Resin

[Lord Hanaur]

Other than a hot water bath, does anyone have suggestions for preparing to paint resin?  

I bought some resin models for a game and dunked em in soapy hot water.  I havent cleaned the flash yet.  But is there a trick to mak8ng sure the paint stays?

[InfestedKerrigan]

Two baths are sometimes needed. You can feel the release agent, or see the film. 

Do you give them a soft bristle scrub while they soak?

[Lord Hanaur]

I will if you recommend it

[InfestedKerrigan]

Soft bristle toothbrush and warm soap bath is how I've cleaned most my resin. The stuff i didn't, the primer flaked off or otherwise misbehave. 

What is it you're cleaning?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Lord Hanaur said:

Other than a hot water bath, does anyone have suggestions for preparing to paint resin? 

Lower your expectations. When they are low enough where a mediocre paint job will make you happy, that is the time to paint. 😄

[WestRider]

1 hour ago, Lord Hanaur said:

I will if you recommend it

Yeah, you should definitely give them a bit of a scrub. Just a dip isn't enough to get the mold release agent off, and if you don't, it also works as a very effective glue and paint release agent.

[Lord Hanaur]

Well they are bathing and I took a toothbrush to them.  Im leaving them overnight and then I'll scrub them again.  I have renewed the water multiple times as warm water seems intuitively obvious as preferable.  

How can you really know if its all off?  I just dont deal with Resin that often.  These are particularly large pieces and they have a tooooooooon of nooks and crannies unfortunately.  I can post a picture and you'll see what I mean.  Thats my fear is that I'll underestimate how much that will affect them.  Im already not a great painter (as if that needed to be said) and I sure dont need any help sucking at it.  So yeah....  Im bathing and scrubbing away.  No good compound will remove it?

[InfestedKerrigan]

It's like washing anything, with the right solvent, you don't need to do anything. But we like the free.99 method. Just be thorough. Nooks, piping, concentrations of bits and detail, be thorough, not rough, just complete. 

I soak for an hour, scrub, soak, rinse. Works for me.

[WestRider]

The one good thing is that the little nooks and crannies that it's hardest to get the release agent out of are also the areas least likely to rub up against anything else and get the paint scraped off.