Okay, for a minis game, this one has probably been the most time consuming and arduous I've had just trimming the excess flash and mold lines off the models. Kari and Ardus alone took about an hour until I was happy with them.

Has anyone had good luck and suggestions with speeding up the process? I have my nice exacto knife with a fresh blade and it's still more tedius than other models I've had to deal with.

I have fine diamond files that are intended for RC cars. They knock down mold lines pdq and are fine enough that once you prime you can't tell the model was ever filed.

Also I tend to ignore the more remote mold lines that are on the undersides that no one will notice. Especially on the line units.

But don't misunderstand, I always hit the plugs to get a clean bond with superglue.

I, too, have found this step to be quite an undertaking. I'm done with the Undead and the Spearmen, so I'm getting close. I don't have any fancy files, so I just slice off a generous amount of plastic so that no mold lines show. I'm actually not sure if it improves the models at all. Maybe I'm just making it worse. Oh well. It's all just practice for the UthukY'llan!

I've not found the mold lines to be too bad, though it does seem to vary a bit. My first two golems seemed to have notably less flash than the two I just picked up, but all 4 came from whatever batch were distributed at Adepticon.

For my figs I only bothered with mold lines that were going to be visible, which mostly were helmet, tops of boots, front lf legs, and occasionally other places.

I've not had much luck with PVC and files, but with a VERY sharp blade, my hobby knife makes short work of them. The key is to swap out your blade at least twice as often as you would with regular plastic.

As alluded to in my "lazy amateur" post I'm not a serious painter but that hasn't been my experience at all. A little off some of the skulls, some weapon tips that had a little flash... that's all I've done.

i was cutting the mold lines, but i find unless its going across the face or some large, clearly visible area i usually dont even notice the line.
The side of spearmen's helmet is a big one, most of my spearmen had that and it sticks out like a sore thumb. However the line going down their leg is ironically in line with the trim of the armor, so i dont even notice it unless i look really close

42 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:

i was cutting the mold lines, but i find unless its going across the face or some large, clearly visible area i usually dont even notice the line.
The side of spearmen's helmet is a big one, most of my spearmen had that and it sticks out like a sore thumb. However the line going down their leg is ironically in line with the trim of the armor, so i dont even notice it unless i look really close

This was my experience as well. The helmets are the most important mold line to remove. They are very visible and on the otherwise smooth helmet surface any sort of wash/dip/ink will visibly collect there. Many of the other lines are pretty optional, especially if you're going for a basic tabletop paintjob as I do.

As you point out, many of the lines correspond directly to the various edges of the miniature. I'm fairly certain this is intentional and is a sign of good design. I've occasionally bought miniatures and found that the caster/sculptor/moldmaker were able to make almost every mold line on an edge. Pretty impressive when you find this and it makes for really easy cleanup if it's necessary at all.

As oppose to GW's "finecast" crap, which liked to have gunk in between armor crevices that you practically had to drill out to get rid of.
First one of those i put together was Zagstrukk and good god i had to remove so many mold lines in painful spots....