A few of my favorite buddies total two hundred pounds in pets. Fluff is a titan of a golden retriever. Lola is a leggy german shepherd who tries very hard to be friends with my two cats, Dog E. Dog and Blizz.

I love my pets dearly, they mean the world to me, however, it comes with its difficulty in the form of pet hair. Anyone who has had or been around retrievers or Shepards is fully aware of the sheer amount of hair they drop in a day. Honestly, I can sweep, vacuum, dust, or brush them out daily. I still can find enough fur to make a third dog out of it

or a weird sweater. It’d be kind of itchy.

Pet fur is the bane of my hobby existence. It’s also unavoidable for me. I have no specific dedicated hobby room that is animal free. The cats and dogs wander as they please. The dogs aren’t interested in my workbench, but the cats sure are. No matter how many times they see it they’re bound and determined to lay on it, even if there’s no space for them. Cats do as they please.

I’ve learned over the last few years about avoiding fur or how to handle it as best as I can.

Any time before working I will vacuum the area. No matter if I had already vacuumed earlier. The next tip I can offer is to turn off any fans in the area. It may be a little toasty or stagnant but it will help to stop hair from going onto your models and minis. Also, as a general life tip keep a lint roller handy. Roll yourself down before starting any work. Pet hair has a mighty interesting way of getting on your clothes.

I also found that having an air filter works well.

The last thing anyone wants is hair making its way onto a gloss coat.

Speaking of coats, while parts dry stick them in a plastic container to avoid dust and dander. Keep tweezers handy while painting minis to pick away those pesky hairs. I also found that you can either use compressed air (carefully) or even makeup brushes to wipe away hair or dust. The latter works better for me than the cans of air. Another good tool is a camera brush with soft bristles and an air puffer as well.

If something is really dusty then I may just wipe it with a soft damp cloth to clean it.

You can also wash unpainted models if they’ve been sitting on a shelve for a while. I recommend washing any model before painting. You can do this by simply running runners or minis under cool water with some dish soap and let dry. Another method would be washing with an ultrasonic cleaner, which is what I do. It washes off dust, pet hair, or other grime that can find its way onto the model.

I lay mine out on a clean towel in a plastic container to dry.

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Hope you all enjoyed this post! Thank you for reading it! If you have any questions, drop them below.

Happy Monday!

-J