After I started working on my models again after a 5 year long break I was in need of a new can of varnish. Various people on Dakkadakka recomended Testors Dullcote to me. So I did some research on this Varnish and it's considered to be the "holy Grail" of matt varnishes by many wargamers and modellers on various forums. Because of this I started looking for the spraycan variant of this varnish. I wanted to either order it online from a shop in Holland or at least in Europe because of shipping cost.

However I couldn't find a shop selling it, there are a few shops in the UK that sell it but they don't ship it outside of the UK. No reason was given for it though on the site of said webshops.

So after doing some more research I came across the following post on a German forum:

Testors Dullcote (spray) contains Toluene; which is now banned within the EU. As such the "traditional" Testors Dullcote Aerosol can not be legally sold anywhere within the EU.

We will announce when we have the new formulation in stock and do some testing to see if it maintains is excellent matte abilities, until then it seems sensible to avoid buying the aerosol from any other sources, as anybody selling it will be breaking the law. However, given that it has taken us almost two months to find out why though it seems likely that other retailers are not aware of the situation.

Source

The post on the German forum is allready a year old at the time of writing of this article. Seeing it's mentioned that Testors would be working on a Toluene free Dullcote I continued my research and came across the Material Data Sheet on the Testors site. A quick glimps on this document informed me that Toluene is still included in the product.

Dullcote product information

Testors Dullcote Material Safety Datasheet

I briefly checked the Wiki on Toluene and I understand now why it isn't available in Europe. I am aware of the fact that in every day live we get exposed to various dangerous chemicals. But in this case I decided it would be better for me to stop the search for this specific varnish and start looking for an alternative. After some searching on the net I came across this site that belongs to a German painting service. Allthough the language is German I think it should be clear enough for everyone what the result of the various varnishes mentioned are.

Toluene @ Wikipedia

Varnish list @ www.gostpainter.de

The reasoning for this article isn't to make people stop using this product. However I do want to inform people in Europe that they shouldn't bother searching for this product because it's very hard to obtain. I also want to inform people using it that this product contains chemicals that are a risk to your health so if you insist on using it you should do it in a well ventilated area and breathing protection is recomended.