Everyone Loves a Rant

I really wanted to paint today. But since our furnace was being replaced and the house never got above 50 degrees, I thought it best not to completely ruin a model with paint splatters. Instead I decided to assemble some Grey Knights that have been sitting around my shelf for awhile. And boy oh boy, did they remind me of what I hate most about this hobby...

Freaking. Mold. Lines.




Here's a quick rundown on mold lines. When dealing with anything made of plastic, odds are that the piece was made from two different molds that were pressed together. The result is similar to trying to put pressure on a Sloppy Joe that's just a little too full.



The plastic squishes out between the two molds, leaving a super fine line of plastic around the majority of the model.

The resulting mess is then left for me to clean up. That may not seem so bad in theory, but if you're trying to cut a straight line across a surface that's not straight, the process can end with gouges, nicks, or an uneven surface.

At a tabletop distance (i.e. more than a foot away), you can barely see the work when the gouges are filled in and the model is painted. Nobody cares, because it's an inconsequential thing, and I only see it because I'm 6" from the problem when it happens. But for those antagonizing ten minutes when you're trying to get rid of a 1/2" line that refuses to succumb to your hobby knife, it's the worst thing in the world.

And that's what my day looked like during my down time. Granted my job was still made worse by the cold because my joints stiffened, and being cold gives me a record-breaking lack of tolerance for small, frustrating things. But still, the fact that I spend nearly as much time scraping spindly little lines off the model as will I actually painting them is ridiculous.

I cleaned the parts for 5 multi-part models today, and I probably wasted 2 hours doing it. The worst part is that they aren't even done; I still have all their decorative pieces to cut off the sprue and get cleaned up. And those are nice and brittle, so I can look forward to a super-glue-and-green-stuff-a-thon when I get to those.

The worst part is that there's nothing that can be done. It's like wanting to go to a tournament at the local gaming shop, knowing you'll be dealing with... the smell.



If you want to enjoy part of it, you have to deal with all of it.

So there's my rant for the month. I'll be back with something a bit nicer sometime tomorrow. Until then, I'm putting out the offer of free painting services in exchange for completely cleaning the mold lines off my models. I kid you not.

See you tomorrow... if my house doesn't burn down from me taking a blowtorch to anything I see with even a hint of a mold line on it.