Mold lines left on models - a crime against humanity or no big sweat?

[Tetsugaku]

Leafing through warhammer visions the other day I was genuinely surprised and disappointed that the level of model making (not painting) had dropped so much.

Visible mold lines, undrilled barrels, two halves of guns or body parts not lined up.

Basically I reckon it makes any model
Look total crap regardless of the paint job. I must spend ten times the time eavy metal do to build a model, buffing off lines and getting a perfect finish before paint.

Do you bother or...?

[lobster-overlord]

I like that they painted some figures up with it. I noticed it on the Bullgryns the other day. It shows younger/newer/less skill modelers that it's not a big deal. Now if they claim the models to be 'eavy Metal quality, then I'd expect them not to have the lines though.

[Cpt Codpiece]

mold lines and flash, are an abomination and modelers who repeatedly leave them should be flagellated :)

gun barrels annoy me greatly though. guns cant shoot unless barrels are drilled.... WYSIWYG :)

they are your models, do as you wish, but i cant stand them on my models, and sarcasm would command me to combat any bad rolls on my behalf with the WYSIWYG rule against un drilled guns LOL

[crazyredpraetorian]

Death to the offenders!

[iheartgrimdark]

I understand that folks have different levels of skill and motivation when putting kits together but I think removed mould lines and drilled barrels generally make a miniature look twice as good.

[crazy_irish]

I really hate it if there are still visible mold lines and undrilled barrels.... it's a no go for me. If someone else does it to their models, ok, each to their own, but it really makes a great paint job mediocre. It takes me quite long to paint a model and i would not think to ruin it with such things.

Then again, i get slopy when it comes to basing XD

[Batoche1864]

I'm with the "to each his own" crowd as far as personal armies and paint jobs goes.

Anyone who's getting paid to assemble and paint a model for publication in a professional magazine deserves to be fired on the spot for such sloppiness, the fact that it's happening so regularly in Visions and White Dwarf tells me the editorial staff needs to be fired as well.

[Lucidum]

Eh, they’re not a big deal to me. Generally I try to scrape off mould lines when i see them, but i’m not particularly obsessed with getting it just right, and I don’t mind if my opponent is the same way.

[Tetsugaku]

For me the modelling part of the hobby is where I get the most enjoyment so it's important a mini looks as good as possible. I've always been taught that good preparation of a model, before any painting happens is essential because bad prep shows through and ruins the paint job, however good it is.

I went on a very good airbrushing course for model diorama makers and we spent half the time using various levels of finger nail polishing grit getting mirror surfaces, invaluable tools for polishing off join lines between two halves.

As I'm putting together a knight right now ( I might spend 10 hours on build) I can see what needs the most clean up and seeing that not done in WD makes the otherwise excellent knights frequently look a bit amateur. The gun barels and the rounded tops of the legs are especially evident in the pictures.

Bad decals are evident as well, really obvious lines and bumps where the surface hasn't been prepped flat and a softener hasn't been used.

Anyway, each to their own but it really grinds my (mechanicum) gears. :)

[Rory Wildwards]

These days I remove mold lines and drill bolter holes every time.
I sometimes look back at my earlier models and sigh...

[Morgrim]

I've never seen the point of drilling barrels. Possibly because I'm exclusively a xenos player and dark eldar guns aren't drillable (I am certain you'd destroy the model if you tried on most of these weapons) but even on rank and file marines it seems more bother than it is worth. A simple dot of black paint in the middle of the barrel is far faster, less finicky, not capable of destroying your model and looks identical on a tabletop quality model held at arms length. If you want to do it for your champions that makes sense, but trying to argue your opponent shouldn't use their troops without drilled barrels is snobbishness at best, if not outright cheating and bad sportsmanship. *eyes Cpt Codpiece*

I feel that obvious mold lines should go but if you have traces left in out of the way places that will only be seen on close examination then that's okay. I do agree that display models done by professionals for exhibition should be held to a higher quality though, and that definitely includes the 'Eavy Metal team.

[Chaoschrist]

I tend to clean my models of moldlines and drill barrels (if possible; and necessary). I'm not much for one to fill up the gaps between 2 parts to get an ultrasmooth finish though. I might try to sand the seams, but that's as far as I go.

[DETHMOKIL]

I think that they don't drill bolters and such because they don't sell them that way. With the modern kits nowadays, when I see GW pictures with open barrels, I expect them to come that way.

Building and cleaning models is my favorite part of the process, its when the whole feel of the model is figured out.

[Wolfshade]

Poll added :)

[joosterandom]

I'd say removing mold lines is a must. It's as much a part of the assembly process as making sure you don't have spikes of sprue sticking from your edges.

Drilling gun barrels seems like more of a preference thing though.

[Adra]

Well first lets say its about two things. First do I drill my barrels and clean moldlines? Yes. It's preparation before painting, just like filling a gap with liquid greenstuff or clipping off flash or basing. I cant not do it for my own models.

Now do other people have to do it? No, of course not, they are free to do as they wish. However I am also free to judge that model as unfinished. I understand newer gamers...maybe its tricky for them...ok fine, but cleaning moldlines requires very little skill, and once taught drilling a barrel is easy. It ruins a good paint job and just looks lazy.

GW models come incomplete. They are not fit for purpose new, you have to build them and paint them. So the idea that their may be some extra maintenance along the way is hardly surprising is it? :)

[simiusmagnus]

Nowadays I try to hit the more blatant mold lines, but if I miss the smaller/less obvious ones I don't worry too much about it. And I did make a few stabs at barrel drilling, but I couldn't find a good way to consistently get a nice, centered hole. A quick dab from a Sharpie is much less hassle and looks just as good from arm reach distance.

[tcraigen]

I know I certainly have figures with lines, and I put in a lot of effort. Almost no one i know puts that much effort into removing them. Really the only time they do is when I do their figures or help assemble them. I can live with legs or arms heads bug me though.

[wacca]

What people do to their own armies is totally up to them. A professional painter. Ie someone that gets paid to do the job should know that a paint job starts well before the first brush is lifted. I get fed up if seeing models from these so called experts that have had a half hearted assembly and a rushed spray job. Double the crime if these are the experts trying to sell the model. The whole GW trend at the moment seems to be aimed at 5 year olds with cartoon models and crap paint jobs. Shame on them. Just shows a lack of pride

[Anggul]

I'm not particularly fussed about drilling barrels, but mould lines make models look absolutely awful. It doesn't matter how good the paint job is, if you can see where the thing has been moulded it's going to look crappy.

The very first thing I teach someone new to the hobby with their shiny new models is to remove the mould lines. They'll regret it otherwise and if you teach them to do the important things early on it will save them a lot of effort later paint stripping and removing mould lines from old models.

[pseudodelic]

If the model is to be looked at and will be used to showcase the look and expert finish of the model then it matters... if the model is for wargaming and might be that it is just painted three colours... No Sweat... Horses for courses!!! I agree though that the models shown off by GW should be perfect although their full units will have moulding lines due to the amount of painting required to keep full armies of every figure they produce... Though I would prefer to see their showcase figures i.e. those used on their store pages were finished and painted to a far better standard.

[nurglespuss]

I remove lines, drill fire arms, fill gaps etc. If I see someone not do the same, it does come across as rather lazy, I mean I'm very busy but make the effort. If your a beginner - no worries, you'll learn. Worse though, is a lovely paint job OVER lines, that just fries my OCD.

[Darren Richardson]

I remove all the heavy visible mould lines on my Space Marines, this is mostly along the outer legs, inner lower legs, torsos outside arms surfaces and the helmets...

The helmets are always the worse offenders for mould lines ;)

the guns mostly I limit to the barrel end, the back of the gun and the top surface as those are the most obvious lines...

I don't really care about mould lines on very hard to file/scrape surfaces or in areas that won't get noticed (or even painted)

Gunn Barrels, I intend to drill them out once I get round to getting the right size bit for it...

I find that the mould lines in all the places I mentioned really stick out when you paint the figures, I know this because I got some Blackreach Marines off ebay, they were all basecoated black, and the lines were so visible, I HAD to get my needle file out straight away :D

[Cactus]

I don't like mold lines. My older models make me cringe when I pull them out and see all of those seams.

Undrilled barrels don't bother me though. Most gamers don't drill out nostrils either.

[Ian Mulcahy]

I try to remove as much of the mold lines as possible. I'm no professional, so I accept that there will probably be some visible marks left over. But apparently my eyesight sucks too, cause I always seem to find lines I missed while I'm painting. Sometimes I'm just too far along, and I would rather just ignore it and move on than try to fix it and wreck the painting I've already done. As for drilling out barrels, I don't do that. I just paint the black dot and be done with it.

[Cartridge]

For me, if it's coming from GW, I want it to be top-notch, a quality example of the hobby, which is why I voted yes. But if you're just playing me at a store, I honestly do not care that much.

[Tetsugaku]

The positioning of mild lines on GW kits has become much, much better over the years. The incidence of pieces of tubing with mold lines cutting across it was endemic but I've been generally impressed with the Knight.

Maybe this discussion triggers the old question of "what is tabletop standard", I paint every mini to the best standard I can, troops or not, because I enjoy the modelling so much. If it was just basic standard painted minis I wanted I'd just pay someone to do it all for me :)

[Batoche1864]

As someone getting back into modelling after 30 years I'm taking the stance that when I get to the point of looking at my work from right now, that's when I start going back and re-doing things.

I already have candidates for after I'm done getting the first wave of my army TTR.