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So, today I got and assembled the advertisment boards. Then I went on to paint them. I remembered reading something that spraying causes the material to melt or something, so I figured I should just paint it with a base color.
One coat Ceramite White later and I can't say I'm too happy with the result. The color varies between white, bleached white and grey.
So, where did I go wrong? Should I have sprayed it with my Armypainter spray? Should I add another coat of white? Or something else?

Can't help you much but to prime my Sarissa terrain, I used Duplicolor sandable primer and it worked great.

I think I'll test priming the sprue and see how that goes then..

Simply priming it seems to work. It's what we did with the holo boards, a simple white primer.

Oh, seems I might be misinformed then. Also, spraying the sprue worked, so I guess I'll get to spraying!

As a side note, has anyone of you ever used hairspray as a protective finish to terrain and minis? I heard of it this morning, and it sounds like a good idea, but has anyone actually tried it?

Out of interest, who told you the material will 'melt'? It is just HDF, and you don't lose any detail with the spray.

I just assembled mine roughly, sprayed them with a Citadel white spray, then put the acrylic plastic in. A little bit of brown wash to add some weathering effects. Job done very quickly!

I don't know actually! I guess I could've dreamt it or something. but now my boards are sprayed and painted!

Someone might have thought that the HDF was "high density foam" instead of High density fibreboard - and that could have led to the confusion.

I sprayed mine with a matte white primer - twice. Had to, to stop the stench of burnt wood coming through.

Hairspray doesn't work as a sealer coat if you're going to handle it much - as it breaks down from sweat and natural skin oils anyway and also isn't waterproof (you can wash it out of your hair).

For a static display piece that never gets touched again, it's fine, though.

Definitely worth it to not cut corners on seal coats in this hobby. Testors is the way to go.

Eh, there's plenty of companies that make good sealing varnishes, depending on if you want matte, satin or gloss finishes and spray or brush on. I use a mix of spray Dullcote and brush on army painter anti shine depending on the model and prevailing weather for my Tyranids, and brush on Vallejo satin for my infinity stuff.

Dullcote is great, but it's definitely not the only option.

I've actually never heard of the options in sealing varnishes. All I know is the GW super-glossy one, which I won't use on my Infinity figs.

Yes it's something you can do... I've given some of my terrain a coat of varnish first to seal it, and some I haven't. I have to be honest I can't really notice the difference as I think the HDF is so thin in most cases that the amount of absorption is very limited. As Chromedog says, usually a couple of coats of primer is sufficient.

The CF wrote:I've actually never heard of the options in sealing varnishes. All I know is the GW super-glossy one, which I won't use on my Infinity figs.

Do you know any paint ranged outside of GW?

For spray varnishes, the most popular matte is Testors Dullcote. It's the best spray matte varnish you can get, though you need to give metallics a gloss brush on coat first or they go completely dead. Army painter matte is meant to be good, but it's more of a satin (slightly gloss) finish, and doesn't kill metallics.

For brush on, there's plenty. Vallejo have matte, satin and gloss. Army painter do an amazing brush on matte varnish. Brush on is harder to get consistencies right across the model (this is mostly an issue with matte, which leaves satiny streaks if not applied correctly), but has the benefit of, well, being brush on. Spray varnishes go cloudy if the weather is too cold or too warm. Dullcote is awesome because its temperature tolerances are a lot better than most. But still has the issue of being fething nasty stuff that can cause serious problems if inhaled, and if you have even a slightly windy day, this can be a risk (a slight change in wind direction can give you a face full of varnish).

I like to use Army Painter brush on matte for anything small - basic infantry for my Tyranids, and things like magnetised arms. For larger models, like monstrous creatures, which tend to be more display models and handled and scrutinised, I use brush on for the common contact areas and then a coat or two of Dullcoat to finish them. Infinity figs get a Vallejo satin brush on coat since I have metallics on the models, and I don't mind a satin finish.

GW's spray varnishes are the definition of terrible. They could rename them aerosol model ruiner, and no one would be offended. Shop around, you'll find better stuff from literally anyone else.