Cleaning Miniatures
Another, less than popular aspect of the hobby is clipping, cleaning and gluing the minis prior to any kind of painting. Logically this topic should have come before even touching upon priming but I'm nothing if not ass-backwards. Clipping is only usually an issue with plastic miniatures, removing the parts from the sprue (the access plastic that they come on). Clipping may also be needed for some metals where there is either a sprue (often the case with Heresy miniatures and some Hasslefree minis) or if the casts have flash (excess bits of metal that stick out from the surface like pins - flash is actually the residue from risers in the mould, necessary to get a high level of detail in the model). The best method of clipping, I have found is with side clippers, you can oftn get these for only a few quid and they work perfectly. If you can, get two - one for plastics and another for metals... the ones used for metals will get notched and worn a lot quicker, when they are unusable,