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Hi.... Just looking for some help with protective varnishes.

I don't have a lot of experience with varnishes and recently I decided to Matt varnish some minis to protect them.

I got some Matt varnish from Vallejo after reading some stuff online. I put it in my airbrush and....
The results I got were terrible. Black armour ended up looking gray and everything ended up looking frosted over.
I tried saving it with a coat of tamiya clear spray which livened up the colors again , but left it terribly glossy.

Can someone tell me what is going wrong here. Is it the brand of varnish. I tried thinning the Vallejo Matt varnish, but it continued to frost.
Is there a nice Matt or semi gloss varnish I can get my hands on in Australia that still lets the blacks pop... Something easily accessible instead of crazy home recipes would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Its not the varnish.

Do a few searches, this comes up often.

I think it has to do with either humidity, or not having the under coats dry enough.

Here is one;

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/569063.page#6359112

Make sure to apply to a test piece before trying out on a model.

best of luck sir$

Maybe try thinning it down and applying multiple thinner coats (with time in between).

I have trouble in trying to get my matt varnish to not frost... I got a can of testors dullcote to "test"..... (harp harp harp... im so clever...) As I read that it does not frost but knowing my luck it will no matter what I do.

I've read about the humidity thing. But I am in Australia, in summer. It's hot and dry here. Surely humidity isn't the problem.

I've also tried thinning the paint down, but the frosting is still there. Will try to get my hands on some testers dull cote. But isn't that enamel lacquer? I've used the gunze me color clear coat before and it made my inks run... Will this happen with dullcote?

Could not tell you yet, I think it will work fine as I see youtube stuff where they used inks with dullcote with no problems. If you want to take extra caution you could always gloss first for protection then dullcote it down to your preffered finish.

Edit: Hmm maybe it was not the clear that made the inks run but maybe it is the inks getting re-wetted causing them to run... If that is the case then someone with more painting experience should be able to tell you how to avoid that...

Yeah. I am going to put down a gloss coat of tamiya clear first. That stuff seems to be 'safe' though ridiculously glossy. My terminators have an old school enamel finish to them now, but hoping the testors dullcote will Matt it down a bit.

Looking forward to your test(ors) results, Taldeer.

I dunno if it is just the weather here or what, but I can say unequivocally that the Vallejo Matt varnish frosts even when thinned, and I am super hesitant to use it again.

Well the Testors dullcote gets a A+ in my book, I used it on a ork piece that I tried a different method for the skin by priming white then washing with badab black then airbrushing Badger's Minitare Ghost Tint green on for color which that leaves a incredibly glossy finish... Here are the before and afters.

Note that I got zero frosting and I applied three very VERY VERY light coats to avoid it, I probably could have brought the shine down more but I figure this was good enough and now I just noticed that my camera has better eyes than I do because I notice a tiny hair under the arm...

I seem to get frosting from two things: temperature/humidity, and spray distance. I've gotten to where I spray, in light coats, from about 6" away. I don't go closer, and I definitely don't get farther away.


I've had some minis frost, and I've found that brushing on gloss varnish lightly removes it, but doesn't make the model _too_ glossy in the process. Brush is better than spraying for this application, because you have much, much more control over placement and amount.


On thing I often do first is use polyurethane (like Minwax) on the minis before I do the final varnish. Sometimes its the traditional shading dip (Minwax Polyshades), but they also make a Clear Satin varnish that works wonders for protecting models, both a dip and a spray on. I use that before applying Matte Varnish (make sure the poly is dry!), and it works wonders.