I'm a hobbyist with 20years experience and still take roughly the same time as you thanks to obsessing over mold lines. So no, there probably is no magic trick other than lowering your expectations (easier said than done) and/or decide if you want to paint a model to perfection or just use it as a toy and live with moldlines.

Awesome Video Andy! Enjoyed listening to your insight, We've got loads of Votann on pre order, can't wait to get started on them!

Excellent stuff mate. I liked that. On cleaning up mould lines I'm one of those Wierdo's who enjoys clean up and build. I find it really relaxing and the whole process becomes a little like a Japanese Tea Ceremony. There is a trick that I can pass on, though. That Tamia super thin glue is excellent for removing mould lines on textured areas such as hair, rib cages, etc. Just brush over the mould line with a thin layer of Tamiya and the Worst of the mold line melts away 😀

The Votann look so cool

Nice video. Obsessed with removing mold lines? I feel you 😂

Slap chop also works with Metallic silver paints. Just do the black base coat a medium silver instead of Grey and a bright silver instead of white and you get a metallic effect on armor. Works great on space Marines I imagine it would work well on Votann

Really like the thought process you put into building your troops. Makes me wish I had done so myself, heh. As for mould lines, I’m still figuring it out. Like you I feel like I might be taking too much time with them. I’ve found I didn’t quite get rid of them on my Warriors while painting actually. At that point I just accepted the circumstances and try to do better next time 😅

I bought two Votann army boxes for a tournament and honestly it took me over 20 hours to put them all together and clean all the mold lines (I am very thorough and remove all mold lines, drill out gun barrels and fill noticeable gaps) so don't feel like you are doing it wrong (the time you put in depends on the result you want). When assembling I dry fit all the models with the weapon and equipment load outs I want first and then put them into zip lock bags with the part codes and squad numbers written on the front. Great content by the way! looking forward to your next vid :)

Dude I have OCD and I have to get eeeeeeevery mould line. I feel you so much. :)

Well.. this is a topic that simply cant be covered in merely one comment but il try.. first thing. And this is quite important and not somthing id say lightly if i wasent absoloutely sure .. Your attitude to the cleanup process is wrong. This is a time intensive hobby, No amount of tips n tricks or "hacks" will ever change that. You can burn yourself out being TOO obsessive with cleanup. However, Generally good cleanup+ good smooth coat of primer+ neatness makes a MASSIVE difference. It's almost always worth spending time and care on. Nothing is more annoying than seeing a messy nick cut/ mold line when painting. Its meant to be a hobby you can spend a lifetime getting better at and thats a good thing. As for tricks.. i see people in the comments already mentioning using extra thin to melt fine mold lines on hair, That can work, However Generally what i use is the same kind of tools that scale modellers use.. you are building a model and it is in a rough scale after all... But probally the most game changing thing ever if you havent used it before is.. sandpaper, Lots and lots of different types of sandpaper. Of all different kinds of grits. Wet n dry sandpaper to be precise. You can cut it into whatever sized strip you want to sand curved and flat surfaces smooth, You can stick it to wood and metal to make your own sanding sticks, Or just buy ready made sanding sticks. Nail files and buffers work just fine for alot of this.. but id buy hobby branded ones. Next up.. use a variety of tools, A nice set of files is incredibly useful once you get used to them, Good ones wont rip huge gouges out of your minis and will leave a nice dust slurry that can be rinsed or extra thinned away. Get yourself a variety of different blade types meant for hobby craft.. rounded concave and convex blades for curves, Chisel type blades for hard to reach crevices. Theres alot of good cheap options for these available everywhere. Watching people use flat blades on curved surfaces will make you wince after having this epihany lol Get yourself a scribing tool ( i like the tamiya scriber. ) For getting into areas like gaps in power armour or plasma gun coils or.. rescribing areas that have been filled in with putty/goo/other. Even a needle put into a pin vice chuck can work for this. Next up and this is quite a big revelation Spru goo! ( and putty ) Look up how to make this stuff and also putties like milliput. With spru goo you can make gaps in pieces dissapear during assembly.. which speeds up a quality mini prep quite considerably. it also usually makes for a fantastically strong bond that makes your minis a good amount less fragile. There is no quick fix with regard to getting faster at assembly even if you research all the stuff ive just mentioned. ( id reccomend looking at scale modelling/scale aircraft builders to get better. ) Once you do put the time in to researching and practicing though you will get faster and better at assembly This is a really exhaustive topic that almost everyone that comes into modelling from the GW route neglects. And GW leaves it up to the scale modelling community to wrap a comforting blanket around the victims of GWs abuse lies and gaslighting lmao If the gw studio team isnt using most or all of the things i've just listed behind closed doors il eat my hat. If you have other media i can DM you on i can provide a list of tools/equipment and other good guides if youd like.

Oof, 10 hours. Yeah, building models can be grueling work! My top tip is to 3D print them instead 😁

Honestly i didn't even know how to take off those mould lines either. I'll probably use a exacto knife like you or go as far as sanding them out maybe? Idk

I like to use a little set of hobby files from army painter on mold lines. You may or may not like it, but i enjoy not worrying about a sharp/semi sharp knife in my hand and how must faster I can go. It could have a small chance to mess with detail if you push too hard or are not careful, but might be worth a shot.

I like to use a fine nail file alongside the knife to clean mold lines. I do the rough part with the knife to get it mostly flush, than polish it with the file. The one i have has different grits on it, from medium to extra fine polish. I hope this helps!

Looking great, I'd love to paint that chaos knight for you when you get around to it

Mild lines can be a pain but if you take your time it’s worth the effort.

i really want to get the Leagues of votann, but idont have enough money

Nice video man, most newer GW Kits seem to have this issue, of almost assembling a 3d puzzle. It can be really annoying and just overly time consuming. I miss the days of the old Cadians being a set of legs, a torso and 2 arms with a head. The main reason I actually commented though was to bring up the "Professionally painted Champion" My man, if you paid for that you got ripped off. It looks extremely amateur and I feel as hobbyists we should hold the term "Professionally painted" to a lot higher standard. I'd argue its a meme term that people chuck on badly painting Ebay Minis to try and justify charging over the top prices for less than table top standard minis...

10 hrs isn't too bad, I built a cult patrol box on Saturday and spent all day doing the 32 models and I'd made all of the different model types in the box before too. I just did batches of 5 or 10 then had breaks between them. The only fiddley bit was the Hq in the box, since I already had the female mage and it wasn't posable I decided to cut up its staff to switch it round and changed the knife blade and head with spares from other cult characters. Ive changed a few arms for my tyranids and cult a few times so far, but they look a bit simpler than changing the drawf Weapons around. Found out recently from the codex while looking through it that the acolyte flag guys don't have guns so they had their hands cut off and replaced with knives, while at it cut off my neophyte leaders web pistols to replace with auto pistols to save points. There's pics on my Instagram (same name followed by a random number the I'd pic is a iron maiden trooper) if anyone wants to see

Ah fuck.. I spilt agrax earth shade

Gotta stop drinking, mate. Hands are shaky af.

Yah don't feel bad there a pain in the ass. There almost as bad as space marines in my opinion.