Depending on how clean you want your pieces to look and how complicated your model is, this process may take 1-2 hours. You don’t have to do it all in one sitting, though! This process can be pretty Zen, especially if you’re working on a model with hundreds of pieces. This is a great opportunity to catch up on a podcast you enjoy or listen to some new music while you work.
It may be tempting to just push each piece out of the grid, but you’ll end up with stress marks all over the pieces. This isn’t a big deal if you just build these models casually, but it’s best to use pliers if you’re going for that clean, professional look.
If there are multiple lengths of plastic connecting your piece to the sprue, repeat this process for each connection. You must leave a little plastic on the piece where you cut it. If you try to cut each piece clean off, you may end up with permanent scratches on the piece from the pliers rubbing against the plastic. It takes a little longer to do it the right way, but the results will be spectacular! Flipping the blades so that the rounded portion points towards the piece reduces the amount of stress your piece goes through as you’re cutting it out. This minimizes the amount of stress marks you end up with on each piece. [4] X Research source
If you prefer, you can do each piece individually and leave the other pieces in the sprue, but cutting your pieces out is typically the least interesting part of this process. Most Gundam builders just get this part over with before moving on to the fun part where you cut, sand, and finish the pieces.
For example, the first step involves cutting with the side-cutting pliers. You can do this on every piece before moving on, or you can complete this entire process on one piece and then start over with the next one. It’s totally up to you.
You couldn’t do this the first time you cut the pieces out because the sprue is strong enough to transfer stress marks on to the plastic pieces. Doing it when there’s only a tiny length of plastic left reduces the odds that you end up damaging the plastic.
This is a really soft motion; don’t drag the blade hard against the plastic surface. Don’t worry about cutting the plastic. So long as you use a light touch to do this, your pieces will be fine. The components of these models tend to be fairly strong.
You will find these sanding sticks in most board game stores, gaming shops, and craft stores. You can also find them in some art supply stores. They look almost exactly like nail files. Whether you end up with black or white stress marks depends on the color of your piece. Darker plastics tend to get white stress marks and vice versa.
Don’t worry about scratches—you’re only concerned with the stress marks right now. You need to sand these out before you can remove the scratches.
You typically don’t need to complete the rest of these steps if the plastic is white or you plan on painting it white. Blemishes won’t be visible on white pieces by this point.
You can use a clean rubber eraser if you don’t have a finishing sponge or you don’t feel like buying a specific tool just for minor buffing. [14] X Research source
It’s totally fine if you want to do all of your pieces in portions. For example, you can use the utility knife on all of the pieces, then use the 800-grit sanding stick on all of the pieces, etc. It doesn’t really matter how you work so long as you complete each step on every piece.
