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Anyone who has worked with Privateer Press's or Mantic's resin/plastics will know that these are not your usual plastic figures. I have found that cleaning the mold lines is particularly difficult. The material is fairly hard, and does not scrape away very easily with the back edge of a knife. It also clogs-up files. To make matters worse it has a tendency to fracture if you are not careful.

Does anyone have any special tips on removing the mold lines on models made from this stuff?

Anything unorthodox/dangerous, like hot knives, boiling water, jackhammers, nuclear fission?

I've actually just been using the weird little mold line scraper from the Citadel clean-up kit.

I had bought it ages ago for the brush as it works great for cleaning flash off, but that mold line scraper has been pulling overtime while I work on a Defender.

I have not tried the GW scraper. I will see if someone around the shop has one.

Dental scrapers work wonders. A good set can be had cheap and will let you get into all the nooks and crannies of your figures. Cheap ones are not as cleany machined though and lack the hard edge needed to properly scrape.

In a pinch, you can use you knife and shave it off. Careful as always when playing with sharp pointy sticks, but if you keep the blade nearly flat to the body, you can slice through it easily enough. On particularily annoying figures, I will soak them in hot water before cutting, as the heat makes them cut like butter.

Huh, I might actually try the GW scraper.

The mould lines are a real bugger on the PVC material since you can't really file them.

Hmm... Hadn't thought of using dental picks. I have a cheap set from HF that I could clean up with the diamond sharpening paddles, if needed. Thus far, I've been slicing/carving them off, since I quickly found out how problematic scraping/filing is.

Got to say, I can't stand the material, generally. Picked up a cheap copy of Project Pandora and after cleaning a few of the Enforcers, I don't think I'll ever buy more "restic" models - an absolute to clean up compared to metal, let alone plastic, and the sprueless angle seems like a drawback (lots of tear-outs scattered around the models, as if they were tumbled or yanked off a sprue, crudely).

i used a box cutter just fine on my mantic z-corps...it is definitely a harder plastic, and the citadel plastic glue doesnt seem to adhere it the same, but i had no difference in difficulty of removing the mold lines.

I use the sharp edge of my xacto knife at a 90 degree angle to the surface of the models. I have no problems cleaning them up at all.

As for plastic glue, it won't work on Privateer Press models at all as they are not polystyrene. Use Superglue or epoxy.

Hmmm. You guys use the back of your xactos to trim mold lines? Always used the blade, good and sharp, just gotta watch your pressure really close or you take more than you want. 90 degrees is ok, sometimes a 45 drag helps limit the pressure. Worked alright on the mantic corporation models I've done so far, although it *is* really easy to miss the lines and find them later once the paint shows up =/

 GrimDork wrote:
Hmmm. You guys use the back of your xactos to trim mold lines? Always used the blade, good and sharp, just gotta watch your pressure really close or you take more than you want. 90 degrees is ok, sometimes a 45 drag helps limit the pressure. Worked alright on the mantic corporation models I've done so far, although it *is* really easy to miss the lines and find them later once the paint shows up =/

When I said the back edge of the knife, I meant using the blade at an angle. The mold lines in the restic models that I have seen are large, and just do not scrape off easily.

I am thinking of getting an electric screwdriver and an adaptor that lets me use dremel bits in it. The screwdrivers run at 180 rpm, which is nice and slow. I have a ball file bit which may work. Even if it clogs, the friction from the bit may wear off the line. I just need to avoid melting the restic with the screwdriver.