Painting for Dummies -- Cleaning the Model

Posted by Ranillon on 29. March 2009 00:13

Okay, I have all the supplies I need.  Now it’s time to actually pick out a model and put it together.  In my case I’ve had my eye on doing a lightning clawed commander (e.g. Belial by another name) for my Deathwing.  After some thought I concluded that the best choice was to use Brother Stern (from the Daemonhunters army) and give him a pair of lightning claws.  Accordingly, I went out and bought the model and then retrieved an unused sprue off some plastic terminators.  After taking him out of the blister pack and clipping off the plastic bits I needed I got what you see in the first picture.

Now we come to the first real step in doing up a model – cleaning it.  If you look closely at any model you’ll see stuff hanging off it that you’ll want to remove.  For example, take a look at the second picture.  See the line of extra material going down the side of this plastic piece?  That’s where extra material was squeezed out the seam between the two halves of the mold.  Likewise, that spot lower down is where the arm was snipped off the sprue.  All of this together is called flash – and you need to get rid of it before beginning painting.  I suggest doing so even before putting the model together as it's easier to work with.

For removing flash I use both files and a hobby knife.  Which one you use depends on the material of the model part and where the flash actually is.  Generally speaking for plastic I prefer the knife while the file is better for metal.  Be thorough, but patient.  If you aren’t careful (especially with plastic) there is a danger that you’ll take off more than you want and lose some of the detail on the model.

Whatever you do take the time to remove the flash.  Nothing better ruins a model (no matter how well painted) than seeing an untouched mold line going down its side or some dangling unneeded bit of metal.  Drybrushing especially will exaggerate any remaining flash.  So, don’t embarrass yourself – clean your model thoroughly.

More to come...