Any solution to lint and dust getting stuck in the paint finish?

You can cover the model with a plastic storage tub, raising it off the bench with some scraps of board to allow some airflow.

What I have found is most of the "stuff" that will be found in your paint doesn't so much fall into the wet paint but was there when it went on. Static cling is a big issue with plastic. That isn't to say nothing falls in but I tend to find most of it either in the primer coat or the very first color coat, especially in these winter months. Once I get a wet coat on I've walked from my booth to the pellet stove outlet to get a heat set going and not picked up anything that fell into the paint. And I never seem to get anything in later coats or less anyway.

This time of year I'm as prone to this as anyone else but I think I'm going to try static wiping with a cloths dryer softener sheet that you use when drying cloths.

When I used to paint 1/1 cars and trucks and what ever else, I would see crud come up from a heater intake vent or the seam in a door etc. Rarely anything from the room. I used to do the whole damp down thing of walls etc. but a number of years painting found most of the junk never came from the room but was on or near the surface to begin with. Of course something can get knocked into the air from a fixture, cat fur and so on too. I got a hair in a test pieace last night, looked like one of my own, probably from my head when I put the mask on. The piece was I painting was already in the spray booth and I put the mask on to the side of the booth but probably got sucked in when I turned the extractor fan on. It was the prime coat, bet it went right to that bare plastic as if magnitized. I'll try knocking the static off with a wipe and maybe leave the wipe in the booth when spraying, not sure yet.

I agree with oldermodelguy. In my opinion it is near impossible to lay a perfect particle free finish. Sometimes junk comes out of the AB too. The easiest and least hair pulling method is to lay your paint, sand, then polish. If you are doing multiple coats like primer, color, and clear-- I'd wet sand each of them smooth after applications, then a final polish in the end. There are kits you can buy that give you sanding cloths and polish.

Going this way was a renaissance for me because now--if something ends up in the paint--it is taken out with the sanding. I never worry about. 

My two cents. 

 All of the above great answers are helpful. My methods are similar to oldermodelguy’s with the addition of a wipe down of the model of all inside /outside and top and bottom with a damp make up (or any soft) sponge. Often I’ll add a bit of alcohol to the water, as the faster evaporation will aid the drying and prevent “smutch” for sneaking on to the just wiped damp surface. I believe this treatment is helpful to discharging any static electricity and of course removes small bits hidden inside of under or ??  of the model.

 Keep in mind too, that the extractor fan can sometimes pull really nearby air borne debris in to the booth, though in my experience it doesn’t happen too often to be a major worry.  

goldhammer

You can cover the model with a plastic storage tub, raising it off the bench with some scraps of board to allow some airflow.

 

My heated drying box uses an inverted tub like that.  I dry gloss enamels with heat, but put matt subjects in the box without heat while the stuff drys.

I've gone to wiping the model down with mineral spirits, tack off, then before any paint goes in the brush, blow it off in the booth with just air from the air brush, booth turned on. This is pretty much the protocal I came to follow in 1/1 painting in a booth situation except I used a blow gun. So why not models ! In 1/1 I used Dupont 3812 reducer as a pre paint wash, a little faster drying than hardware store miniral spirits but hey, the hardware store is 1/3 mile from my house and once you pay the $4.69 for a quart you can wash down a lot of models and even thin some enamel if you need some extra flow.

000 steel wool sometimes will pluck out a speck of dust before polishing and smooth any slight texture. Today I shot some Tamiya yellow acrylic with hardware store lacquer thinner in it as thinner ( don't try that in other acrylics). Went on nice, flowed out nice, then I saw two or three specks of dust in it. This is a pre model test but tomorrow or the next day I'll see if 000 will get them out or if I have to sand. Then I polish with Formula 1 scratch remover and buffing polish. In lacquer and in MM acrylic this produces a smooth nice shine, first time trying that in un clear coated Tamiya. Clear coat always buffs up though. So I have two samples painted, one clear coated the other not and I will see who wins for my 1/16 scale Mercer build lol.

I still want to try the dryer sheets.  Also flannel shirts aren't the best advise to wear in front of a booth sucking air past you, standing there painting waving a fuzz machine with every move you make isn't ideal.