01604 Eli Quicknight mold line

[Couvs]

Hi all.  I was having a close look at the Eli Quicknight mini (last month's 25th anniversary model) and I had a friend show me how to properly file mold lines but upon looking at the one on the left arm of this model there isn't a whole lot of space for a file.  In addition to that, there's a rivet on the shoulder plate of that arm that's right next to the mold line (see the attached pic).  What would be the best way to deal with this particular mold line?

[Doug Sundseth]

I would use a hobby knife with a nice, sharp #11 blade. Start by carving (sharp end in the direction of the cut), taking off only a little bit of material with each cut. Then reverse the knife and burnish the former seam.

[Couvs]

about how large is a #11 blade..?

 

Also a general prep question for  the metal minis, is there anything  I need to do different to clean them off before priming or do I just use a toothbrush and dishsoap like with the bones?

[LittleBluberry]

Toothbrush and dish soap are perfectly fine for cleaning metal minis.  Just let it really dry well before priming. 

 

If you have uneven texture after cleaning the mold line you can use some brush on sealer to smooth it out. 

[Doug Sundseth]

27 minutes ago, Couvs said:

about how large is a #11 blade..?

 

Also a general prep question for  the metal minis, is there anything  I need to do different to clean them off before priming or do I just use a toothbrush and dishsoap like with the bones?

 

A #11 is the most common sort of narrow, triangular blade that comes on hobby blade handles. It's also a standard scalpel blade shape. Not counting the tang (which is hidden inside the handle), the blade is about 23mm long and 7mm wide at the base.

 

@LittleBluberry is correct about cleaning. The only thing I would add is that you should try to avoid touching areas that you plan to paint with your hands once the figure is cleaned. I'd recommend using some sort of painting handle (spools, pill bottles, corks, pieces of 1x2, dowels, and other things are commonly used as handles. If you're pinning the figure to its display base (or game base), you can temporarily pin it to your painting handle just as easily. I've found white glue to work well if you're not planning to pin the painted figure to its final base.

[Couvs]

thanks for the info!  I think I may have managed to at least smooth out that line though it is still visible.  I do have a few wine corks I use to stick minis on while i"m painting.  I haven't given a whole lot of thought to putting any of them on bases yet as I'm not really sure where to start on that.

[Doug Sundseth]

When you get closer to basing, post a question and I'm sure you will get lots of contradictory advice about just what to do.  

[Gadgetman!]

I use the Micro Blades from Micromark.

It's a bit smaller than a #11... 

 

[Cyradis]

2 hours ago, Gadgetman! said:

I use the Micro Blades from Micromark.

It's a bit smaller than a #11... 

 

 

Darnit. Another item going on the wishlist. 

 

And for the Eli figure, that position can be filed if you have a small set. I'd start with the knife, but use the file more. Then I'd try to burnish. 

[Doug Sundseth]

Looks like there's a bendable micro-blade available from dental supply houses. I didn't know i needed that. (And at $6-ish per blade, I might not actually need it that much. )

[Wren]

There are different sizes of files. I have a few teeny tiny that I bought online once during a file hunt, but they're so small as to be kind of flimsy so I only use them for the tiniest of things if at all. The most versatile files are diamond files. They don't clog up with metal as fast as the hatched metal files. The most useful shapes  are half round, round, and crossing (kind of like two shallow half rounds stuck together. Either side is slightly rounded, but there's an edge on each side where the two halves meet.) The crossing file would work well on the plates you're showing, or the end of the half round. That is how I cleaned up the copy I painted for the website. The crossing is also great for filing off lines in between fingers or strands of hair without losing the sculpted depression.

 

I do almost all of my metal cleaning with just files, I'm not super comfortable with knives. (I do like a scalpel better for paring the mould lines off of Bones, and a hobby knife for scraping mould lines off of resin.)

Do a Google or eBay  search for 2mm diameter diamond files, and that should get you the useful size. Usually they'll come in a 10 pack with other shapes, sometimes you'll find a three pack. You usually need to get the larger pack to get a crossing file. If they're cheap enough, you might buy 2-3 different sets from different manufacturers. Quality and size can differ even with those guidelines, and it's hard to tell what you're getting online sometimes. My best set of files was purchased from the jeweler supplier Rio Grande, but I have decent ones from my online file hunt.

I have a larger standard flat file that I use for filing the bottoms of metal bases smooth, that'd take a longer time with a 2mm diamond file! I'd actually like to buy a larger still than what I have for that purpose, but never remember to bother to do that.

[Gadgetman!]

2 hours ago, Doug Sundseth said:

Looks like there's a bendable micro-blade available from dental supply houses. I didn't know i needed that. (And at $6-ish per blade, I might not actually need it that much. )

That's weird...

The ones I find are from Salvin, and they look EXACTLY like the blades from Micromark.

 

It may be time to send them an email... 

[Doug Sundseth]

At some level, nearly everything is bendable. With a big enough hammer, railroad spikes become "bendable railroad spikes". 

 

I wonder whether those "bendable" blades are just regular blades and they're all bendable by virtue of the way they're all made and only advertised as bendable as a marketing thing.

[Cyradis]

Rio Grande jewelry supplier is awesome just in general. They were the go-to supplier for when I was in silversmithing class. If you want high end precision files and the like, I recommend them just on jewelry experience. I occasionally use my jewelry burnishing tool on minis now. 

 

I may have just been given a crazy scheme to pull out my graver and try to engrave patterns onto figures.... uh oh. Thanks Wren for reminding me of cool jeweler tools. 

[Gadgetman!]

The Bendable microblades...  

According to a mail from Micromark, they DO NOT reccommend trying to bend their blades. They will snap,  

 

My guess is that the bendable blades are made of a softer steel alloy. That also means they won't hold their edge for very long. 

This doesn't matter for a dentist, since he throws them away after one use. 

But for us, who are working with pewter...