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I have some models, already painted fairly well but the main base coat of primer left a dusty texture to them. I don't want to strip them with Dettol (etc...) but I was wondering if anyone has tried doing a very high grit like 1500+ wet sanding to a PAINTED miniature.

My hope is to have it just remove the dusty "bumps" while still preserving the overall paint scheme.

Anyone have any experience with trying this?

You could give it a try - have you considered using a very stiff brush and just doing that first? Not brass or anything, but the stiffest nylong brush you have? Might take some of the grainy-ness away?

 Elbows wrote:
You could give it a try - have you considered using a very stiff brush and just doing that first? Not brass or anything, but the stiffest nylong brush you have? Might take some of the grainy-ness away?

yeah i already did a wash with warm soapy water and a toothbrush. It got some of the bigger dusty particle off, but its still kinda rough on some areas.

I have done this, yes. It can work fine.

Be careful, take it slow, and beware of sanding paint off things you didn't intend to, or going too far on the middle of an area.

Also, if the bumps are from a layer of paint that is different to the top layer (e.g. a grey primer under a red top coat) you may have to re-apply the top coat as the bumps you sand off will be the wrong colour.

Good to know. Yeah the bumps are from the army painter primer. It was spray too far away. I put a wash and drybrush over it. Ill test it out on one model and see if its worth the effort. Thanks for the tip.

If the primer is the issue, there is no way to sand it down without affecting the layers on top. Your best bet is to strip and prime again.

Yup. So I tried this and it did NOT work. Sanding all the way down to plastic. Bummer.

Yeah sanding paint can definitely work, I use something like 2000 or 3000 grit. But if the bumps are not from the top most layer of paint then obviously you're more than likely going to sand through those top layers before you actually remove the bumps.

You need to be sanding the bumps out before moving on to the next layer of paint.

Thiis happens to me some times. Try a large stiff bristle brush. Like a dry brush or a base coat brush. It tends to knock that stuff right off