Dull finish \"White spray of death\"

[halon]

I\'ve found that most people that have been painting a little while have had this happen to them. You\'ve got that new masterpiece done and you go to spray it with your preferred type of dulling/matt spray and as your spraying the paint starts drying in the air and instead of a nice clear finish you get a white speckled or worse yet white spray of death that coats the figure in a dull white coat.
While I\'ve never been able to recover from a complete white spray I have found a way to fix the speckled type. If you use one of the brush on type gloss coats over the affected area it will remove the speckles. And then you can use a brush on dull coat to cover the gloss.
I\'ve tried many things that don\'t work to remove a full white spray. One thing for certain is don\'t use more dull coat. It just makes the problem worse. Same thing with removing it...if it\'ll take off the spray it will take off the paint. So while this will fix a slight dusting, I still haven\'t found a way to completely recover from the white spray.

 

[Stupidcow]

I\'m not sure about how to remove the mess. From what you discribed, the problem is that you might be spraying the matt varnish too far from the mini, resulting in a snowfalkes look due to the spary drying up before hitting the mini.

Next time try spraying on a piece of cardboard at different distances and see the results. This way you won\'t spary too thick or too thin a coat.

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

white finish

The problem is known as \"Blush\" some times its because the the clear spray hasnt been mixed up properly.. its important to shake your clear coats for up to or over 1 minute continiously. Also making sure to spray 6-9 inches away fromthe miniature in light coats. I useually apply 2-3 very light coats.

There is a product called \"Blush remover\" Its a spray material thats supposed to remove the white look..Ive seen it in wood working stores.. but Ive no idea how it might work??

 

[halon]

The blush remover does sound interesting. I\'ll check it out.
It could be that the can wasn\'t shaken properly but I\'ve seen it happen at the start of a spray and after I\'ve used it for some time. ( I spray my terrain as well as my mini\'s) Fortunately it\'s happened enough that I can recognize the change in the spray by the sound the can makes when it starts doing it...the nice tinny sound drops an octave and makes a more whooshing sound. (ie more chemical coming out of the nozzle) I\'ve noticed that it happens a little more often if the can has gotten warm. But I\'ve seen it happen with every type of dulling spray and I\'ve used probably every spray on the market at least once.

 

[gatekeeper]

oh it hurts

spent 16 hours on my Nightbringer for necrons and went outside and matte coated it and BAM got the white glaze..i was sooo mad..It was like 98 degrees out with like 120% humidity i should have known better...spent another 4 hours after that re doing the skin...havent touched it since =(

 

[schobbies]

Blush

Humidity is the biggest culprit of this. Depending on the season of course, a quick way to ensure this doesnt happen is to take the hair dryer to the fig. It seems that if the fig is warmer than the can it works best.

 

[Sturmhalo]

I gave up using any kind of spray paint years ago! Spray paint for undercoat clogs detail. Spray varnish doesn\'t cover the entire model and clogs detail! Go back to the good old brush I say.

Whilst I have varnish in mind. Why does my first coat of Matte varnish go on totally matte (and in some cases rather lifelessly), yet a second coat produces a slight sheen? It looks good on some models, but others don\'t look so hot with the added shine! ???

 

[gobbo]

You can fix this!

This usually only happens if you are spraying in weather that is too cold, or you are spraying too far from the fig. Get a can of Mineral spirits. Put some in a jar. carfully dip the fig in the spirits and swish around slightly. DO NOT TOUCH THE PAINTED AREA AFTER THIS STEP! Set down and let dry. Once dry, spray with clear coat again. You may want to run them under warm water [after they dry from the mineral spirit dip], but I never have and it seems to work fine.

 

[virtuouswolf]

GW Matte Coat is just plain bad

I\'ve lost a lot of well painted minis to GW Matte Varnish and I warn most people to stay away from it. Sometimes it just doesn\'t matter how long you shake the can, it will still come out poorly just for the fact that the manufacturer seems to make actual \"bad\" batches of the stuff. Also even when you do get a good coat out from that junk, it doesn\'t always look good. It kills your highlights, dulls the overall appearance and hazes in artifical light.

I got a recommendation from a guy I used to know who just had fantastic minis. They weren\'t dull but they weren\'t glossy either, they were that perfect spot in between. No glare from light yet they had a certain sparkle to them. Not to mention they were incredibly hard to chip. He told me he did something very specific to get this effect: first you need two cans of varnish; Testors Dull Coat and Testors Gloss Coat. You can find them in any hobby store. I\'ve only seen small sized cans but they may make larger ones. First you put a very light coat of gloss on. Wait a hour and repeat. Now wait 2 hours and give it a similar coat of dull. Repeat. Let it sit for a few hours and Wa-La! You get a truly amazing finish. I do this with all my minis now and they look great. Of course they are also super tough and chip resistant. Give it a try!

 

[Badaab]

Varnish

Seems like you have a method there... I might have to try it at some point.
At this point, however, I generally don\'t even varnish my stuff unless its a gift or a commission piece, and I haven\'t had any problems with the GW stuff (I picked it up because it was a big can, lol).
Joe

 

[gobbo]

Vwolf, this is exactly what I do with mine, only I use Citidel Gloss and Matt Varnish instead of Testors. I have never had a Citadel varnish go bad on me, when it wasn\'t my own fault.

 

[virtuouswolf]

Varnish

Maybe you got lucky?

I\'ve had nothing but bad experiences, but its interesting to hear that the dull/gloss coat process works with different types. I think the most outstanding feature of doing this is that you get both the benefits of a tough gloss and the look of a nice flat finish. They seem to cancel out each other\'s negatives.

 

[gobbo]

Agree

I will agree with you on the benifits of double coating. Gloss holds up better and Matt gives a better look.