Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all,

I've been preparing a lot of old classic metal miniatures to paint recently, and trimming and sanding mold lines away is taking forever. I understand we all have different levels of tolerance for mold lines, and I'm unfortunately the fastidious type who wants them as invisible as possible after a paintjob, but I'm beginning to question my sanity due to the absurd amounts of time it's taking me to get these minis ready. These are old models and not particularly well cast, but just getting one ready for priming can take hours. (I'm looking to paint each one as well as I can, not just rank-and-file "tabletop quality," but this still seems extreme to me.)

So I wanted to ask those who bother with cleaning mold lines at all, how much time on average do you spend removing them from a standard human 28 to 32mm figure? In metal? PVC? Resin? Polystyrene?

Am I just insane, or is there some trick or technique I'm ignorant of that would make my mold line trimming go much more quickly?

Too much.

For the rank and file dudes I won't spend as much time, I'll just use the back of the knife to scrape them away (I use blades that are a bit heavier, the small blades have a tendency to bounce). I haven't timed it recently, but yeah, it was a long time. I'd totally pay some kid a few bucks to clean them for me, lol.

Stuff I really care about like characters or display pieces I'll spend a bit more time on again, but still mostly get away with the back of the knife. The sanding pads usually only come out for vehicles or models that have big flat areas that need cleaning up.

Too long, but having learned to see them I don't like seeing them. That said a lot of modern plastics are pretty easy and quick to clean. Real soul crushers are things like ribbed surfaces (plasma gun etc...). Or join lines where you've a smooth area with an open join so you have to glue and then come back a day later to clean it up.



That said another big part is having the right tools. I picked up some 600 and 900 grit diamond files and they are a godsend. They clean fast and easily and being diamond can cut in any direction of movement for tricky spots. Just get some firm rubber/erasers to rub the file over every so often to clean them out and they will last ages. They are some of my favourite tools for cleaning up metal as they get to a nice polish without the fuss of sandpaper or emery boards.

Only downside is most diamond files are rough grit or unstated (often rough) and finding high grit ones is hard.
Only place I've found selling them is :
https://www.eternaltools.com/small-diamond-files

Might seem costly, but a half round 900 is just so so useful!

The vast majority of my build time involves getting rid of "injection molding evidence".

Sanding sticks (fave grit ~400), GW mold line remover, hobby blades, Dremel Stylo+ with buffing tools, there are a lot of tools for dealing with that stuff.

For me, I find the sanity in cleanup by using the right tool for the right cleanup task. Many challenges in modelling can be solved by technology, just keep researching for what you need.

As for metal minis, sorry can't help much. The vast majority of my models are plastic/resin. That diamond file suggestion sounded good?

Too much time. I haven't even finished the pipe set from GW because I got fed up cleaning. Those were more about filling up the joins but still. the same applies.
I second the motion that good tools help a lot though. And sharp blades.
And even so...no matter how much time I spend... I always find a rogue mould line that got away.
So it's definitely not worth it, but I can't help myself.

Depends on the purpose of the model. No need to clean up goblin 72 in an army of 300. If I plan to use washes or contrast I'll clean the important areas on them too.

A skill a lot of painters don't develop is importance of a model. We all want to paint every model the best we can, but most don't need that. If the model has enough contrast not to look flat and its neat that's enough for rank and file games. The hour you spend cleaning a model up could be 5 more skaven painted. Adapt your painting techniques to mask the mold lines and only clean what is essential.

...or pick up 3d printing and never suffer that fate again...

I find removing them pretty relaxing, so I spend a decent amount of time on each model working on cleaning them on.

tip: get yourself a set of jewelry files($7-10), it'll save you a lot of time cleaning models, especially metal ones.

Kinda a hard question to answer because with practice comes speed, so me spending say 2 min on mold lines might be the same as someone else spending 10.

Yo7 wrote:
...or pick up 3d printing and never suffer that fate again...

True. No more mold lines. Instead you get to deal with a thousand tiny nubs from the supports.

 Arschbombe wrote:

Yo7 wrote:
...or pick up 3d printing and never suffer that fate again...

True. No more mold lines. Instead you get to deal with a thousand tiny nubs from the supports.

Loads of tiny nubs, stray support sticks, layer lines and the fact that the pattern of all those is not as logical once the model is off the supports. Mould lines are a clear ring around the part, support marks do have patterns, but are clustered and appear around areas that aren't linked up. So it can feel like it takes way longer because you're hunting around to find them.

Plus a good many 3D designers make some wild designs with no parting so getting your cleaning gear in to clean out some marks can be nearly if not actually impossible at times.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Kinda a hard question to answer because with practice comes speed, so me spending say 2 min on mold lines might be the same as someone else spending 10.

Ya know, cleaning mould lines is one area where I don't think I've ever sped up, lol. It seems to take as long now as it did 20 years ago. In fact if anything I'm slower because my standards are higher now, lol.

Modern models can also be worse than the models we used to have (a single piece monopose model is a lot faster to clean than one with 8 pieces). Though some modern models are smart where they put the lines so that the mould line gets absorbed by a recess.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:

 Arschbombe wrote:

Yo7 wrote:
...or pick up 3d printing and never suffer that fate again...

True. No more mold lines. Instead you get to deal with a thousand tiny nubs from the supports.

Loads of tiny nubs, stray support sticks, layer lines and the fact that the pattern of all those is not as logical once the model is off the supports. Mould lines are a clear ring around the part, support marks do have patterns, but are clustered and appear around areas that aren't linked up. So it can feel like it takes way longer because you're hunting around to find them.

Plus a good many 3D designers make some wild designs with no parting so getting your cleaning gear in to clean out some marks can be nearly if not actually impossible at times.

It varies a lot. Some 3D print models are worse than mould lines... the 15mm tank models I'm currently working on have voxel lines that are basically impossible to clean up. Buuuut, I can also just apply a few extra layers of primer and accept slightly softer detail to obscure those lines.

Epic 40k models, 3D printing is a dream, all the supports can be on the bottom of the model where you can't see them (or on the bottom of the base which just get glued into something else). Many small imperfections can often just be ignored (or given an extra couple of layers of primer).

So basically, most of my Epic 40k 3D prints just involve snipping it off the raft, running the knife along the bottom of the base to make sure it's flat enough to glue into the group-base, and call it finished. If GW released actual Epic 40k models again now I imagine I'd be spending weeks of my life carefully cleaning the mould lines off a bunch of little dudes.

First off, thanks to everyone for your commentary and advice. I am reassured that removing mold lines isn't just my own personal mental illness, and I'm hoping to be better equipped to do it more efficiently. I do get that for rank-and-file armies, mold line perfectionism isn't sustainable. I'm just not a rank-and-file armies kind of guy, and since I'm planning on sticking to small squads, would like to be relatively happy with each model's condition when finished.

 Overread wrote:
Too long, but having learned to see them I don't like seeing them. That said a lot of modern plastics are pretty easy and quick to clean. Real soul crushers are things like ribbed surfaces (plasma gun etc...).

That's a nightmare to clean in metal, too. And an extremely common problem, what with all the ribbed cords sci-fi models often have.

 Overread wrote:

That said another big part is having the right tools. I picked up some 600 and 900 grit diamond files and they are a godsend. They clean fast and easily and being diamond can cut in any direction of movement for tricky spots.
Only place I've found selling them is :
https://www.eternaltools.com/small-diamond-files
Might seem costly, but a half round 900 is just so so useful!

Thanks so much for that recommendation! The right tools for the job are indeed vital, but if you don't have good advice, they can be very hard (and expensive) to trial-and-error your way to finding. I was using exacto blades to remove models from integrated metal bases - extremely time consuming to do well, and a real hazard to my thumbs - before I got a pair of nippers from Prince August. Those saved my time and thumbs many times until they broke on the harder metal that Kryomek replaced lead with. It's clearly the right kind of tool for the job, but what I don't yet know is whether they come in a strength that can handle the leadless alloy that Kryomek (and other publishers) use without ever breaking, or whether it's the type of tool that will work magnificently but need replacing from time to time.

Finally, on the subject of metal vs. resin, I was cleaning my first resin yesterday and it was like cutting into a bar of soap. The mold lines came off so cleanly it barely needed sanding. If it wasn't so brittle, it'd be my new favorite medium.

I curse the person that first brought my awareness to their existence. When I was first starting out, I never noticed them. After they were first pointed out to me, I see them everywhere. I spend ages trying to remove them from my minis, and even when I think I get them all I often find ones I missed once I start painting.

chaos0xomega wrote:
I curse the person that first brought my awareness to their existence. When I was first starting out, I never noticed them. After they were first pointed out to me, I see them everywhere. I spend ages trying to remove them from my minis, and even when I think I get them all I often find ones I missed once I start painting.

+1000!

I never saw them when I started. Sure they were there but they were just part of the model. Clip off the sprue, clean up the clip point and then assemble and away you go.
We are likely trained to ignore them in a subtle manner because once you learn about mould lines you start to see them everywhere on other products.

You are also very right there's always one that manages to hide until you hit the model with paint!

As long as it takes to get rid of them all. If good looking models are your aim, removal of mold lines is an absolute must. Why paint something as well as you can, trying to create the illusion of
a reality in a small figure, only to have a plastic seam immediately shatter that illusion? Certain things just can't be skipped in my opinion.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
As long as it takes to get rid of them all. If good looking models are your aim, removal of mold lines is an absolute must. Why paint something as well as you can, trying to create the illusion of
a reality in a small figure, only to have a plastic seam immediately shatter that illusion? Certain things just can't be skipped in my opinion.

Tell that to 180 Night Goblins

Mould lines are one of those things that are insignificant for models that I intend to spend 5+ hours painting, but an issue for models I want to get done in half an hour because I have a horde of the buggers to paint.

Mould lines specifically are horrible when using some speed painting techniques like drybrushing, inking, washing, etc, if they're not cleaned up well those methods will look significantly worse.

I'm not sure what you're getting at? Surely you're agreeing with me here?

I was mostly agreeing with you, just commenting on the "...Certain things just can't be skipped...". If you're painting 180 Night Goblins then yeah, many things can be skipped if you don't want to go completely insane

When people complain about the time it takes them to clean mould lines, they aren't generally talking about that 1 display piece character they'll spend a day painting to a high standard, they're talking about his 50 mates that they'll spend weeks painting to a mediocre standard so they can get them on the table.

As long as it takes really.

Assemble, scrape mould lines I can actually see, base, prime grey/white, go back to any visible mould lines that priming has highlighted.

Anything that will be hidden during assembly, or remain in deep/black shadow, or will never be seen due to being black on the final model, don't bother.

Lines under arms are most likely to be hidden - I don't waste my time with them. For some of the tubing on things like Admech, you'll wreck the detail removing mould lines, so again just angle the bits to hide the lines.

Top of the helmet is a classic that everyone will spot, likewide a heavy mouldline down the side of robes or along the top of a gun too.

In general, model manufacturers have got pretty good at hiding them along the edges of details.

 Overread wrote:

 Arschbombe wrote:

Yo7 wrote:
...or pick up 3d printing and never suffer that fate again...

True. No more mold lines. Instead you get to deal with a thousand tiny nubs from the supports.

Loads of tiny nubs, stray support sticks, layer lines and the fact that the pattern of all those is not as logical once the model is off the supports. Mould lines are a clear ring around the part, support marks do have patterns, but are clustered and appear around areas that aren't linked up. So it can feel like it takes way longer because you're hunting around to find them.

Plus a good many 3D designers make some wild designs with no parting so getting your cleaning gear in to clean out some marks can be nearly if not actually impossible at times.

If you can see print lines your settings are bad. Resin prints at 0.025 (or is it 0.0025? I forget my settings). Are too thin to see, and any printer you buy today can do that no problem.

Support pox can be an issue but faster to wet sand than clean the entire model of mold lines in my experience. It depends a lot on pre support quality and your resin choices though. Still drastically faster to clean 30 prints than 10 normal models though. For a horde army I wouldn't touch plastic. But I'm a slow cleaner so your mileage may vary.

Wait out of curiosity how are you cleaning your mold lines? if you are using a razor are you pushing the blade into the mold like? like blade facing the way you are pushing/pulling?

 Backspacehacker wrote:

Spoiler:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Kinda a hard question to answer because with practice comes speed, so me spending say 2 min on mold lines might be the same as someone else spending 10.

Ya know, cleaning mould lines is one area where I don't think I've ever sped up, lol. It seems to take as long now as it did 20 years ago. In fact if anything I'm slower because my standards are higher now, lol.

Modern models can also be worse than the models we used to have (a single piece monopose model is a lot faster to clean than one with 8 pieces). Though some modern models are smart where they put the lines so that the mould line gets absorbed by a recess.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:

 Arschbombe wrote:

Yo7 wrote:
...or pick up 3d printing and never suffer that fate again...

True. No more mold lines. Instead you get to deal with a thousand tiny nubs from the supports.

Loads of tiny nubs, stray support sticks, layer lines and the fact that the pattern of all those is not as logical once the model is off the supports. Mould lines are a clear ring around the part, support marks do have patterns, but are clustered and appear around areas that aren't linked up. So it can feel like it takes way longer because you're hunting around to find them.

Plus a good many 3D designers make some wild designs with no parting so getting your cleaning gear in to clean out some marks can be nearly if not actually impossible at times.

It varies a lot. Some 3D print models are worse than mould lines... the 15mm tank models I'm currently working on have voxel lines that are basically impossible to clean up. Buuuut, I can also just apply a few extra layers of primer and accept slightly softer detail to obscure those lines.

Epic 40k models, 3D printing is a dream, all the supports can be on the bottom of the model where you can't see them (or on the bottom of the base which just get glued into something else). Many small imperfections can often just be ignored (or given an extra couple of layers of primer).

So basically, most of my Epic 40k 3D prints just involve snipping it off the raft, running the knife along the bottom of the base to make sure it's flat enough to glue into the group-base, and call it finished. If GW released actual Epic 40k models again now I imagine I'd be spending weeks of my life carefully cleaning the mould lines off a bunch of little dudes.

Wait out of curiosity how are you cleaning your mold lines? if you are using a razor are you pushing the blade into the mold like? like blade facing the way you are pushing/pulling?

I use the back of an Excel #2 blade, the #2 is one of the medium/heavy duty blades rather than the light duty ones. The light duty ones bounce and chatter when you drag them, the #2 aren't as thick as GW's mould remover tool, but thick enough for good control, and because they get narrower at the tip if you need something thinner for fine detail scraping you just use the tip instead of the body of it.

I use the back of the blade to scrape 95% of the time, and just use the sharp side amongst fine detail where the blunt side would be too brutal. I like it because it's 1 tool, if I need to remove a nub I just swap to the sharp side and slice it off then back to the dull side to get rid of the lines.

Been doing it that way for probably 20 years or more, back in the day I used to use Testors knives, the ones where the blade was permanently set into the handle, because they were more rigid than standard X-acto style craft knives, but you can't buy those any more so I swapped to the medium/heavy duty Excel ones.

In the past I tried sanding sticks, sanding sponges, sand paper and jewellers files, but I found they were all more time consuming for little to no improvement in quality of finish. I do use sanding sticks and sponges for Airfix style aircraft scale models, because they usually come with an ugly join line down the middle of the fuselage and it's easier to get a good finish with the sanding tools than it is with the back of the knife, also the wing join line can be tricky to get right without taking off too much material, but that's pretty much the only time I use them.

Always back of blade, all the way round each piece.
I have gotten quicker over 20 years, not by much.
I hate seeing them, and when someone posts a nicely painted model and the have them on there, oh it jars so bad.

For mine, yeah I should assemble first to avoid the hidden bits as people have said. But normally you can just see into little gaps and such, and if there was a mold line in there and you couldn’t get it, It would be very annoying seeing it. .
(I spend as much time on each piece/model as every other. Character, line model, hidden in the back rat etc. Probably shouldn’t.