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Hey guys,

Sooo I have quite the backlog of half-painted squads, projects I never finished, etc... sitting on a shelf and accumulating dust.

I want to get to work on some of this stuff, but it's literally caked... I don't want to get painting and trap the dust under a paint layer and ruin the surface of my minis.

How do people like to get dust off their models? Blowing doesn't work and water may just trap more dust...

Maybe use an old paint brush or get one of those cannisters full of air used to clean keyboards?

I use an air can and brush

A can of compressed air would be the best way to go, you can get them from office supplies shops pretty cheap.

Or if you have used good paints, warm soapy water, a soft tooth brush then leave to dry. You'll get all the dust and crud off then.

This is what I am using.
http://picture.yatego.com/images/47fb57b21786b9.6/Z17467-kqh/puder--und-kosmetikpinsel--19-cm--schwarz.jpg

Ah the blusher brush, also good as a weathering brush, a dusting brush and a (ironically) a make up brush
Good if the model is already painted, but the OP said that they are half painted and caked in crud.

a large soft brush, an airbrush, compressed air are all good options to clean them dry...

Air in a can and wife's make up brush. hehe.

A hairdryer, thats what i used but use the cold setting incase you burn your hand and/or models

I use a hair dryer and a GW tank dry brush.

Given enough time to settle and some ambient humidity, dust always seems to form a solid enough layer that it won't blow off, completely. I just give the model a once over with a moderately stiff, dry bristle brush. Seems to do the trick and it doesn't harm any underlying paint. Unless you've been putting some very viscous stuff into the air (thinking about the area around the stove after I've been frying things in the wok - yikes!), I don't think cleaning agents or even water should be necessary.