How long do you spend cleaning and assembling a model?

[Calyptra]

Blackstone Fortress is forcing me to confront an issue I've been having for a while: modern GW plastic models take me forever to clean and assemble. It's because they're cast in so many pieces. More pieces means more mold lines, and the detail on the pieces means the lines take more care than a couple passes of a file to to remove. The multipart assembly then typically requires a lot of gap-filling with green stuff, often at a subassembly stage.

 

After 13 hours of work, I've put together 4 explorers and 7 guardsmen. And these models have been comparatively easy - there was only one gap I needed to fill on the guardsmen - as opposed to the Dark Eldar Hellion I spent 3 hours building and then never built any more of them, or the Skitarii kill team I more or less gave up on ever getting fully assembled.

 

I genuinely love the old metal models, but there's also something to be said for the fact that I can get one cleaned and ready for paint in about half an hour. At this rate, it will be 4 more weeks before I finish getting Blackstone Fortress glued together, never mind painting, and I'd really like to play this game at some point.

 

So I'm trying to figure out if there are tools or techniques that might speed things up a bit - basically, are there faster ways of doing this that other people know and I don't?

 

I clean models with 3 files - a big one, a small one, and a small rat-tail - and 2 xacto knives - a sharp one for cutting and a dull one for scraping. Scraping a mold line off with a dull xacto doesn't seem functionally different from doing it with GW's mold line remover, but maybe I'm wrong? I use Testors polystyrene glue and it works great, but if I tried some of the thin capillary action plastic weld stuff maybe it would leave gaps and seams that are easier to deal with?

 

How do you do it?

 

Maybe I just need a break from this hobby, because right now it feels like a bottomless work pit where I can't finish anything no matter how many hours I pour into it.

[Fajita Fan]

Too long.  I've sorta learned to clean off where the parts will bond, assemble them, and then clean the remaining mold lines after because my hand cramps from holding tiny parts.

[Ranulf]

I thought the GW mold line remover was the biggest load of overpriced BS until I used one. It's actually very effective on most mold lines apart from the fiddly, hard to reach ones that still need a file or Xacto.

 

Gaps are a major pain in ass compared to the old minis - my hobby table currently has some Thunderwolves side by side with some metal Catachans. The former will need mold line removal, GS, sculpting tools, vaseline - the metals guys need the dust blown off them. It's just part of the process involved with incredibly detailed, 3D, multipose miniatures. 

 

I tend to clean and prep each plastic bit individually before final assembly, helps me avoid missing lines/sprue tabs.

 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder - so take a holiday from the hobby.

 

-Ran

[Rik Lightstar]

A big tip for those really fine join lines, don't try to use green stuff, use an old brush and some PVA, the PVA will set smooth along the seam and is fine to paint over. If after the first application it still has a small gap then just repeat the process.

 

Mould line removal is can be tricky, unfortunately it's mostly țime.

 

Rik

[blackbabyjesus]

I have the same problem a lot of the time, though recently I've taken a more pragmatic approach to things which has sped up assembly a lot.

 

I clip the parts off the sprue, clean up the little bits that are left from the sprue and then assemble as far as I want to go (sub assemblies are often still king), I clean up mould lines at this point using just a sharp knife, no files. It's sped things up a LOT since GW have gotten very good at putting the mould lines where you just can't see them. This way I end up only cleaning the ones that can be seen.

[Arkhanist]

For gap lines, I strongly recommend tamiya extra thin. It wicks into the gap and melts it together so it disappears. For thicker gaps you do the same, then when it's softened you press the parts together a bit - you can see the melted plastic fill the gap. You sometimes might end up with a small ridge of melted plastic, but that's still pretty quick to sand off. Much quicker than greenstuffing every gap, though you may still need to do that for really substantial gaps that need filling in.

 

The GW mouldline remover is much better than I expected it to be, it does work similar to the back of a scalpel blade but you can be a lot more careless with it, very little risk of damaging components or fingers which speeds things up and it gets it most places. Once I've scraped the mould lines off (once the two parts are together) I use a micro-mesh pad or skinny sanding stick to smooth it off.

 

I recently cleaned and put together about 15 death company from sprue, including removing the substantial gaps on the jump packs in about 3 hours total with no greenstuff*, just tamiya extra thin. I do tend to put the two parts together with normal plastic cement, then use the tamiya to remove the gap and reinforce it, then scrape mouldlines and polish.

 

*strictly speaking I did use greenstuff to add a little extra height at the waist and neck, but that's cos old marines are comically short rather than for gap filling.

[queen_annes_revenge]

As long as it takes to be as perfect as I can make it. I paint for competition so any imperfections need to be gone. I use fine medical scalpels to get into the smallest areas.

[.Torch.]

I like to clean up alll the parts from a kit before I start building. It allows me not to get bogged down in cleaning up mould lines as I build my models. I also find it helpful for spontaneous builds, as I know the parts in my bits box are generally ready to go.

[Subtle Discord]

As long as it takes; but I'm happy to admit that I'm a perfectionist. It's hard to equate that to an actual number of hours per model since I tend to work in batches and break things up, like saving backpacks to do all together, for example. I don't do this hobby to be super efficient, I do it to create small works of art from the provided kits (that can then be used in a game providing more value than many typical artistic expressions) so I see it as part of the process that simply needs to be done to the standard that I set for myself. I get more satisfaction from quality over quantity, but I'm also the type of hobbyist who really enjoys the building and painting portion of the pastime so that's me being me. If getting models on the table so I could start throwing dice was a higher priority I could be less particular but while I love playing the game building and painting is a very important part of the experience for me.

 

On a related side note, check out the thread below 'how do you deal with awkward or difficult mould lines' for my $0.02 on my preferred tools for the task. Using my preferred Grobet files for the job makes it reasonably easy, if still tedious when there's a lot of models to clean up. I'd also like to second what Arkhanist said about working with Tamiya Extra Thin solvent for dealing with gaps. Not only with it fill small gaps easily, and medium gaps with the mentioned 'soften then push together' technique, you can also add shaved/powdered plastic to a large gap and use the Extra Thin to turn it into a 'soup' that will deal with all but the most stubborn gaps; simply repeat the process a few times to smooth and blend the join if you need to and then finish the process with files and/or sandpaper. With a little practice, it's an invaluable technique for assembling any styrene model or miniature.

[Imren]

For a squad of ten plastic tacticals I probably spend five hours in total to remove mould lines, and assemble.

 

For plastic mixed with resin or resin then for a ten man squad of marines I spend the double, almost an hour per model, since resin needs to be washed with detergent, and also I pin every joint with 1 mm brass rod since I don't trust superglue.