Working with resin.

[Grailkeeper]

I'v only recently bought my first resin miniatures. There was quite a lot of flash. Does anyone have any advice for working with resin? I've heard it's cancerous and that it needs to be washed before being painted. Otherwise I know nothing.

[Tyrendian]

a good intro read is http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF/R/resintips2.pdf

[DrLove42]

Yep, the FW guide is good

Best thing though, is wash with warm soapy water and a toothbrush, before building. Heatbent pieces up to bend up back. And prime with a car primer as a base coat.

I don't know if the dust is "cancerous" but don't breathe it in if you can avoid it

[GravesDisease]

I've never heard of it being a carcinogen! Well unless it's smoked, but smoking resin usually mean hashish. Washing is usually done as a precaution because there's there worry that some of the mould lube remains on the model after it's removed (which is good, it means it doesnt stick but that also applies to paint).

Usually flash comes off incredibly easily and can be taken off by clipping and a few rubs of an emery board. Filing might be a bit heavy duty since this stuff is designed to be taken off.

[SaveModifier]

All fine dusts can be cancerous if you breathe in a large volume of it and it settles in the lungs, thats where that comes from, if you're working with the odd infantry sized model and scraping mold lines, there is no really big risk, but, if you're doing a lot or a big model and are sawing and filing, then you should wear a dust mask to protect yourself.

[Bigred]

In general my rule for resin is no sanding.

I will always wash it off in soapy water, then clean it up using clippers on the large chunks, then blades to clean up minor surface imperfections. Finally going in with the hairdryer to correct warped stuff and liquid greenstuff for holes.

Compared to working with plastic I will make sure to do all my resin cleanup over a box top, or other semi enclosed space and do it all in one job (as opposed to over a period of several days). Upon completion of basic resin cleanup, the box top gets thrown into the OUTDOORS trashbin immediately to remove it all from my home interior.

If you are really paranoid, you can then bag the pieces for storage, then assemble and prime the model in one go as well. Once it's primed, you can leave it out and take as much time as you wish.

I'm OK with resin overall but as a longterm hobbyist, I'm extra cautious about any resin from outside of the US/EU. It seems like every company uses their own mix these days.