Editing Guide to Assembling Models (section)

=== Removing Sprue ===
Most plastic kit models made today (and many from yesteryear) come on flat '''Sprues'''.  Sprue is a term for any large chunks of material which are attached to the model when you first get it, but which are not intended to be a part of the model.

Plastic sprues are roughly flat plastic scaffolds, which contain many model parts suspended within them.  Sprues primarily exist due to how moulding plastic models works, but also help in shipping model kits safely to shops.  They are an old invention, and have been serving modeling communities of all stripes well for over half a century.  Metal and resin models also have sprues, though they look different.  Metal sprues are generally small, flat tabs of metal which jut off of the model, but are not always connected to each other.  Metal sprue will generally all share one or two geometric planes.  Resin sprue generally looks like a large wedge-shaped block.  It may have some words raised or embossed onto it, either the manufacturing name of the model or the name of the manufacturer.

Removing parts from the sprue they came in is a simple task, most of the time.  For plastic sprue, use a pair of generic hobby clippers to snip the connections between the bulk of the sprue and the model.  While this may seem simple, there are two complications: damaging your model's surface, and excessively detailed parts.  The first issue is created by taking your clippers, bringing the flat edge right up to the model, and clipping off the sprue right where it connects to the model.  This may create pits in the surface of your model, which you will not be able to file away (without further harming surrounding details on the model's surface).  To avoid damaging the model's surface, clip the sprue off such that a small bit of sprue remains on the model (only 1mm or less).  You should use a hobby file to carefully sand down the small bump of sprue until it is contiguous with the rest of the model's surface details.  This can also be done by whittling away the sprue with a hobby knife.