Finishing a bare bust without ruining it

I don't paint. That's a deliberate choice — painting a bust is the interesting half of the hobby and it's not mine to take from you. What I do is get the surface to the point where paint behaves, and then hand it over.

What you're getting

Resin busts arrive washed, cured, de-supported and mould-line sanded. If you ordered primed, there's a thin coat of grey automotive primer on it already and you can go straight to colour. Bare pieces need priming first, and there are exactly two ways to get that wrong.

Mistake one: priming too close, or too thick

Hold the can about 20cm away and move it past the piece rather than at it. Two or three light passes, letting each flash off for ten minutes, beats one wet coat every time. A heavy coat pools in the recesses and softens exactly the detail you paid for.

Mistake two: priming in the wrong conditions

Below about 10°C, or in direct sun, or in high humidity, rattle-can primer goes on rough and chalky. On resin, that texture is permanent — you cannot sand it out of a face without losing the face. A shaded garage on a mild day is all it takes to avoid this.

After primer

• Grey primer for most schemes; black if the piece is mostly dark and you're happy to work up
• Thin your first acrylic coat more than feels right — two thin coats read better than one opaque one
• Leave the base until last; it's the easiest thing to knock while you're holding the piece
• Matte varnish at the end, sprayed the same way as the primer, or you'll dull a month of work in ten seconds

If you take a chunk out of it

Cured resin glues with thin cyanoacrylate and the join is stronger than the surrounding material. Don't use epoxy near detail — it wicks into the texture and fills it. And if it's beyond saving, send me a photo. A reprint of a piece you damaged yourself isn't free, but it isn't full price either.