Figure Dust Protection Guide
A practical breakdown of figure dust protection guide, aimed at new collectors. No marketing language — just the specification, the construction and the display consequences.
Polystone Care in Three Rules
Support the base, never lift by the head or an arm, and never reach for a solvent when a stain appears. Polystone is brittle under point impact and slightly porous, so handling and cleaning decide how a piece looks in five years far more than the initial paint job does.
Aftercare Starts at Purchase
Aftercare is the long game: storage, maintenance and the provenance file that makes a future sale or insurance claim straightforward. It begins the day the box arrives, not when you decide to sell, because the evidence is easiest to capture before the carton is gone.
Maintenance Calendar
- Weekly: dust open shelving top-down with a soft brush.
- Monthly: dust enclosed cases, check no piece rocks on its base.
- Quarterly: inspect seams under bright light for hairline cracks.
- Every 6 months: replace silica gel, rotate stored pieces back on display.
Targets That Prevent Damage
Keep displayed pieces at 18–24 °C and 40–55% relative humidity. Above 60% invites bloom and mould; below 35% dries fabric trim on mixed-media builds. No direct sun, ever, and gentle indirect airflow rather than a fan pointed at the shelf, which raises dust deposition sharply.
Movement Causes the Damage
Most shipping damage comes from movement inside the box, not impact outside it. The two-box method removes the movement: pack the piece into an inner carton with 5 cm of cushioning on every face, then suspend that inner carton 8–10 cm inside an outer carton so the gap, not the piece, absorbs the shock.
If the specification is vague, treat that as the answer. Good manufacturers publish the detail because collectors ask for it.