"those stringy lead things are called what?" Topic

Is there a term for them other than flash? They are those little strings of lead a few mm long that usually show up at high points or corners of a casting.

I've always thought of 'flash' as being the metal webbing caused on castings by the two halves of the mould not fitting properly. What you are describing is the metal that has flowed into the air vents in the mould – it might still be 'flash'.

I call them vent flash.

Any unwanted bits of casting material are simply caled flash.

Casters call them "spiders". They are the residue of the vents that are placed in the mold to facilitate a nice clean cast of metal.

If you have a good clean cast, and it is possible (Griffin Moulds in the UK and Eureka Miniatures in Australian are among the best), then you should not have any spiders or flash on the castings.

I can remember cleaning a few boxes of 28mm AWI Highlanders from a company I shall not mention that were simply crawling with spiders. The cloth packing material would just cling to them.

I've always heard them referred to as 'ventings' or 'vent flash'.

I've never considered it a bad thing, because it's indicative of a complete 'fill' in the mould.

Let me make it clear: if I DID NOT mention a company's name it DOES NOT mean that by definition, that company's castings are full of flash and spiders. I am getting some personal messages from several companies that are reading waaaaaaaay to much into my comment. (insert head shaking emoticon here).

If you have a good clean cast, and it is possible (Griffin Moulds in the UK and Eureka Miniatures in Australian are among the best), then you should not have any spiders or flash on the castings.

I hand cast a few bits myself at home, so I call these bits 'free metal!'

Vent worms?

Annoying

Casters call them "spiders". They are the residue of the vents that are placed in the mold to facilitate a nice clean cast of metal.

It has been many years since I tried my hand at making a vulcanised centrifugal mould but:

The power of the centrifuge slams the metal into most of the spaces. Where 'air pocket crevices' are formed at the join of the two halves of the mould, returning vents can be cut into the surface. These are cut so the metal goes away from the casting before turning back into it or the sprue, the flash they form is the angular shape of the cut. But, air pockets can also form in the deep crevices where vents cannot be cut. To facilitate the air venting from these deep pockets, a small hole (0.5mm or less) is drilled through the mould at 90 degrees to the surface. Thats why you get them on the ends of toes and bases, at 90 degrees to the moulding line, and that is why they look like thin threads.

They are a pain. I always miss one or two of them before painting a batch of figures, causing me to grunt my disapproval.

Gussgrat= flash

I can remember cleaning a few boxes of 28mm AWI Highlanders from a company I shall not mention that were simply crawling with spiders. The cloth packing material would just cling to them.

The Perry Carlist infantry I just received were like that. I spent ages picking bits of packing material off the models and cutting the spiders off and when I was painting I still managed to find some I had missed. They were everywhere.

I had a bunch of Perry colonials that were covered with them, and just cleaned them off a bunch of pieces of a Perry limber and gun. Annoying is right. One on each spoke of each wheel took forever to clean up.

Thanks for the info. I now know what to call them.

I saw this question was on the ACW product reviews board, so I assumed those "stringy lead things" were late war Confederates.

…and when I was painting I still managed to find some I had missed. They were everywhere.

One on each spoke of each wheel took forever to clean up.

Yup. I find these spiders even more annoying than flash.
They dig into your fingers when you're cleaning the figure, and you always miss a few.

I find rubbing your finger over the figure will usually locate most of them.

Yeah, MOST of them.

I find rubbing your finger over the figure will usually locate most of them.

Not all the itty bitty ones on the bottom of ammo pouches it seems. I just found another one!