How much time to you spend on core units?

[mczolton]

A question for those of you that build armies of minis... how much time do you spend on core units? As a painter who doesn\'t plan on gaming with my minis, I find myself spending a bit more time than prescribed painting my core units. While I\'m not rushing through them to get them on the gaming table, I do find myself spending more time than I\'d like cleaning flash and mold lines from those little plastic buggers.

The problem I am having is twofold.

1) How much should I care about cleaning flash and mold lines? As these are units of ~16 minis, I believe that the overall look of the unit takes priority over any individual model (save command minis maybe). Therefore, is a bit of flash acceptable?

2) I am finding some hard to reach areas difficult to clean. For instance, my current unit of Tomb Kings skeleton warriors are rather clean, but there is the occasional bit of fraying in some joint areas due to the fact that this is hard to smooth out. Given that there are about 16 minis in the unit, is it really worth my time to clean this up?

Your input is appreciated.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[bayrodney]

Originally posted by mczolton

1) How much should I care about cleaning flash and mold lines? As these are units of ~16 minis, I believe that the overall look of the unit takes priority over any individual model (save command minis maybe). Therefore, is a bit of flash acceptable?

2) I am finding some hard to reach areas difficult to clean. For instance, my current unit of Tomb Kings skeleton warriors are rather clean, but there is the occasional bit of fraying in some joint areas due to the fact that this is hard to smooth out. Given that there are about 16 minis in the unit, is it really worth my time to clean this up?

1 & 2) Overall, in my opinion, it really depends how good you want the unit to look. If you are entering that unit into a competition you do want to be cleaning the models and making sure the mold lines and flash is gone. Although, as tomb kings are an army with many models, i am sure that if you want them mainly for gaming and to look attractive on the battlefield all you need is consistency. Dont be half-assed on some minis and \"full-assed\" (if you know what i mean) on other minis. It ALL depends on you.

I for one try to just make the model clean with a basic paintjob.

If that answers your question

 

[Modderrhu]

Ah yes, the same issues I had with the Tomb Kings. Hehehe. They really are little bastards, aren\'t they? If you\'re sensing a measure of \'I told you so\', you\'d be quite right. lol

I often left some bits inside the joints, because they\'re really quite impossible to remove without removing an appreciable part of the mini itself. Give yourself some leeway, skellies are tattered things, damaged and imperfect.

Often, I found that it looked better when the remaining ridges were flattened, instead of trying to remove them completely, and doing more damage in the process.

My guideline was simple; if I will ever see inadequate cleaning whilst looking at the unit, I know that I will kick myself and feel crappy that I did not do a better job. For me, nothing ruins a paintjob, and the final mini, than a visible mould line.

Sorry, I wish I could give a more quantitative set of \'rules\', but I could find none myself.

 

[mczolton]

Originally posted by Modderrhu
Ah yes, the same issues I had with the Tomb Kings. Hehehe. They really are little bastards, aren\'t they? If you\'re sensing a measure of \'I told you so\', you\'d be quite right. lol

I often left some bits inside the joints, because they\'re really quite impossible to remove without removing an appreciable part of the mini itself. Give yourself some leeway, skellies are tattered things, damaged and imperfect.

Often, I found that it looked better when the remaining ridges were flattened, instead of trying to remove them completely, and doing more damage in the process.

My guideline was simple; if I will ever see inadequate cleaning whilst looking at the unit, I know that I will kick myself and feel crappy that I did not do a better job. For me, nothing ruins a paintjob, and the final mini, than a visible mould line.

Sorry, I wish I could give a more quantitative set of \'rules\', but I could find none myself.

No apologies, you\'re right on the mark. I knew what I was getting into when I picked up the box. As this is my first endeavor in a great while, I need to get back in the habit of cleaning up these bad-boys. I went back and looked at some of my minis from years ago and was shocked at how little I cleaned them.

The problem I am running into is exactly as you mention. Cleaning inside the joints is nearly impossible without damaging part of the mini. The rib-cages are also a pain in the arse.

That being said, each mini in the unit is getting better as I go along. I just need to find the right technique for cleaning such soft plastic

On a side note, I do find the Tomb Kings minis much more detailed than the skellies I was painting back in \'96. I like that

Thanks again,
Mark

 

[Modderrhu]

Originally posted by mczolton
No apologies, you\'re right on the mark. I knew what I was getting into when I picked up the box. As this is my first endeavor in a great while, I need to get back in the habit of cleaning up these bad-boys.

There\'s a plus-side to this, you know. When you next clean a nicely cast metal mini, you are actually going to enjoy it! If only...

Originally posted by mczolton
The rib-cages are also a pain in the arse.

I found that shaving the tops of the ribs with a sharp knife, not worrying about flattening the ribs a little, then followed by rubbing a blunt knife between the individual ribs did the trick. That seemed to round out the individual ribs again, but also flattened the ridge between them. It\'s simply impossible to remove gunk from in-between.

Originally posted by mczolton
That being said, each mini in the unit is getting better as I go along. I just need to find the right technique for cleaning such soft plastic

When you\'ve done so, will you share it here, please? lol As I\'ve said, the Tomb Kings would\'ve been much more of a pleasure if cleaning them was easier.

Gavin

 

[Ogrebane]

I spend as much time cleaning my core units as I do cleaning my characters. My pet peeve is flash. You can do a great paint job but I wont score over a 5 if I see a flash line. The thing with troops is you usually drybrush and wash tem and these two methods are the easiest way to make flash lines show up. Its worth it to clean them of better to spend more time on that than painting I recon.

So time. 3-4 hours per 5 RAF 3-4 hours on the command and 6-8 hours on characters. You can spend about that on your special units too like cave or ogres etc. But once again depends on the end result you want.

 

[Crackpot]

I hate flashes, so I try to remove all of them even on core units. At the moment I am painting and collecting an imperial guard army and they come in masses... So I have a lot of work to do.
The big problem is to remove the flashes from cuttlings.
As for the painting I always try to paint one troop at once (10 minis). I don\'t know how long I spend on each mini, I only know the last squad seemed to take forever... I think it took about a week to finish and I spent about 4-5 hours a day. So this would mean about 3-4 hours per mini.

 

[mczolton]

Thanks again for the advice guys. I\'ve been averaging 30 minutes cleaning up the skellies, but you have to take into account I\'m just getting back into the hobby so I\'m still feeling out some new techniques.

Modderrhu:

Thanks for the tip on the rib-cages. I\'ve been doing that and it seems to work well. I should probably go back and clean up some of the earlier minis with this technique.

Also, I would like to post the completed unit, but I\'m not sure my confidence is up to the task just yet Let\'s see how they turn out first.

Maybe this thread should have been about cleaning up skellies as that is what I am really asking. In any event, thank you all for the advice. I do appreciate it.

Mark