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So I just need to vent. I finished painting my captain and command squad this afternoon and decided to put a protective clear coat on them. I got a can of matte finish clear sealant from Hobby Lobby and the stuff came out looking like snow flakes. I immediately tried to wipe it off but it had dried instantly and my models were covered in white sand-like specks. So now my captain and command squad are taking an overnight bath in LA's Totally Awesome to remove the paint and hopefully the specks.

I just needed to get that out and in addition warn everyone not to use the aerosol spray sealer they sell at Hobby Lobby. I thought it would be faster than brushing on sealer in a pot and it set me back a long way.

Take the can and the minis down to the shop, explain what happened and see if they will give a refund or credit.

Worth a try bud

I almost decided to base the models in snow so they looked like they had snow on their armor but then I decided against it.

I can survive having to repaint a handful of guys. It was just extremely demoralizing at the time. It'll give me something to do this weekend.

I never had an experience like that myself but i heard it happening from time to time here on dakka. If i remember correctly you could have gotten rid of it with just brushing another layer of brush on matte sealant over the model.
What happened there was the sealant drying while still in the air. So you might have been too far away or maybe the weather wasn't optimal, (Too hot, too much humidity) or to little pressure in the can.
You might find those topics with the search function or maybe someone more experienced can go into more specifics.

to prevent the speckling or fogging, you have to first use a gloss clear coat before the matte coat.
This problem is fairly common.

I have had matte finish frost up on my models before. If it is humid then it can do that. I let my models sit for about 24 hours and then resprayed them. They ended up being fine and avoided repainting them.

Search on these forums for a fix. Many other people have run into this. I believe a coat of gloss coat will fix it, but find the thread from someone who actually solved their problem.

Heres MajorTom11's guide on how to get rid of the speckles:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/How_to_recover_from_a_Spray_Sealer_disaster

Hope this helps,

Lucarikx

LA Awesome won't work if you put a sealant on the figures. It barely removes the paint anyway.

General Hobbs wrote:


LA Awesome won't work if you put a sealant on the figures. It barely removes the paint anyway.

Its worked for me 100% of the times I've used it, sealant or not...........

Lucarikx

Sorry to hear the troubles sir, but at least it was not more minis!

The most commonly suggested matte spray out there which gets consistently good reviews is testors dullcoate, more expensive but worth it.

I use an airbrush varnish myself personally.

One note to everyone reading this - this is the exact reason to ALWAYS try any sprays or such on TEST minis first!

hope it works out well sir!

davethepak wrote:
Sorry to hear the troubles sir, but at least it was not more minis!

This!
I lost two squads of fire warriors to this, that week was very very bad

General Hobbs wrote:


LA Awesome won't work if you put a sealant on the figures. It barely removes the paint anyway.

It's worked really well for me. I just scrubbed the sealer/paint off one of my models already this morning. My experience is that you have to let the models soak over night then use an old toothbrush on them.

On a side note... I learned a lesson about being hasty because I didn't realize I could have saved the models. *shrug*

Thanks everyone.

I'm going to let this thread go personally so if anyone has any tips or advise feel free to PM me.

I share your pain, I had the same thing happen to me. It frosted up a whole squad and captain of marines, that was GW purity seal. Since then I only was spray varnish for scenery I now used vallejo matt varnish using a brush for my mini's.

When time savers turn into time sinks :-(

Get Vallejos brush-on varnishes. It's more time consuming, but at least it's safe.

I use GW purity seal and I've had that problem a few times. I let them dry and then spray them again a bit closer. Seems to work.

It isn't usually due to bad sealer, but due to humidity when spraying.

I also suggest the "Gloss Coat -> Re-Matte coat" technique.

I have also tried the 'mineral oil' technique which you put on, then dab off and then re-seal. It works, but the models can be slightly greasy until they really dry out.

I have totally removed / dissolved testors dullcote with mineral spirits. depending on how thick you sprayed the matt varnish it will take several applications to totally get rid of it. I'm talking five or more even for a thin layer. you may also try turpentine to speed it up but I would assume you then risk damaging the paint underneath.

keep applying the mineral spirits until the varnish is atleast a little more smooth and dissolved, then try the spray gloss that major tom recommends.

LA's Awesome is sooo good. I stripped 8 Leman Russes, and by the time I had finished, it had taken a lot of the skin off my fingers.

Guys, it says in the initial post that the models are siting in LA's Totally Awesome. There is no need for tips on how to fix this issue. lol.

As some have said you can respray and it should remove it, if that doesn't appeal to you, rubbing alcohol with a cotton swab or ball will also remove the frost and then you can reseal.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

VanHallan wrote:
Guys, it says in the initial post that the models are siting in LA's Totally Awesome. There is no need for tips on how to fix this issue. lol.

We can still give tips in case it ever happens again though!

I've heard that if your Matt varnish messes up and goes cloudy the way to fix it without repainting is to spray with gloss spray which fills in the cracks in the Matt and makes it look ok again just shiny. Then go back and respect with Matt again.

I had that happen to one of mine, if matte goes cloudy one of the only ways I know to fixing it is to spray the models again in a non-matte varnish to remove the snowflakes. The only downside to this is while no longer snowy they will be slightly shiny.

Sorry for the horrible luck. I guess i know i'll be sticking to what i use now to avoid something like this.

Dude, you didn't need to strip those models. This has happened to me a bunch and it's a super, super easy fix. The models got "frosted" by matte varnish when the conditions aren't right (too humid, didn't shake the can enough, bad can, what have you) and the solution is wicked simple. Spray it with gloss varnish. That's it. It eats away at the matte varnish and leaves a clear, shiny coat on the models. Then you can matte it after that. I've done it for every metal model I've painted. As for brands, use Testors.

I've had GW's matte varnish do that before. I use Testors Dullcote now and have never had a problem with it.

Back in the day a friend of mine started using a new can of GW matte on his minatures, and inside the can was Ultramarines blue. Always test before you hit models!

Man at least it isn't superglue spillage. iv lost an entire pathfinder squad and some damage on my chapter master i just made yesterday.

Really glad I saw this thread. Great tutorial from tomcat up there. Have D&D mini frosted up from over a decade ago I'm going to try this on!

Also OT: but, LA totally awesome is balls compared to dawn power dissolver. No joke. Soak for 24 hours and most paint comes off under pressure of a water faucet


spoiler of what dawn product looks like, since pic is huge

Can you use Dawn Power Dissolver on plastics?