I'm a big proponent of scraping when it comes to cleaning miniatures of mould lines. And yes, almost all minis come with mould lines. Nothing saddens me more than seeing a beautiful paintjob destroyed by mould lines. People, they are a byproduct of the manufacturing process, they're not supposed to be there in the finished article.
Ahem, enough ranting and raving... I like scraping with a dullish blade because it doesn't accidentally cut into the mini (or my fingers) like a sharp blade would and I find I can control it better than a file in small spaces like under the chin or armpits of the figure. And it requires a smaller motion than a file to actually do the work.
The downside is that it does require a bit of force. With metal minis this is usually not a problem, but plastic spears and sword blades can be problematic.
Nevertheless, I have used an old dull hobby blade for years to do almost all of my scraping. It works great, but I haven't found a handle that would grasp it firmly enough (remember the force requirement) and thus I have to grasp the bare blade between my thumb and forefinger. In prolonged cleaning sessions this can cause a nasty cramp.
Initial Impressions
So, the other day I bought the new Citadel painting guide book, which is more of an advert for their new paint range but still pretty nice especially with the included DVD. It introduced me to the Citadel scraping tool. I usually give GW tools a wide berth because I can get side cutters and files from the hardware store for a fraction of the cost of the official items, but this was something that isn't a regular tool.
Happening upon it at my local game store I picked it up. It comes packed with a brush thingy and the cost was reasonable.
It's basically a shaped piece of iron with some rubber covering for the handle. It doesn't have a blade per se, the idea is to use the hard 90 degree angle of the iron to do the scraping. The tip is rounded. I can't help but think this tool has been designed the way it is to prevent younger hobbyists from cutting themselves with a real blade.
In Use
The thing actually sort of seems to work. It's not so good for metal minis, you'd really need something a bit sharper to work properly, but given that GW has forsaken metal completely these days it is understandable that it's really intended to work on plastic and resin minis. With the slightly softer material it works pretty well.
My only gripe is the baby-safe design. The blunt tip coupled with the thickness of the "blade" make it impossible to reach some small nooks and crannies. A similar design with a pointed tip and maybe better quality steel half the thickness would probably work better.
Verdict
It's not a waste of money, but my trusty old scraping blade can not retire either. If you have eager young modellers you wouldn't really entrust with razor-sharp blades this is a pretty good tool.
P.S. The singular exception to mould lines are resin minis gravity cast in a single part mould. Even they have a sort of mould line but it's at the edge of the base and can usually be ignored.
P.P.S. Oh, the brush? I really have no idea what it's for. I do sometimes brush minis, but old toothbrushes are free...
maxxon
Sucks!
