Frustration with varnish

[Caelithar]

Bah today I finished a mini , I immediately thought to myself , at last I can finally get my first mini on Cmon , this mini would have been my first posted , my first attempt at a bit of wet blending , my first mini conversion and my first with ickle tufts of grassy bits . I think to myself before anything happens give it a coat of varnish , I have mentioned this one before , it\'s one of those very small tins of matt enamel varnish , on advice from before I shook this tin and then I shook some more , in fact I shook it so much the room was still jiggling up and down 10 minutes later . So here goes , dips brush in varnish , applies to mini , oooh first 1/4 of an inch square looks good , but does my luck hold ? of course not , the thing sitting on my desk staring at me with this leer on its face (or is that how I painted it ?) looks glossier than a glossy thing on glossy weekend . I really need to get some of that Testors spray . Taking donations right now , send any unwanted cans to .

Totally disillusioned
12 cannot varnish for toffee road
Gloss-tershire

Thanks for listening , and now to find some of these elusive spray cans here in good old UK .

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Testors brushes made in England

I have a Testors detail brush with white acrylic bristles (well, the used to be white) and it was made in England. So it would seem reasonable to find their stuff in England.

 

[Caelithar]

I\'ll find some somewhere , I take consolation in the fact that my friends think its a great mini and that my painting is improving

 

[cnlmoore]

testors dullcote

FYI for those looking for dullcote in the US, just got my order from Hobbylinc which included the spray and paint on versions of testors dullcote. Web site mentioned that the paint on version has been discontinued, so get it while you can. They had fair prices and quick shipping.

 

[Trevor]

Try the Humbrol matte varnish spray, it works great and should be easily available in the UK.

 

[Nomis]

Try Humbrol Matt Cote. This comes in a 28ml bottle and you can see when it has been shaken up enough. I find that this gives a very good matt finish.

I would guess that even though you shook your varnish up you still didn\'t get it completely mixed and the carrier dries to a gloss finish.

BTW and old trick with humbrol enamels (which I haven\'t used for years) was to add talc to gloss paint to get it to dry matt - I don\'t recomend that for the varnish

 

[Oxygenthief]

I\'m just curious, what is wrong with GW\'s spray on matt finish? I\'ve been using it for a long time and never had any trouble..except that one time I decided to spray outside on a humid summer day.. That\'s a definate NO! NO! LOL. Seriously am I missing something??? By the way the best brush on flat finish is made by Floquil and is a water base as well and since testors owns both brands I\'m sure that the Flat in a bottle will still be available in some form.

 

[kittykat23uk]

Originally posted by Oxygenthief
I\'m just curious, what is wrong with GW\'s spray on matt finish? I\'ve been using it for a long time and never had any trouble..except that one time I decided to spray outside on a humid summer day.. That\'s a definate NO! NO! LOL. Seriously am I missing something??? By the way the best brush on flat finish is made by Floquil and is a water base as well and since testors owns both brands I\'m sure that the Flat in a bottle will still be available in some form.

GW Matt varnish for me has been very temperamental. If you spray a model too close or for too long then you end up with gloss effect (as in the case of my wolfen solitaire 2). If you just give it a light dusting with the varnish then you can get a more matt finish, but this doesn\'t protect the minis as well as a heavier coat (obviously). Anything inbetween and you either end up with semi gloss or in the worst case you get a powdery finish (if you spray just a little too far away, or don\'t shake the can enough, or the weather conditions aren\'t right, or if that butterfly decides to flap its wings in New York, etc.. . ).

From what I\'ve heard, Testors seems to be more reliable on the matt front.

Regards

Kat

 

[simon b]

50% water 50% PVA glue
works for me, gives the best matte finish i\'ve seen.

 

[Caelithar]

Aye its the Humbrol 14 ml tin I\'m using and only ever had one decent matte varnish effect and that was on the very first figure I did , since then though , all my results have ended up glossy . I might try that PVA trick later on , just to see how it goes .

 

[Oxygenthief]

Originally posted by kittykat23uk

GW Matt varnish for me has been very temperamental. If you spray a model too close or for too long then you end up with gloss effect (as in the case of my wolfen solitaire 2). If you just give it a light dusting with the varnish then you can get a more matt finish, but this doesn\'t protect the minis as well as a heavier coat (obviously). Anything inbetween and you either end up with semi gloss or in the worst case you get a powdery finish (if you spray just a little too far away, or don\'t shake the can enough, or the weather conditions aren\'t right, or if that butterfly decides to flap its wings in New York, etc.. . ).

From what I\'ve heard, Testors seems to be more reliable on the matt front.

Regards

Kat

I have noticed a tendency for it to get a little glossy lately especially if the can isn\'t shaken up very well. Usually If you let the figure set for a bit and respray it and it will calm down. The other thing I have noticed about any Matte Spray is that, If you spray in humid weather conditions or when the butterfly flaps its wings .. . the spray travels through the air and picks up the humidity and turns the model white or powders it etc....EEEEKKK nothing quite like ruining a figure over that nonesense. . But the refrigerator trick can rescue that figure put the figure into the refrigerator for a little while and then try a light respray. It doesn\'t always work but its a worth a try if you don\'t like stripping your hard work. I started out with testors dull coat a long time ago and switched to GW I may give it a try again sometime. I have also used the Floquil Figure flat in a can and it was good till they switched the formula and then every can was screwy. I\'ve even tried the artist varities and they will also gloss on occassion. Seems the varnish part is most tricky but thankyou for the info I thought it was me.

 

[revenant]

i just bought some vallejo brush-on matte coat. does anyone have experience w the stuff? should i dilute or what?