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I stopped playing 40K probably about 7 years ago, and never did end up doing anything with my armies(in progress). Hence I still have many space marines, that have collected quite a bit of dust and such from sitting in an open-topped wooden box all this time.

What's the best way to get clean and shiny again? I'm thinking condensed air, but I don't know how well it would work for the really fine dust. Could I give them a gentle scrub in water? They were never sealed, so that may end up taking paint off...

Thanks,
Mr. Grey

yeah just use caned air its worked great for me

If I'm away from my paiting table for a little while, my stuff tends to gather dust, too. I keep a large, soft bristle brush (similar to GW's tank brush) and use it to brush off miniatures. I would recommend a natural hair brush rather than a synthetic to avoid scratching paint jobs. If the models are not sealed, I would definitely stay away from any liquids.

Running water over them in small quantities shouldn't hurt the paint; just some gentle tap water to get the dust out of the crevices. Combine that with a brush as armyman said and you will have clean, ready to paint models as soon as the water evaporates.

Thanks for the quick replies, I'll be sure to give the methods a try!

Don't just run water over them. Bad move. It will seal the dust to the model and make it FAR harder to get off. The first thing you want to do is get a dry, soft paintbrush; 1" trim brush for vehicles (like you use to paint your walls in your house), and a large drybrush for smaller minis (like the GW tank brush).

Take the models in question and brush them like you would if you were drybrushing them with paint. Depending on how much dust there is, you'll see it flying off in little clouds. Once you have the majority of the dust gone, you can then use tap water to finish cleaning it up.


I know this to be FACT, as I just went through this in the last week for some eBay auctions of stuff I never use anymore. Stuff that's been sitting on a shelf in my basement for 7 years now. Literally. 7 years, unused, full of dust.


Ghidorah