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I can't believe I ruined my whole box of black reach I spent 2 months painting my orks with love and now their ruined, my poor orkses. Curse you army painter matt spray. I was just spent the last four days making my orks ready to fight this weekend and now they look all....frosty. Is there no hope for my poor orkses, aside from striping them down to plastic?

I've never used matte spray, but I've read scary threads abotu them. If my memory is right, it may be possible to spray them again with something to get the frostyness away. If peopel don't reply quickly enough to this, try using the search function because I remember reading about this before.

Don't quote me on this but I think that a coat of gloss can reverse the problem.

Have a search here on Dakka this has come up many times and there could be a solution for you on here somewhere.

Place one frosty model under water. If it looks ok (the frost disappears) then you don't have an even coat of varnish.

Spray them again and the frost should clear up.

If it still looks bad under water it's a different problem, and I have no advice.

I tried adding more varnish thinking that it was frosty becuase the coat wasnt even but that didnt help either. now it just looks thick and frosty

Sounds like you may have oversprayed them a tad?

I did that on the first few models I sprayed.

Temperature can be a big factor. Did you spray/leave them to dry somewhere cold?

no i did it out on the pattio. its within the temp requirements and it wasnt raining.

I heard that humidity is what causes it.

Extreme humidity can cause it. As can many other things...a bad can, failure to properly mix (shake) the can.


Id say try some gloss on one of them, see if it takes it away.

Also will say Ive never used Army Painter, I use Testors Dulcote, and only Testors Dulcote...and Ive never had a problem with it. I did get the frosting problem the one (and only) time I tried a different product.

Army Painter Spray works differently than Citadel Spray. You have to do short close bursts, as the paint dries more quickly in the air, ending as solid paint bubbles on the miniature instead of an even layer if sprayed from too far away. And another thing: Army Painter Varnish attacks Army painter Quickshade, use Vallejo Matte Varnish instead.

There's an article here on how to fix that, you basically just spray with gloss, and then matte again (with a 1 day space between each coat)

Yeah, a coat of gloss will fix the frosting. Leave it for a at least a day or two to ensure it's thoroughly dried, and then respray the matt in light coats.

Make sure you shake the can well, and don't spray in humid or cold conditions. Don't allow the minis to dry in cold or humid conditions either and it should all be good.

Also, army painter anti-shine isn't really a varnish. It exists to knock the gloss shine off a protective gloss varnish or quick-shade coat and works best applied quite sparingly. Too much will not only look grey but can craze the underlying paint.

If all else fails, I managed to rescue a chaos land raider which had been turned almost white (curse you Humbrol satin varnish, curse you to hell and back) with a succession of paint washes in the base colour then re-highlighting it. Tedious, but better than the bin which is where it was headed when I realised I'd just junked 3 days worth of painting.

Courtesy of MajorTom11: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/How_to_recover_from_a_Spray_Sealer_disaster

Last final effort option: if all else fails, strip it and paint again. Then use paint-on varnish.

If the gloss trick fails there's one more trick you can try... Mohawk Super Blush Retarder. It's normally used for wood finishings but works wonders on acrylic varnish too. I had some wicked frosting happen on my Nightbringer (I just HAD to varnish it in the dead of winter on a rainy day). So through much searching I found this stuff at a cabinet supply shop near by.

Basically it's kinda a white/mineral spirits and works by breaking down your coat of varnish, allowing the small air bubbles that normally cause frosting to escape (removing the frosting) then re-dries nice and clear. You need to let this dry for at least 24 hours before handling the model and between coats (sometimes it takes 2-3 to get all the frosting gone). I've also used a Q-Tip with mineral spirits on it for localized areas but you need to be real careful with that because the Q-Tip can be a bit abbrasive and ruin your paint if you rub it too much.

I've never tried the gloss over matt frosting to fix it (this probably works best if the frosted coat is very thin and the bubbles topical) but this stuff does the trick. I definitely suggest you try this before resorting to a simple green bath for your green tide!



Good Luck!

Woo thats nasty someone i know spent ages building a £60 model they spray was hurrendous tried to strip the paint the whole hull cracked in half.

I know hindsight is great, but whenever I use a new colour or varnish, I do one and wait for it to dry before committing all my dudes to it!

A bit useless now I know, but for next time...

Been there mate! Messed up a couple of Tau Battlesuits to frosting from GW's Purity Seal spray. I'm using paint-on varnish from now on.

Nowoo wrote:If the gloss trick fails there's one more trick you can try... Mohawk Super Blush Retarder. It's normally used for wood finishings but works wonders on acrylic varnish too. I had some wicked frosting happen on my Nightbringer (I just HAD to varnish it in the dead of winter on a rainy day). So through much searching I found this stuff at a cabinet supply shop near by.

Basically it's kinda a white/mineral spirits and works by breaking down your coat of varnish, allowing the small air bubbles that normally cause frosting to escape (removing the frosting) then re-dries nice and clear. You need to let this dry for at least 24 hours before handling the model and between coats (sometimes it takes 2-3 to get all the frosting gone). I've also used a Q-Tip with mineral spirits on it for localized areas but you need to be real careful with that because the Q-Tip can be a bit abbrasive and ruin your paint if you rub it too much.

I've never tried the gloss over matt frosting to fix it (this probably works best if the frosted coat is very thin and the bubbles topical) but this stuff does the trick. I definitely suggest you try this before resorting to a simple green bath for your green tide!



Good Luck!

I'll keep this in mind when I test out varnishing my whole army in a bit, thanks.