Matte Finish question ...

[Frustrated Father]

First question that comes to mind is, how many coates of Matte Finish do you folks toss on? Me, sometimes I put two, sometimes three coats on if the mini is going to see heavy use, or if I find that it does something to the painted colors that I happen to like.

How much is too much? Do you start to loose \'detail\' after a bit with the matte finish? Curious.

Lastly, is there a difference between brushed on finish and sprayed on finish? Is there a difference between GW and Testors (is there a significant price difference?)

I\'ve got GW spray matte right now, and some Vallejo gloss brush on for teeth, eyes and stuff that I want to be shiny, but I\'m curious if there is a difference in any of this, or is it simply whatever you get your hands on?

 

[Corvus]

I usually use one or two thin layers of brush on matte finish for showcase models and two or three thin layers of spray on varnish for my gaming models.

If you put on too much varnish you\'ll risk muting the colors of the paintjob

 

[finn17]

Difficult question.....

My view:

Matte varnish does not protect, generally, it just dulls.

GW matte seems to have a lot of \'issues\'. Mainly caused by the fact that most GW customers need protection for their figures so the GW product is a compromise.

The technique I used to use was:

1. Spray for protection using a gloss, polyurethane spray and applying two (or so) even coats.

2. Use a matte spray to take away all the shine. A very light dusting of artist\'s matte (I used Marabu). Literally, I used to spray the varnish in the air and wave the figure around in the fumes...that is how light a coat I am talking about. You can always repeat this process...it is far easier than trying to remove excess varnish.

2. Brush on gloss varnish to gems etc.

Don\'t take my word alone on any of this!!

Experiment with a bit of scrap. It used to work fine for me, but I haven\'t done it for a while and for all I know the chemical properties of the sprays may have changed

 

[LavronYor]

ditto, many use gloss to protect and matte to finish. In the US, Michael\'s Art Stores carry Testors dullcote and usually you can use a 40 % off coupon for a real deal.

 

[Frustrated Father]

Thanks for the responses.

So, gloss coate protects better than matte coats or is it just that the colors are better preserved? Kinda got lost on that one a bit.

Thanks for the tip about Michael\'s LavronYor, the wife will be tickled that I actually want to go into the place and not just huff and puff about \'can we go yet\'.

Course she\'ll be promptly upset when I spend five minutes getting what I want and \'then\' huffing and puffing.

:innocent:

 

[beestieboy]

I\'m not sure if the better protection comes from being thicker or harder on the gloss stuff, but dings and would be chips glance off much better than they do with the matte stuff. The glossy stuff is often designed for protection while the dead flat stuff just seems to kill the glare without the protection. I use a coat of glossy for protection first and then kill the glare with Dullcote over the top. I haven\'t noticed a dulling of the colors and I have noticed my pics taking better after being dullcoted than with the gloss stuff on them.

 

[Trevor]

Its simple, gloss varnish is more plastic/elastic, wheras matte is harder and more brittle, thus when you knock a gloss coat it bends, a matte coat just chips.

Using gloss then matte gives a compromise solution.

 

[sheeba]

Hay

Anybody use Testors brush-on gloss or dull?

I have both. I used the dull once and it reactivated the paint, took the little guy\'s face right off .

Testors tech support said that was not suppose to happin. Now I am just plum scared to use either. I never opened the gloss after that. I just put them away until I figure this out.

Michael