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I noticed recently that my least favorite part of painting a mini is right before the end, when the thing is very nearly finished. I sit down to put on the final coat and stare, wistfully, at my mini. This is the best it will ever look. Next comes the glaze, and it's all downhill from there. No matter how hard I try, the glaze seems to do something to the mini. The colors dull. The shine is... blobby. Uneven. The effect is 60% less professional and much more "kid with a brush." I know I'm better than that - they look better than that, before the glaze! - but I have no idea how to maintain it.

Here's what I'm asking for:

1) What am I doing wrong? I'm still relatively new at this, so hold nothing back. It's quite possible that I'm missing something so basic that everyone else knows it.

2) If your advice involves use of a specific product or brand, please provide a link so I can actually find and purchase the stuff.

Thanks in advance.

If the model is just going to sit on a display, there is no need to varnish it.

Are you useing brush on or spray varnish, what kind do you use.

Generally how I varnish my models, I give it a coat of GW 'Ard Coat, followed by a quick spray of Army Painter Matte Varnish.

I've been using a coat of Model Color medium-gloss paint-on varnish. I used to water it down, but that seemed to make it worse.

Gloss finishs on models are out of "style" right now except for some very specific aplications.

What I'd recommend doing is first coating the model in a thin layer of gloss, this is what will actually prevent the most chipping. Once that dries I would either hit it with a very thin coat of matte varnish or a quick spray of matte varnish. The matte is going to bring your the colors on the model back closer to how they were before varnishing.

Something I did once before - when I first made the transition from totally matte to a bit of gloss - was start with a sprayed layer of Army Painter matte varnish followed by a coat of my wife's clear nail polish, to bring the colors back and give it a modest shine. Can you see that working, or is there something wrong with it that I wouldn't have noticed yet?

I so know that feel bro...

Those last couple of steps before a mini is absolutely finished, those darn last couple of steps are the worst.

I can spend untold hours wetblending, I can give freehands one try after the other, after the other, correcting and correcting.

But in the end, painting the gems, or putting some metal colour on the weapons: I can't seem to do it. :(

So much stuff @ 95% finished right now... :(

you could try future (pledge floor care) as a your final coat, it is gloss which you seem to want and VERY thin. It goes on smooth and looks great. but as for everything else in life YMMV.