Warbringer Nemesis #3 - Time for a Bath

If you have worked with resin model kits before, then you know that you need to wash them to remove any mold-release agent still present on resin pieces.

I am currently in the process of giving #168 its bath.  And what a bath it is.  With so many pieces I have had to divide up my wash in batches because I use a Ziploc tub to wash things, and it is only so big.

I have heard lots of opinions on how to properly clean resin.  A recent post on the Titan Owners Club Public Group on Facebook wherein the poster asked for advice on primer was immediately met by a deluge of different opinions of how to prime and wash (not in that order) Titans (or other resin kits, for that matter).

My process has been, for a few years now, as follows:

• I fill a container, in this case a rectanguloid Ziploc (Reserved - S.C. Johnson - used without permission) container and fill it with some hot water from the tap.
• After filling it part way, I start adding Dawn dish soap to the water.  I add until I feel the water is soapy enough, then I stir a little.  I want the water to be a vibrant blue color.  There is no science to how much Dawn I add, so I am open to any researched recommendations.  I tend to use Dawn over store brand soap which I usually use for dishes because I have been told that it has the best de-greasing power.  I do not have any hard evidence to support that, but it feels right.  Open to evidence here too.
• At this point the water has usually cooled to be just warmer than room temperature.  This is very important.  Do not put resin pieces into hot water because heat makes them malleable and they can bend and warp.  Sometimes you actually want to bend them, but this is not the time for that.  I only start with hot water because my tap water does not get very hot to start with and I tend to be pretty slow to actually get resin into my mixture.
• Place the pieces I want to clean in the mixture.  
• If necessary, fill the container with more tap water.  Cooler than before.  You are looking for warm but not hot.  Err on the cooler side here though.
• Leave the pieces in the mixture and wait.  Depending on how much release agent I think is on the piece this will be shorter... or longer.  Often I let things sit between three and six hours.  Mostly just because I get distracted and do other things.  One hour is probably fine if you have pieces that do not have a pronounced release agent sheen and really want to get cracking.  Leaving them in longer does not hurt though.  I once left some very stubborn Acastus Knight pieces in my brew for over a week.  I cannot say that it helped.  It did not hurt though.
• When I am done waiting, I take a toothbrush (not a used toothbrush) and scrub the pieces in the mixture one by one.  After each scrub I rinse that piece in room temperature tap water.
• Once I have finished scrubbing, I dry the pieces with a paper towel.  Then I leave them out to air dry.

There are times when I am not convinced that I am happy with this method.  A prolific Titan builder who blogs on T I T A N O M A N C Y (hereinafter Titanomancy) has made some waves with a Diet Coke based wash which some claim chemically reacts with the release agent.  I am not a chemist, so I do not know if it is true.  I tested washing a piece of resin gate in diet coke in a solo cup the other night and I was not blown away by the results.  But maybe I am missing something?  For one thing, I am missing a nice big steamer to wash pieces in and the space to store said steamer.  If Titanomancy's author ever stumbles upon this blog, I would love to talk about this method.  As it is I cannot figure out how to contact him or her on Tumblr.

For smaller pieces I recently received an ultrasonic cleaner as a holiday gift.  For this I fill the chamber below the MAX line with water, add 5 to 10 ml of Dawn, mix with my finger, places pieces in the chamber, set the timer for 480 seconds and press go.

That is my ultrasonic cleaner prepped for washing.  I removed the plastic tray because it dampens the effects of the cleaner.

And that is my cleaner running.

Oh!  And that Acastus Knight Porphyrion whose pieces I washed for near on a fortnight?  It won Gold in Capital Palette's Journeyman Division for Vehicles and Large Models at NOVA Open 2018.

Here is Apex Chelae in all of its glory.  Quite proud of this one.

Funny story, its banner and its missiles were and remain unfinished.  I meant to paint the missiles red and to give the banner a dark border and some "text," but I ran out of time before the event and just had to go with it as is.  Once it won an award, I did not have the heart to change it.  Maybe some day.

Actually, I only entered it into the competition to have a safe place to store it after I got booted from my room because check-out time happened before the end of my last event.

Goes to show that you should always take a crack at entering your models because they might do better than you think!