Greenstuff scalpels and blood loss oh my!

I started my day by cutting my hand open on the toilet. I know I know, toilet not known for being the sharpest item in existance. I responded appropriately and began to smoother my hand in every antibacterial item we had, including but not limited to; salvon liquid, savlon cream, germalene cream, canesten, kitchen power spray and a blowtorch. Then I spent ages wavering between thinking that my hand was irreversibly damaged by the toilet and I had managed to create the t-virus through my over zealous use of germ-murder-methods.

To distract myself I decided to cut every single limb I own with a scalpel. All of my tiny diamond files have gone on holiday but I had read guys saying they'd gotten better results removing flash and mould lines using a sharp scalpel. I can say for certain I am now a flash and mould line free zone. I am also free of a completely set of fingers and several pints of blood.

Every time I go into Tescos I find myself standing in the uhhh... plaster aisle, staring at the Mr Men pack of plasters. I could never bring myself to get the and pay the vast increase in price just to have a bit of my childhood stuck to myself. But tomorrow I am damn well going to go down there and buy the stupid plasters.

That way, the next time I decide to put together some stupid space barbies there will be an element of fun involved. Each time I create a new stab wound or slice into my body I can pick out a new Mr Man, until I am wearing the whole set! But what, I hear you ask, will you do if you get more cuts than there are Mr Men?!

Well I will start putting on a second of each. That way when I am finished and sat in a corner crying weakly, slowly bleeding to death through a thousand tiny cuts, I can play two-pair on myself so the last thing I do on the planet is something fun and not just senselessly mauling my fingers because there is too much plastic attached to this thing that doesn't really exist and is only an inch tall so who will know anyway?!

I look like a blind lady with Parkinson's decide to cross stitch using a hacksaw while tap dancing.

I did manage to put together a couple of choppas though, and I can confirm that using a scalpel leaves a much smoother result than filing most mould lines and takes less time. Choppas are also quite nice models but need a horrendous amount of gap filling.



They look so harmless when they arne't covered in blood

These models were surprisingly free of awkward flash and mould lines. It was all very easy to take off. Just place the scalpel against the line, at right angles to it with the blade tilted towards the models. Pull it against and the excess plastic will come off like butter. Didn't have to worry about accidentally taking plastic off the surrounding model like I do with a file.

Snipped off the sprues

The choppas have little bits that clip together as you can see in the two halves of this one. I just blobbed some glue on the sticky out bits, and the edges of the gaps then stuck them together. The next bit to go on is the arms, which slot on as one piece and work to give the model extra stability. Then the head and the rotary parts go on. The rotary blades were a bitch to get to stay on. It was like the glue just stopped working.



So here is Mr Choppa all put together. There's just one problem though...

It's like they didn't even try to make it fit nicely. Someone in the office that day just went 'Nah huge gaps are so IN right now. Have them everywhere!' I could avoid it no longer - it was time to bring out the greenstuff.

I've got some generic brand greenstuff I got from my FLGS. It was 18inches for £5, instead of Games Workshop's 2cm for your firstborn. I will have to suffer the price at some point so I can use it and compare...

Now I overestimated how much greenstuff I would need by miles. I could've pulled off a tenth the amount I did and still have had loads left over once I'd finished filling this in.

 If you haven't used green stuff before, the picture on top is how it arrives. The blue and yellow pieces each form half of the compound you end up with. You don't need to mix them 50:50, but if you stray too far from this your greenstuff won't set, or will be too hard to use, etc. I stuck with 50:50 since it's my first time playing about with it.

Just push the two pieces together and pull them like taffy, then push and pull. Work them into each other firmly. When they are part of one mass start to roll them round in your hands. Roll it quickly into a sausage - the faster you roll it the warmer it'll get and the easier it'll be to smoosh together.

You just need to work it until it's a pretty uniform green colour. Mine's still slightly marbled above, I pushed it around a bit more after I photoed it.

Using a scalpel or any other sharp-ish tool, cut of a piece of the greenstuff off and roll it into a thin sausage.

Admire my sausage. Fear it!!!

Here's a neat trick so you don't have to flip flop greenstuff every and end up with a lumpy bumpy sausage.

Roll whatever you're using into a rough cylinder. Then take something with a flat, sturdy bottom surface. Run this over the top of the cylinder like you're buffing it. The harder you push the thinner your sausage will end up. I use a pack of cards in a box that I had next to my desk.

Need to prep more photos before I can put the rest of this up, but enjoy it as it is...

Tutorial - Step One - Preparing Your Miniatures from Packaging

Models - both those out of boxes and out of blister packs - often come with flash, mold lines, and attached to a sprue. The first thing you need to do with your model is remove all the excess material and make it look as though it was never there to begin with.

You will need;
Clippers (Sharp pliers)
Files (Fairly fine ones)
Sandpaper (Optional)
Sharp Knife/Scalpel (Optional)

PHOTO OF SPRUE MODEL

Remove the pieces of your kit from the sprue using the pliers or small sharp scissors. It's possible to twist and pull the pieces off but you risk damaging or warping the pieces. Use something snippy rather than a knife - much safer.

Flash is easy to remove from metal models. It is the little strands of metal attached randomly around a miniature as a leftover from where the metal was inject into its mold and effectively leaked outside the wanted shape. Just snip these off and if necessary use the file/sandpaper to smooth the area down.

PICTURE OF BITS OF FLASH

Mold lines can be slightly more complicated as they can run all the way across the model and through fine details. These denote the line where the two halves of the model's mold met but weren't perfectly fit. Larger pieces can be snipped off like flash, but most likely you be filing small but prominent mold lines down.

PHOTO OF MOLD LINE ON PLASTIC AND METAL

When you start filing or sanding beging very gently. Until you get a good idea of how much you can take off and how big your file is you want to be careful. If you don't file enough you can go back and carefully give it another go, but if you gouge out a hole you need to get creative with filler or your paint job!

If you use a knife or scalpel, make sure its very sharp. Hold it against the model with the top ridge facing towards the direction you're pulling. Strip off the lines with smooth strokes. Don't apply too much pressure or you'll gouge the model and probably your thumbs as well.

PHOTO ANGLE/PULLING

The final step is to give models a quick rinse with soapy water and leaving them to dry. This removes any of the agent used to make the model easier to remove from its mold, and any oils transferred to it as it has been handled by people. These can affect how well your model primes. If its a step too far and you aren't trying to do a decent paint job you don't necessarily have to worry about this step.

At the end of this process your model should end up looking like it was never attached to anything in the first place!

PHOTO OF HAPPY MODEL :D