We're Here To Support You - Removing Supports Tutorial

Hi Everyone

This week in our weekly blog we are here to give you all an in-depth look and some more information when it comes to removing items from supports when they arrive. now we send our items on supports for one reason this is to protect the miniature while it is being delivered to you. We do include some brief instructions for those of you who have not worked with printing supports for 3d printed miniatures before on how to remove them however in this step-by-step guide we will guide you through much thoroughly on how to get your mini from supports to tabletop.

All you are going to need is:

1. Modelling snips
2. A tub filled with Hot water from your kettle
3. Something to dry your miniatures on afterwards
4. Printed Miniature/Components 

Step 1 - Submerge

Our prints are made with plastic resin which when it becomes hot softens the supports making them easier to remove you are going to submerge your miniature in your tub of hot water for a few seconds, after that take the miniature out of the water and make sure to give the miniature a good shake so there isn't any excess water dripping from it.

Step 2 - Removing Delicate Supports first

Once you have your miniature make sure to check for any thin and delicate parts such as swords, spears, banners etc. if it looks flimsy then you will want to use your snips to remove the supports by snipping the very tips of the support until they are able to be pulled away from the miniature.

Step 3 - Mass Removal

Once you have done step 2 you will want to begin removing the supports from the rest of the miniature (you can do this part with or without modelling snippers) we will push and or twist supports using just your hands to pull the supports away from the miniature. We suggest removing the main supports, this will be supports closest to the bottom of the miniature first as this will make it easier to remove the miniature from the majority of the supports however once this is done you can just pull it away from supports and it is ready for drying.

Step 4 - Drying time and clean up

Once the miniature has been removed from the supports you can begin to dry the miniature we recommend just placing it on a dry tee towel for it to dry off naturally however you can use a hair dryer to help speed this up. once the miniature is dry you will be able to clean any small supports that didn't pull away from step 3 these will usually be in gaps on the miniature such as between arms and legs or even on the miniatures head between where its neck is you can use various small modelling tools to help with this. We suggest cleaning the miniature before basing it as it will be much easier to get to these areas when they are not on bases.

 With all the above steps done your miniature has been removed from supports and is ready to be built and painted once it is dry.

If you would like to see this process done visually then please check out our video tutorial on youtube.

Make sure to join us again for next weeks blog post.