The method
- Weekly, or whenever dust is visible: a soft dry brush. A clean makeup brush or a soft artist’s brush is ideal — natural bristle, no hard edges.
- Work from the top down so dislodged dust falls off rather than onto cleaned areas.
- For deep recesses — between hair strands, inside effect parts — a puff of canned air from at least 20 cm, at low pressure, held upright so no propellant sprays out as liquid.
- For a smooth, undecorated surface such as a plain base, a dry microfibre cloth is fine.
- For genuinely stubborn grime: a cotton bud barely dampened with plain water, used on the body only, never the face, and dried immediately.
What must never touch a figure
| Avoid | Why |
|---|---|
| Isopropyl alcohol / rubbing alcohol | Dissolves tampo printing. It will take the eyes off, and often in a single pass. |
| Acetone / nail polish remover | Attacks both the paint and the plastic underneath. |
| Glass or surface cleaner | Contains ammonia and surfactants that haze clear parts and lift printed detail. |
| Baby wipes and wet wipes | The surfactants are the problem, not the water. They lift printed facial features while looking gentle. |
| Submerging or rinsing under a tap | Water enters seams and peg holes, and metal pegs and screws inside some figures will rust. |
| A dry cloth on a detailed sculpt | Snags on small parts — fingers, hair spikes, effect pieces — and snaps them. |
Sticky or tacky surfaces
A figure that feels tacky rather than dusty is usually experiencing plasticiser migration — the softener in the PVC rising to the surface, accelerated by heat. It is not dirt, so cleaning does not fix it.
What helps is removing the cause: get the figure out of heat and out of direct sun, and give it air rather than a sealed case. A very light dusting with cornflour is sometimes suggested to absorb the surface tack, but it collects in recesses and looks worse on a detailed sculpt, so it is a last resort on a plain surface only.
Prevention beats cleaning
- A closed cabinet reduces dusting to a few times a year rather than weekly.
- Keep figures away from the kitchen. Airborne cooking grease binds dust into a film that a dry brush will not lift.
- In an Indian city, a closed cabinet also keeps out road dust, which is abrasive — brushing it off a figure is what causes fine scratches on glossy surfaces.