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Hey guys!

So i've nearly finished my assualt termi's and want to know what you guys do as far as protecting them on the table?

Do you varnish?

I varnished a model once, and it always looks so shinny, i was thinking of doing it just to the eyes but I want my models to be safe from those hard dice throws my opponent might do once my termi's use there lightening claws to ripp through his horde's.

Pictures of them are on my blog (link below) but they are slightl'y improved now and looking a bit better.

Cheers

Morpium

Why hello there!

My thoughts for you:

Clear coat is your best friend for protecting models on the table. A lot of folks out there (myself included) believe that gloss clear coat is a better sealant than Matte finish, and folks will either use a gloss clear coat to seal their models by itself, or will use a gloss clear coat for the first layer or two before covering it with a matte finish.

Stop by Lowe's, or Walmart, or wherever you buy your primer spray paint and pick up a can of clear gloss and a can of clear matte. Clear-coating also protects your flock/basing material. Hope that answers your question.

I use Gloss instead of matte, i don't mind the shine on the models, and when i coat models in matte varnish, they still chip, with the gloss it never chips... ever. i buy my gloss clear coat at walmart, it's like 3 bucks a can. i use "plaid" brand

cheers - I am british so no walmart but will get some next time im in town, will go for the gloss, i have the GW varnish from years ago but i rember that being super shiny.

Cheers for your help

I loath gloss varnish unless i am appyling transfers where it helps them slide into place alot better and the film not to show so much. My normal procedure is to finish painting a model and then it gets two or three coats opf matt varnish from my airbrush before basing the model.

A coat of vallejo gloss followed by a coat of vallejo matte does very well for me.

does that work? i've heard that if you put a matte coat over a gloss coat that it gives you the strength of the gloss coat, but the top coat of matte makes it to where you can't even tell there was ever a gloss coat. is that true?

dingholio wrote:does that work? i've heard that if you put a matte coat over a gloss coat that it gives you the strength of the gloss coat, but the top coat of matte makes it to where you can't even tell there was ever a gloss coat. is that true?

Yes it's true.

Look at http://px40k.blogspot.com/2010/06/ultramarines-razorback-wip.html and compare it to http://px40k.blogspot.com/2010/06/ultramarines-razorback.html

And yes, I screwed up when applying the gloss coat. But that's not the point.

Windsor and Newton make an excellent spray on Matte varnish, never tried their gloss though i don't see why it shouldn't be just as good. Expensive though :S

Quick question,

When applying matt varnish from the pot, should I water it down first? If so, by how much?

Mookie

Only water it down if you can see brush strokes forming. You can avoid this by using a soft brush

If you do water it down, just add a little water at a time until the brush strokes disappear.

dingholio wrote:does that work? i've heard that if you put a matte coat over a gloss coat that it gives you the strength of the gloss coat, but the top coat of matte makes it to where you can't even tell there was ever a gloss coat. is that true?

Yep, it abolutely does. A lot of painting techniques require gloss coats at various points to work. For example, you should always gloss coar before applying decals and before applying fine washes to panel lines. On the other hand, you should put a coat of satin varnish on before applying a filter.

I use Testor's varnish spray, either flat (lusterless) to give a dull look to the paint scheme; semi-gloss to my figures- it allows the colors i have painted to appear as they do before the varnish was applied and rarely Gloss- this gives a very shiny / polished top coat that I am not fond of for my figs. I have tried mixing the various coats with limited success- usually i just do one of the three- depending on the desired effect and let it go at that. It does go a long way to protect your paint job! I also use painted on gloss varnish sometimes- I put it on eyeslits or computer screens, etc. for figs that were matt or semi-gloss covered- if I want one small area to really shine. Very rare tho. Good luck