaning up a pre-loved rhino (pre-loved, yet unassembled) and dusted off my old centurion set (trimmed from the sprues a while ago) started cleaning that as well.

I scrape the lines down, nail file them smooth, green stuff/plastic putty any gaps, drill barrels/exhausts/whatever, 1200 grit sandpaper everything and then start thinking about priming.

I'd actually lost my instructions for the centurions, but I am still cleaning off mold lines that WILL NEVER BE SEEN because the leg armor covers it.

No egrets.

YES! ...though it's my least favorite part of the hobby!

Talys wrote:
My biggest grump with GW is mold lines in stupid places... like down the middle of a plasma weapon or through a ridged feature like a crux terminatus.

If only it was just GW... Things like the ribbed joints on Power Armor are difficult, as it's not really possible to split the mold parallel to the ribbing, but there are plenty of cases where "hidden" mold lines are anything but hidden and that is where things get arduous. It's a clever thought, burying a subtle ridge in a field of dense detail or a panel/plate edge to disguise the break. Trouble is, the molds never meet cleanly enough for the line to remain subtle. Instead, we get egregious steps smack dab in the middle of the most delicately detailed or hardest to reach areas.

Oh, how I wish they would part the molds with the expectation that the modeler planned some surface prep. Sticking the seam right down the middle of that nice, round shoulder pad would get a mold maker fired for incompetence, but would be a trifle to clean up for anyone who bothered.

I know exactly what you mean... in fact i take it even a step further. Since i paint almost exclusively space marines, i tend to find the mould for the space marine armour very... how should i put it - inaccurate. Due to the limitation in casting the moulds, some details (especially those in crevasses) tend to be obscured (eg. around the knee pads and finger joints) and i would take a HUGE amount of time just to fix those part by carving out the details.

though smtimes i do question the point in spending the time for it since the effects are hardly noticeable once painted... =(

Good to see some others also use ultra-fine sandpaper after scraping off them mould lines. But I didn't see anyone mention something that's even better - synthetic steel wool. Looks like a grey pot scrub (and probably is a close relation), and is available at your local hardware store (near the sandpaper) in a variety of 'grit' sizes. (Don't get actual steel wool - it sheds tiny steel threads everywhere.)

Synthetic steel wool's big advantage is that it's soft and squishy, making it great for curved surfaces, but also works fine on flat surfaces.

Agree with OP 100%

I spend almost as much time assembling models as I do, doing base colours.

I also spend a reasonable amount of time doing mould line removal. I actually find the games workshop tool really useful, especially when the mould line is on something like a plasma weapon where you don't want to lose that extra detail.

I've actually found not all hobby knives are created equal when it comes to mould line removal. You want something with relatively high stiffness, so the blade isn't flexing much as you scrape. A lot of hobby knives (especially cheap ones) are too flexible or the handle doesn't hold the blade rigidly enough.

I use these knives:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOBBY-KNIFE-BY-TESTORS-VERY-SHARP-NEW-ITEM-NO-8801A-QUALITY-KNIFE-FOR-MODELER-/170797231907

The blade isn't removable, but they're reasonably cheap so you can buy a few. They're much stiffer than most hobby knives so make mould line removal easier.

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but are their any good alternatives to using a hobby knife for clearing mold lines? I've had some real nasty cuts from using my hobby knife. I'm resigned to the fact that I'm too clumsy to use one.

For gaps, I tried liquid green stuff, and I agree it's pretty terrible... it shrinks soo much too as it dries! I just bought some Tamiya Putty and it is amazing!

Tpiddy wrote:
Don't mean to hijack the thread, but are their any good alternatives to using a hobby knife for clearing mold lines? I've had some real nasty cuts from using my hobby knife. I'm resigned to the fact that I'm too clumsy to use one.

Various scribes and scrapers. I actually use dental tools more often than knives. They are designed for scraping all sorts of stuff from all sorts of stuff - so they have curves and crooks that work well enough on resin, plastic and metal. Also, I haven't found a detail - even on small stuff - that they can't get into. Jeweler's points as well - mostly after the heavy lifting is done with the scraper.

Once I am done with the big work, I will give it a buffing with either a wire brush on a Dremel (brass when I am not paying attention...stainless steel when I am in a hurry) or a few blasts with the air eraser to smooth out the whole surface and leave it ready for priming. Other tools as well that are task specific like the Flexi-file and sanding sticks...

Before I prime - I'll give it a quick dip in some water color inks (easiest to clean off) to help check my work. Often certain flaws are hard to see until you get some color on a model. Those lines that you only notice from one side and not the other or whatever... The ink collects in all the grooves and lets you make sure it is done. If it is - dip in EtOH to rinse off the ink and prime. If there is still an issue, clean it up and recheck.

Normally I will only use sandpaper on vehicles and other larger areas or if I am dealing with things that are mostly flat. Then I can square thing up and put an edge on (though that is often a task for files...).

Multipart models have their own issues of course. I will try to avoid putty if at all possible, but it is often needed. For plastics, a plastic putty like Tamiya, Squadron or Gunze Surfacer. They bond with the plastic and sand easily. For metal and resin, a hard putty as opposed to GS is preferred by me. I find it easier to throw a big chunk in the hole and then carve it back once cured to match as opposed to using GS which you have to get (more or less) right before it cures. More often than not - this will actually be a JB type putty as opposed to a modeling putty. Works as both an adhesive and a filler, dries hard enough to work with files and knives.

Overall, I probably spend as much time before the first bit of paint is applied getting the model ready as I do actually painting. For assembly line type work - I spend more time prepping.

I would honestly prefer to have a clean mold line running straight down the middle of a figure than one which is shifted off to the side and runs through complicated geometry. Having to get into those little cracks is time consuming and often I will decide to just not bother...instead taking the Dremel to grind it flat then rebuild it with putty (faster and often ends up needing to be done because they couldn't be bothered to seat the molds correctly... At least if it were not off to the side, you could get to it and clean it up with less difficulty, repairs would be simpler too. Tend to do my own castings that way - and it is much easier to clean up. Granted, it isn't always feasible due to the split, but far less difficult to clean up.

It would be helpful though if the sculptors planned things out a bit more, and the mold makers thought ahead and the casters took a bit of time. Probably about 90% of the mold line issues could be minimized ahead of time if they would be bothered to think about the end user.

No.

I clean mine, and try to fill seams as well.

I use liquid cement to sometimes smooth them out, and a variety of tools for smoothing out the lines (as many of the above posters do as well).

nothing looks worse to me than a model with a great paint job, but very obvious mold lines.

It dose take ans age. The worst part of the hobby for me (next to people who field just a pair legs in their army and say "oh this is such and such") But then when its all done it looks so much better.

I tend to to all the parts of one model, build it, then on to the next guy in the squad, helps break up the constant scraping, snading, fileing and filling bit.

I'm putting together some Space Wolves Long Fangs and all the missile launcher components are just covered in flash and mold lines.

It takes me over an hour to build 1 model at the moment.
Will be glad when I'm back on to Grey Hunters.

I wish I was as dilligent. I get so impatient and just want to paint so badly. I always ending missing a few gapsor lines somewhere. meh. oh well.