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Restore Your Miniatures To Their Former Glory: Tutorial

dusty to dazzlingGot some dusty models, or a crazed/frosted surface from matte sealing gone wrong? Check out how to restore miniatures to their former glory!

It’s one of the cold hard realities of life. You paint up a mini and no matter where you store it, it’s bound to get dusty. Whether you found an old model in storage or are doing a cleaning sweep through your display case you can clean up your dusty minis quickly with this trick.

We’ve got a video and a step-by-step write up on how to get your minis looking great again!

Restore Your Miniatures To Their Former Glory: Tutorial

Fixing Dust & Crazing TutorialTo start things off, you’ll want to grab a can or two of electronics duster. It’s basically just canned air that people use to blow junk out of their keyboards. You can use up the air pretty quick so depending on the size of the model, you may want to get two cans. At this point, you’ll want to take that canned air and start blowing off the biggest chunks of dust off the model. You don’t need to worry about getting everything off at this stage in the game. Just a good once-over knocking the thickest layer of dust will do.

Use Water & Isopropyl Alcohol to Clean the Mini

clean dusty modelsAfter you’ve taken off the biggest chunks with the canned air you’ll want to have an airbrush on-hand and fill the reservoir with 50% water and 50% isopropyl alcoholBEFORE YOU SPRAY THE SOLUTION: open up some windows and throw on a mask. This stuff is horrible to breathe in. When you’re ready to spray, you’ll want to cover the entire model lightly with your airbrush. What this solution will do is dissolve the dust as well as blow it off the mini.

THIS WILL ONLY WORK IF YOU SEALED YOUR MINI BEFOREHAND. If you are one of those people that doesn’t lay down a matte varnish coat on your mini once it’s been painted, do not use alcohol and water on your model. It could strip and eat away at the paint job you worked to get. With that said, you can also use the 50% water/alcohol solution in this step to eat away any “frosting” effect by a sealant that was applied too thick. 

clean dusty models 2Take a paper towel and dab the model lightly where you’ve sprayed. Don’t press and drag the paper towel. You could strip/smear the paint underneath.

Re-seal Your Mini After Drying

Fixing Dust & Crazing TutorialAfter letting your mini dry off fully from its Alcohol Rinse use a clear gloss varnish to seal in your mini’s paint. This will also lock-in and protect the Alcohol Rinse to prevent further dust, and will not frost your model again.

clean dusty models lusterlessTo tone down that glossy coat, you’ll want to use a second coat of sealant, this time using a lusterless flat coat. Testors Model Master line has some fantastic products although these cans have been increasingly hard to find.

rustoleumRust-oleum’s dead flat spray can is basically the same product and is more readily available. We’ve done a full review of this spray as well.

There you have it! By now, you should have one mini restored back to its former glory!

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How do you restore your miniatures when things go… wrong? What’s your favorite kind of sealant for your projects? 

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About the Author: Wesley Floyd

Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, King of sprues.