Now, I know what you are thinking. Playing tabletop war games, I am sure we have all had the pleasure of entering a gaming store, and being greeted with the funk and musk that comes with such a bizarre conglomeration of aberrant humanity. In January, during my last game at the Conflict GT, a player standing behind me let fly with one of the worst smelling diarrhea spray-farts I have ever tasted, which prompted me to give an impromptu lecture on the courtesy of stepping outside to shake a pant-leg. Regardless, I am not here today to discuss with you all the virtues of proper bodily-function etiquette, but rather the importance of owning a proper respirator.
I spent this past Sunday hard at work on my Skaven/Dark Eldar army. With only three or four vehicles left to convert, my painting-fingers are getting itchy. In converting two Chinnork models into Skaven-piloted Ravagers, I had some serious grinding to do. The cockpit component of the kit has an Ork pilot modeled in place, so I needed to fire up my Dremel and get to work. Perhaps you can see where this is going.
In case you didn’t know, breathing in resin is a bad idea. While I typically am not too scared of clipping or razor-cleaning mold-lines in my studio, I am very cautious about filing or grinding the product. Back in 1995, I sanded a few Armorcast Tyranid models in my bedroom, and didn’t understand why I was ill for three months after.
This time, I was smart enough to take my work outside to the driveway. I was also smart enough to wear my respirator. What I was not smart enough to do, was to bring a wet towel outside to help contain and clean-up the errant resin that was soon to cover me from waist to brow. Here is a pic from my perspective:
While it may just look like I was conducting culinary surgery on a Hostess Sno-Ball, I was in fact covered in shaved resin. This stuff is not good to breath. The respirator kept (what I hoped was) the vast majority of the shavings from entering my lungs, but the jeans and sweater I wore were not so lucky. After some laundry, some model scrubbing, and a healthy dose of pressurized air, I retired to my studio to continue my work. Unfortunately, I must have slipped-up somewhere, as I spent that night with a bloody nose, which I can only attribute to inhaled resin. Alas.
Anyway, let this be a cautionary tale. While not every resin kit I have purchased has required grinding, those that have, are memorable in their scope of danger and adventure. I think my major mistake in this case, was in the respirator not having a perfect seal around my mouth and nose. The respirator I own is a few years old, and I had it hanging on a hook in my studio: perhaps the elastic straps stretched a bit over time, which may have allowed a small breach in the seal somewhere. Regardless, I thought this pic was a good example of just why you should invest in some sort of filter if you plan on working with resin.
I leave you now, to scrub mold-release from hundreds of tiny resin bits. This is exactly how I wanted to spend my Spring Break.