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I had just been using my Xacto knife to try to get most of the lines. Then, I got to try a Citadel Mold Line Remover and fell in love with it. It works so well! Is there anything at craft stores that can be bought that is similar to the Mold Line Remover but much cheaper?

Thanks

SG

I've always used the back of a knife to scrape mould lines. But it has to be a *stiff* knife blade, many knife blades (especially some of the cheaper ones) are too flexible and so are much harder to get a smooth finish.

Yup. The back of your bog standard #11 Exact-o works wonders.

commissarbob wrote:
Yup. The back of your bog standard #11 Exact-o works wonders.

Exalted for truth. This is all I've ever used. The GW mold line remover is just a way for them to make a buck off of people just starting the hobby.

Thanks for all the advice! After all this time of using that Xacto knife, I never thought to use the back side of it for removing mold lines.

Thanks again!

SG

The mould line remover is such a rip off. I use the sharp side of a knife and scrape it across the model.

My diamond files do the job admirably.

Whilst I can obviously see the point of view that the mold line remover is a cash-grab, I actually think it's a great idea considering I wouldn't trust a kid with an exacto knife.

Whilst I can't help with suggesting a cheaper alternative, I will take a look if anyone else suggests one!

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I've always used the back of a knife to scrape mould lines. But it has to be a *stiff* knife blade, many knife blades (especially some of the cheaper ones) are too flexible and so are much harder to get a smooth finish.

This.

Works quite well.

Where the GW mold line scraper really shines (and the back of a knife fails) is when you're scraping really long, flat surfaces like Cities of Death modular buildings. In these cases, there are mold lines that run the entire length of a wall section, and a hard, inflexible scraper that you can press down relatively hard on and pull is just superior, because you'll take off a more consistent amount of material as you scrape. Plus, if you look at a typical building, there might be 20 pieces with 4 sides plus floor plates; that's 80+ faces to clean up.

The Citadel mold line scraper is also really nice for areas like space marine boots. You're less likely to dig in to the plastic by accident and scuff it up. Where it fails is that its large, rounded tip prevents you from accessing many tight spaces.

Incidentally, for small minis, I keep a separate knife and use the *sharp* end of the blade for removing some mold lines. I find that a slightly dull, sharp knife does a better job than the back side often.

There are other mold line scrapers from different companies too, that are in different shapes. I can't recall the names, because I've long since tossed the packaging, but I have a few for catching mold lines in different areas.

Good point talys, I too have a "dull" knife for scraping.

While you want a sharp knife for cutting (a dull knife can be dangerous when cutting) I find a dull one has a lot of uses for very specific jobs.

I actually use the sharp side of a #11 exacto... I guess there's the risk of gauging the model, but I've got almost 5,000 points of Space Wolves models and mech put together, and it hasn't happened yet. Is that the reason for using the back of the knife?

Yeah I've only ever used a sharp blade, drag it backwards if it's too spooky, or just go blade side in if you've got steady hands.

I keep hearing people say the citadel tool is good, but it seems like such a stupid thing.

zbg97 wrote:I actually use the sharp side of a #11 exacto... I guess there's the risk of gauging the model, but I've got almost 5,000 points of Space Wolves models and mech put together, and it hasn't happened yet. Is that the reason for using the back of the knife?

No, the reason for using the back side of a knife is because if you only have 1 knife and use the sharp side, you'll just dull your sharp knife blades on a task that doesn't require a sharp blade

kb_lock wrote:Yeah I've only ever used a sharp blade, drag it backwards if it's too spooky, or just go blade side in if you've got steady hands.

I keep hearing people say the citadel tool is good, but it seems like such a stupid thing.

Like I said, it does *wonders* for big terrain pieces were you want to shave off plastic like an orange peel. On small models, it's not as big a deal. It's essentially just a stiff piece of metal (about 3mm thick) with a hard 90 degree edge , long enough to drag without flexing... no magic in it at all. There is a curved inner edge that some people use for rounded parts (not me).

 Talys wrote:
Where it fails is that its large, rounded tip prevents you from accessing many tight spaces.

This is largely what has stopped me from even bothering with the Citadel one. I have no problem cleaning mould lines off open areas, it's around detail that it's tricky and it doesn't look like it will handle that well anyway. For those areas I have to use the sharp side of the knife or the back of the knife right at the tip where it narrows (which again only works if you have a blade that is plenty stiff).

 Talys wrote:

zbg97 wrote:I actually use the sharp side of a #11 exacto... I guess there's the risk of gauging the model, but I've got almost 5,000 points of Space Wolves models and mech put together, and it hasn't happened yet. Is that the reason for using the back of the knife?

No, the reason for using the back side of a knife is because if you only have 1 knife and use the sharp side, you'll just dull your sharp knife blades on a task that doesn't require a sharp blade

Nah that's not quite true. The sharp side of the knife is more prone to skipping. The technique is to drag across at ~45 degrees toward yourself (I've never measured the angle, but it feels like about 45 degrees) and the back of the knife being a square edge rather than a sharp edge will tend to work better and it's easier to modulate the force.

When I'm cleaning mould lines I alternate between the sharp side (for cleaning very fine/elaborate detail) the back side about half way down the blade (for cleaning long lines on open areas) and the back side right near the tip (for cleaning around corners where I can't fit the larger portion of the knife).

 Talys wrote:
Where the GW mold line scraper really shines (and the back of a knife fails) is when you're scraping really long, flat surfaces like Cities of Death modular buildings. In these cases, there are mold lines that run the entire length of a wall section, and a hard, inflexible scraper that you can press down relatively hard on and pull is just superior, because you'll take off a more consistent amount of material as you scrape. Plus, if you look at a typical building, there might be 20 pieces with 4 sides plus floor plates; that's 80+ faces to clean up.

Cleaning those long lines on relatively flat surfaces I often end up resorting to sanding sticks or sand paper.

You don't want to push hard anyway, if you push hard you end up creating a little flat spot. The technique with the back of a knife for those longer mould lines that you might find on vehicles is multiple light fast strokes so you blend the line in to the surroundings. Once I've gotten rid of most of the line, I then grab some fine sandpaper and just wet it with a bit of spit and polish the area smooth. I've found 600 grit sandpaper leaves small enough scratches that you can't see them after a thin coat of primer.

The pain in the arse is when you have a line along a long surface that should be smooth AND you also have injection points along the line. For those I end up using the sharp side of the knife to get rid of most the injection point, then swap to either the back of the knife or sand paper to do the rest of the area and then come back again with sandpaper to blend the injection point back in to the rest of the surface and hope it doesn't have a divot that I also need to fill.