"Removing Mould Lines on 1/72 Soft Plastics" Topic

Anyone have any advice on the best way to remove mould lines on 1/72 soft plastic miniatures? I've tried carefully slicing them off, but it's often finicky and I seem to dull by hobby knife blades at extraordinary speeds when I try this.

I've heard of people using a heated up wire. Anyone have any info on this?

Any other easy techniques I'm missing?

As for painting, I find no trouble keeping paint on them. A non-filling automotive primer with good "teeth" followed by painting with acrylics and sealing with PlastiDip makes things pretty invulnerable. But I always seem to leave too much of the mould lines. I love the cost and realistic proportions of 20mm plastics, but if I can't find a way to get rid of the mould lines any better than I have been, I think the savings might not be worth it.

I usually use an exacto knife and 'scrape' the lines off. Don't try to cut as you'll ened up gouging out too much material.

"I've heard of people using a heated up wire."

I am using this method. Take a piece of metal wire (bent-open paper clip works fine) and a lit candle. Heat one end of the wire next to or above the candle flame. Then run this heated end of the wire along the mould line to make it melt and disappear.

The technique takes a bit of time to learn, but it is worth it IMHO. Be aware that if you heat the wire too hot, it might easily melt more plastic than you intended. I would recommend practising first on a couple of spare models.

The drawback of the method is that is a bit slow, as you need to reheat the wire all the time. Therefore I would recommend first cutting out as much of the mould line as you can with a knife, and then removing all the finer excess with a hot wire.

I hope this helped!

BTW: there are also some hard plastic 1/72 plastics out there - Hasegawa (not very good quality) and Preiser (no personal experience). They have the advantage of easier mould line removal.

Griefbringer

Well I've used a technique a little more drastic. I actually flashed the figure over a lighter. The quick passing over a flame melted the thin mold stuff and left the rest of the figure untouched. I admit it's not the safest but I'll be darn if it's not the quickest.

Watch out for the Airfix WWII German Infantry and Union Civil War infantry. Thin barrels on the rifles causes some warping but you can actually straighten them out in your fingers.

I have no idea whether or not it would work, it may not get hot enough, but what about using a Wonder Cutter? I'm talking about the devices sold at Michaels and other craft stores for cutting styrofoam. Since its powered by batteries, it should be faster as there is no need to constantly reheat the wire. Also, the heat level should remain pretty constant. I'm just not sure if its the right level! I would try it, but don't have any plastics on hand!

tabletopwarrior: I had never thought of such technique - sounds a bit too risky to me. Though once I semi-accidentally moved one of my plastic bren gunners too close to a candle flame, with the result that the bren bipod disappeared in a matter of seconds! Luckily the model was not otherwise damaged.

Ivan: the idea about styrofoam cutter is quite interesting. Unfortunately, mine has been broken for long so cannot try it out. Just thinking that it might be unwieldely large instrument.

Griefbringer

If a bit of heat is a solution...dare I suggest microwaving them? (This may be a terrible idea...!)

I don't believe a microwave would work, since it heats up water molecules, not plastics. Though you could probably design an oven working at a different frequency to heat up your plastic, but then you'd need a degree in physics and in engineering.

I usually hold my sharp scapel at about 95 degrees and scrape. This way the blade doesn't dig in.

You could try heating the end of a scalpel in the candle flame as well, and kill two birds with one stone.

I might try this myself and get back to you.

David

Most of the fine scale modeler guys seem to recommend a small soldering iron. You can get them cheap at a hardware or electronics store.

I never scrape. All it ever does is make the plastic fuzz up. I do use a brand new #11 X-acto blade, no handle just the blade and carefully, oh so carefully, slice/carve the mold lines off. Very time consuming, but it works for me. Heat and plastic, WOW you guys are nuts! I am never in that much of a hurry. If it is a problem for you, stick with lead miniatures and a trusty file. Oh don't forget to clean them well. The silicone lubricant that is used in the molds must be cleaned off prior to painting. I soak mine in a brine comprised of one part viniager, one part floor wax remover and one part bleach. I let them soak for a month in this then rinse and dry prior to primer coat.

Hey come one! On the simpsons Bart is shown placing a James Bond 007 plastic mini in a microwave and it melts. So just don't leave it in there too long and then you should be able to get rid of that pesky flash.
:)

Seriuosly though, I used to have a soldering tool that had a very fine tip. It also had a variable resistor on it to control the heat output. I used to use it for cleaning up my old long-lost Airfix minis,wish I new where all that stuff was.

I also do the scraping thing described by BouldINGS and Rich.

Making a hot wire cutter is very very simple.

Just take a thin wire (e.g. strip some electronics wires) and connect it to a couple of juicy D cells. Handle and on/off switch optional ;)

It would be relatively easy to make a hot wire tool for the purpose.

As for the plastics, I tried them and hated it. I'd rather spend my precious hobby minutes doing something I like, i.e. painting.

To add to what Mr.Griefbringer stated:
The larger area use the sharp blade method. Than a heated wire{paper clip or stick pin} held by a cloths pin.
Do not touch the plastic only get real close until it melts
out of the way. Tried the electric solder iron but could not get into the small area without damage.
Also for the odd Persian,Celt,Viking, rough up the mold line to look like clothing fringe, paint as trim, works
most the time.

Over the last while, I tried every method posted here to get n idea as to the best way to do it.

Cutting with a sharp knife: Works, but it's hard to get it perfect and some place on these figures are hard to cut effectively.

Scraping with a sharp knife: I got fuzzies. Lots of them. But scraping and then cutting the fuzzies away carefully produced pretty good results.

Electric hot wire: Too cumbersome. I had trouble getting at a lot of places on the figures.

Flashing with fire: Worked the first few times, but then I got a tad careless and one of my British paratroopers caught fire. Atleast I had the foresight to experiment with one of the poses I hated. This works, but it's not for me as I find it hard to control. I often had too little melt away or too much.

Heated sharp blade: Perhaps the metal the blade is made of holds too much heat, but I ended up disfiguring another useless pose quite badly. Furthermore, the blades I have came coated with a nice oil to keep them fresh in their packaging and that stuff caught on fire really easily.

Soldering tool: couldn't get my hands on a variable one and the regular kind was way too hot. Couldn't even bring it near the figure.

Wire/pin heated by candel: This one's the winner for me. I tried different pins/wires and found one that works best for me. A staple bent into a straight wire and stuck into the back of a piece of wood/cork (or held by a clothespin). I put mine into the eraser on the back of a pencil. It was quite the precision tool.

It worked best to combine the cutting method and the heated staple. I cut away any flash and mould lines that I could safely cut away and then went to town with the fire. Some times I touched the staple to the figure, sometimes I didn't have to. It seemed to depend on the plastic. Revell German Infantry required touching while the British Paratroopers (also Revell) were a softer green plastic and did not. Italeri Zulu Wars British also required the ocasionl touch.

Overall, I'm happier with plastics now more than ever. Having taken the time to perfect this process, I can clean them faster than I used to clean metal miniatures (I was quite slow compared to most: too much of a perfectionist).

I'm glad I took the time to search for old threads. Thanks, everyone, for all the great suggestions to try out.

I'm going to second Nathaniel all the way, I'm just getting back into the 54 mm plastic 'playset' type figures - they have some really nice ones now - and still have lots of 1/72 Airfix and similar laying around.

The Xacto knife does the big stuff and more exposed areas, very carefully slicing off the molu lines with a very sharp blade, the hot needle (I hold mine in a tiny little pin vise) does the cleanup and fiddly detail the blade can't reach.

I make sure they get washed in real hot water with dishsoap and vinegar, scrubbed with a toothbrush, rinsed, and then primed with gesso and painted with artist's acrylics and watercolors, finished with brush-on sealer.

One thing I realised right away (a handful of british paratroopers with viscous melt wounds payed the price for discernment) was to make sure to start with poses that I liked the least. Even after I had gotten a great handle on the process it became obvious that different kits are often made from slightly different types of plastic. I find that working with my least favourite poses first I can get a good feel for the density and nature of the plastic at hand without risking any of the quality poses. I also practiced a bit on the sprue when there were no "expendables" in the kit.

There's always something that doesn't sit right with a few poses. Perhaps, like myself, one might feel the poses where the figure is prone are less useful for wargaming. I wasn't even concerned when I tried the flashing with a lighter technique and the figure went bye-bye.

On a semi-whim I picked up a nice 90mm magnifying lense. After I got it properly situated, I went back over a few of the figures and took a look at them. I never realised what a huge difference it could make. It made the cutting part of the process (I cut with a sharp hobby knife and then do final clean up with a bent staple held by a clothes pin and heated over a candle) much more quick and precise. And with the hot wire you can actually watch the little bits of plastic shrivel away as you get it close. It's really sped things up and I'm getting better results than ever before.

Is it just me having bad eyesight or does anyone else find magnification to be of great use? In the past I had some 1.5x "reading" spectacles, but looking through a nice powerful full sized lense is much better.