This is a tutorial for removing mold lines and flash on resin figures. There are several methods for removing mold lines. These lines are the results of the casting process where most of these parts are done in two part casts. The mold lines results from where the two parts of the mold meet. The most basic method for removing these lines is to use sand paper and simply sand the line away. However, depending on the location of the mold line or flash, different approaches are necessary.
Most flash tabs can be removed with nippers or other cutting implements. The potential problem with this is that if you cut too close to the main part, the stress from the cutting implement may damage the main part. I tend to cut excess flash away, and then sand downthe excess. This is demonstrated in the video below.
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Here is another video for flash removal on a part where the area below the flash is highly detailed. For such parts, I rely heavily onthe hobby knife with a curved blade. For this process, most of the flash is carefully removed with the hobby knife.
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For mold lines, I employ several methods. If the mold line is small enough, I will take a fairly new hobby knife and scrape along the mold line to remove it. The only problem with this method is that while scraping, you may flatten out a curved surface.,/p>
The safest method to removing the mold line is to use a sanding pad that conforms to the surface that you are sanding. This process slowly removes the seam while keeping the shape of the part you are working on.
In most cases, I employ all of the above techniques, scraping most of the line away, then sanding it down with a sanding pad. To help guild the mold line removal process; take a marker or any felt tipped pen and trace out the seam line. This can help guild the sanding process and help alert you when enough sanding is done. See the following video.
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Here is another video demonstrating mold line removal.
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Here are some still images of the before and after from the above process
Now, with the sanding process for cleaning up mold lines and flash, there are situations that happen when detail lines are sanded away.Using model scribing saws from Hasegawa’s Tritool line, I just follow the existing detail line and rescribe the detail. This is demonstrated in the video below.
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