I’ve forgotten to wash my minis… will this cause issues with the miniatures in the long term?
The only issues I’ve ever had when I forgot to wash (not FO minis) was with paint not sticking properly. If you’ve painted them and not had this problem you should be fine as far as I know 
I Didn’t have any problems with the paint sticking, perhaps I’ve been lucky then.
I usually don’t bother washing my models, and have had no issues with spray undercoat adhering.
I’ve had some issues with contrast paint “pooling” on minis (where the undercoat is thin), but I’ve been able to manipulate it with a brush to fix it most of the time, and where I haven’t a second coat has sorted it out. I’m not sure washing would have helped though, as I’m pretty sure it’s just an artifact of the more watery paint directly on resin.
I also had one model (undercoated black), where the undercoat “rubbed off” with a heavy drybrush of metallic paint. I was able to fix it by fixing up the the effected areas with a brush undercoat and a more gentle drybrush. I now make sure I drybrush my minis more gently than I’m used to with hard plastic or metal.
I’ve also noticed some minor paint “rub off” when handling, so I’d recommend dullcoat on top (which I have yet to do due to the weather being a bit ■■■■ for spraying recently).
I had this issue when spraying the black undercoat that the color would sometimes turn into fuzzy black strings all over the models and I had to remove them manually with a brush and pliers. Often the removal would also break some undercoat off as well.
I’m wondering if this has something to do with me not washing the models, or If I’m spraying wrong. I tried two different sprays so far, but the issue persists.
Now I have some washed robots, Dogmeat and the X-01 power armor and will find out if it still happens.
This is a PVC issue only as I understand.
My first thought is to make sure the nozzle isn’t blocked in some way, and/or check the humidity level when your priming. Both can cause fuzziness.
I fight this quite a bit where I live now, and assume it will only get worse when we move to central Florida…
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