Eliminating dust

It's generally better to avoid the dust in the first place, beforehand! Regular cleaning of your painting area (but not immediately before you paint) goes a long way to helping. I've also heard of folks "misting" their painting area with water from a squirt bottle (like a Windex sprayer) just beforehand, to help eliminate dust in the air.

Also, have someplace "safe" to leave the model as the paint cures. I've actually had more problems with dust when using enamels, I suppose due to the longer dry times.

AFTERwards though, a light buffing with a lint-free cloth will get some dust specks etc off the surface if they aren't cured in too bad. Or a light sanding if necessary. Another question I'd ask - WHAT are you painting. Obviously a high-gloss showroom fresh car model needs to be dust free. But if you're building a military vehicle that is going to be getting a dose of weathering, dust is not much of an issue.

Since I use slow drying Testors enamels (at least the gloss versions are very slow drying) I built a paint "oven" for drying.  A nice secondary effect is that it keeps dust off the parts/model.  I have also learned to be more careful preparing the model for painting, making sure I wipe down the surface to get all the dust off.

This brings up the issue of a spray booth.  Ordinarily spray booths pull IN the air, and run it through a filter. Of course, this also sucks in dust.  I remember the laminar flow booths we used to have in some of our clean rooms at work.  The air was drawn through a filter, then blown at the bench very softly, leaving through a slot just big enough to get our arms and hands in.  Sort of like the reverse of a spray booth. I have tried to figure out a way to do both, but it seems almost impossible to have a flow like the latter and yet keep paint dust and fumes out of the shop!

1. I turn on my spray booth fan about 10 minutes before my painting session to remove the dust in the air.

2. Right before airbrushing, I use a Blaster Dust can on a model.  This blasts away any dust on the model.

3. Immediately after a painting session, I place the painted model inside my home-made dry booth.

Even with this procedure, I occasionally find dust on a model.  I lightly buff it with a piece of paper towel.  

I find paper toweling makes a nice cheap very fine sandpaper!  I use Krylon primer, which is a matt finish primer that drys quite rough. It is fine beneath flat paints but needs to be shined up for gloss finishes.  But it is very full bodied and really clogs up very fine sandpaper, even when wet sanding.  I find the paper toweling works fine and is so much cheaper than good fine wet-or-dry sandpaper :-)

I read the use of paper towels in an FSM article some time ago.  Probably the most useful modeling tip I ever got.  

great tip Don.

I had discovered it by accident when trying to clean up an "oops" . Glad you thought to share it.

Of course the question remains as to which brand provides the best "buffing power", some are "soooo soft"  

and others are very rough,

while some are "just right" 

Don Stauffer

I built a paint "oven" for drying. A nice secondary effect is that it keeps dust off the parts/model. I have also learned to be more careful preparing the model for painting, making sure I wipe down the surface to get all the dust off.

Don,could you elaborate on your paint oven?