Choosing the Right Tool for Sprue Removal
Flush cutters are an important part of painting more beautiful miniatures than you might think. Especially if you do not want to spend hours cleaning up and filling in gaps. So here are the rules for removing sprues and choosing the right tool.
Do not break the sprue with your hands. By breaking the parts out of the sprue with bare hands, you will ruin your model and the chance of getting a great-looking miniature. So if you do not want to glue broken swords back on and spend a lot of time with gap filling, maybe consider one of the other methods.
Do not use scissors. Yeah, scissors are useful for cutting many different materials, but that is not the case if we are working with plastic. If you use scissors, you will most likely rip out pieces of your model.
Do not use an X-Acto/Exacto knife. While Exacto knives are indispensable in the assembly process of miniatures, they are not great for sprue removal. You will most likely end up cutting yourself.
Maybe use wire cutters. There is a wide diversity of wire cutters. Some are great for our use case others are not. So if you already have a wire cutter, check if it has the following properties: The cutting edge is close to the model or, in other words, the bevel is only on one side. The blades are thin and small to allow you to get into small cavities. And, of course, the blades need to be sharp. This is often not the case because if once used for the wrong wire diameter or material, the cutting edge is ruined. If these points hold, congratulations, you have the perfect tool for sprue removal!
Use dedicated miniature flush cutters. A lot of brands offer flush cutters that are meant to get rid of the unnecessary plastic of miniatures. These cutters have the properties listed above and require minimal to no post-processing. This can save you time and hassle.
If you are done, maybe keep some sprue plastic and cut it into small chunks. It may come in handy in a later miniature-painting project!