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Hi, this is my first post.

For the past 3 weeks I spent most of my free time painting my land raider crusader for my DIY chapter. I put a lot of effort into getting this model right because i wanted it to be the centre point of my army. I went to the extent of green stuffing my chapter symbol onto the side.

I then thought, seen as I'd put so much effort into this model, that I'd varnish it to protect it. very bad idea.

I had a brand new GW spray varnish to use, did everything to prepare the spray, correct temp & shook it up for ages. However, when I sprayed the model, to my horror, the varnish had lots of little bumps in it. The model is covered in them & it has totally ruined it, wasting both my time & money.

I don't believe there is anything I can do to correct this, & i was wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

Cheers.

Is it just cloudy? Or is it really fouled up? Unfortunately, GW's "Purity Seal" is pretty crappy, even if you are carefull to do everything to ensure it comes out ok. I'd do a test spray with it on another model or a piece cut of plastic card, something you don't mind getting damaged, and seeing if it happens again. Or not bother and throw the can away and use Testors Dullcote (which has yet to give me any problems over ~15 years). If cloudy, a couple additional light coats (with time in between to allow them to dry), should take care of any cloudiness.

If it's realy fouled up, I don't know what, if anything you can do other than a) live with the bumpy mess or b)strip and start over. Pretty crappy.

Yeah always remember to spray test. GW is pretty inconsistant with its products.
I mean the Chaos Black Spray Paint isnt even Chaos Black. So they turn out 2 different colors.

Uh.. I dunno, lightly sand the areas a I guess. Just to remove the bumps.

First off, relax. There are very few things in modelling that can't be fixed, and a clearcoat problem may be tedious but can usually be saved.

How big are the bumps we're talking about here? Pinhead sized? Or is the whole surface a kind of rough bumpty texture? Got any good pictures of it? If there aren't tooooo many You may try lightly hitting them with a thin sanding stick and using a different clear on top of them after you smooth them out. Or, if they are everywhere but small enough, you might be able to get rid of them with just another overcoat.

Got an airbrush? I can recommend a few clear glosses and flats that would be a big help. Or you can carefully do a light brush coat of Future floor wax (yes, i'm serious. VERY common and useful stuff in the modelling world). Future is self-levelling, so if you don't go too thick with it, you won't get any brush marks.

Worst case, you may have to strip it down and start again, but there are other things to try before we get to that situation.

-Hans

Hans is quite right about the Future Floor Wax, it's great stuff. I use several layers of it as part of thin ink washes to seal up my figs, with a spray of dullcote when I'm done to take the gloss sheen off. But I too would like to hear more about these bumps. Sounds really strange. Was it very humid out when you sprayed?

GW has been having big, big problems with purity seal for the last year and a half.
I ruined several models with it (after not having a problem with their matt varnish for years before) in January 2005 and will never, ever use it if there is a chance of it clouding up my models again.
A GW store manager painted a 2250 undivided daemon army for a WHFB tournament here in Australia in January and 2 units were ruined 2 weeks from the tourney before he realised the problem.

Even GW's store staff don't use it here in Brisbane, they all had models ruined just like everyone else.

Thanks for the suggestions. The whole surface of the model is generally bumpy, like sand paper. I'm gonna try and give it another coat later on tonight & see how that turns out.

PLEASE don't give it another coat of Purity Seal! Use another brand, any brand but GW.

Ok, that does help a lot. Sounds like the spray was drying in mid-air, it may be a bad mix inside the can. Have you tested that can on anything else to see if it just keeps happening? Just spray it on an empty soda bottle or something, don't spray anything of value. Like Xnet said, don't try that stuff again on the same model. It may also be a compatibility issue, odd with acrylics but GW does use some unusual materials sometimes. (For instance, CA kicker eats GW plastic pretty fiercely, and some of my glues don't bite quite as well as they do with other plastics.)

I'll stick with the suggestion of a careful brushcoat of future. You can test the future by just brushing it on section about a square inch or so to see what happens. It may fix the problem for you and give a nice tough gloss coat to the model. If that section works, do it in small sections at a time very lighty, make sure not to puddle it anywhere. It will self level, so any brush marks will go away in a few minutes. May take a couple coats to smooth everything out.

-Hans

I have used armory clear flat varnish for my minis, i have to say to my knowledge its been reliable i like the finish product. It's the can with characters by the guy who does dork tower.

I've stated using Micador matt picture varnish, sold in art and craft stores. It is cheaper than GW but seems to need at least 2 coats (so probably costs more in the long run). I'm not using the GW stuff any more after a unit of skaven slaves turned out looking like they are covered in morning frost.

testors flat varnish. best ever. i will not use gw stuff ever again.

Where can I get this testors varnish in uk?

Common hobby shop item here in the US, any place that sells Testors or Model Master paints should have it. I always hear hannants as being a popular online source in the UK. And Future is called 'Johnsons Kleer' in the UK.... something sold wherever they sell floor cleaning stuff.

-Hans

Lord Chrisius, dump your can of GW varnish. Don't try doing little tricks like heating it, shaking it for hours, spraying in less/more humid climates, spraying closer/further. Just dump it.

Gonads - I think you should change your comment to - "I first discovered the big, big problems with purity a year and a half ago." 'cos, to be honest, it has been utter crap for a lot longer than 18 months. I stopped using it about 5 or 6 years ago, and I'll never use it again. It's horrible.

@ _Jomi... Every can of GW matt varnish I'd ever bought was fine until they bought in the new packaging (and I have to assume a new 'mix' about 2 years ago. Unfortunately for Australia we got it 4-5 months after the rest of the world (and after it had been recalled in the rest of the world due to problems) and they sold it to us without telling us any of the problems.

Now any player who has been into the hobby for more than 6 months refuses to buy GW purity seal and everyone is happy (except the GW beancounters).

Posted By nyarlathotep667 on 03/01/2006 7:45 PM
use Testors Dullcote...

 

Where can I pick some of this from? Hobby shops, or hardware shops?

Dullcote is something found at hobby shops, most places here in the US will have it, as testors/model master has always been a very popular brand.

-Hans

This is what you are looking for:
http://testors.com/catalog_item.asp?itemNbr=1382

Not avail for direct sale to the UK from Testors, but at least you have an idea of exactly what you are looking for.

I also have ordered cases of the stuff on Ebay before.