From Print to Shelf: Finishing & Priming Figures
The print is only half the work. A step-by-step on washing, curing, sanding, and priming so your models are ready for paint — or look great bare.
A fresh print off the plate is sticky, fragile, and dotted with support nubs. Turning it into a display piece is a short, repeatable routine. Here's the path from build plate to shelf.
1. Wash
For resin prints, rinse off uncured resin in isopropyl alcohol — a two-stage wash (a dirty bath then a clean one) keeps your final rinse effective for longer. Agitate gently and use a soft brush for recesses. Let it dry fully before the next step.
2. Cure — but don't over-cure
UV curing hardens the model to its final strength. More is not better: over-curing makes resin brittle and can yellow it. A minute or two per side in a curing station is plenty for most standard resins. Cure before you remove supports if the piece is delicate, and after if it isn't.
3. Clean up supports and seams
Clip remaining nubs flush, then knock down the marks with progressively finer sandpaper — 400 grit to start, up to 800 or higher for visible faces. On FDM prints, this is also where you tackle layer lines. Wet-sanding keeps dust down and gives a smoother result.
4. Prime
Primer is the great equalizer: it unifies the surface color, reveals flaws you couldn't see, and gives paint something to grip. Apply it in thin, even coats — two or three light passes beat one heavy one, which pools in detail. Grey is the safe default; white brightens later colors, black speeds up shading.
5. Inspect and patch
Primer always exposes a sanding scratch or a missed seam you swore was gone. That's the point. Spot-fix, re-sand, re-prime the area, and only then move on to paint.
Even if you never paint a single figure, a clean wash, a measured cure, and a coat of primer turn a raw print into something that genuinely looks finished.