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Ok, I absolutely loved the vallejo matte varnish until I started using it on larger models with dark paint jobs, such as my DE raiders. I applied the varnish with a brush and it would dry to a very spotty and uneven finish. I thought this was mostly due to the uneven brush application so I expected it work much better when I moved to airbrush but that didnt turn out to be true at all.

First the vallejo matte varnish. On the first go it dried just like GW purity seal, i.e. with terrible frosting. Yes, I thinned the varnish down, shook it well and applied it thinly.

I tried the vallejo satin varnish next. I tried it on a small and bright Tyranid model and it was perfect. Back the vehicles though, same issue. The first coats resulted in frosting too. I then learned that the thinner the application the worse the effect gets. Only if I saturated the model with varnish I could get a finish that even began to look like a proper varnish. I couldnt get past a state though where the colors where extremely dulled down, nothing like a satin varnish at all.

Am I just getting bad batches of varnish or am I doing something incredibly wrong? I read somewhere that I should dial in a lowish PSI, but I was working at only 10 to begin with. I thinned the varnish down, shook the bottle well and tried to work as thinly as possible, but like I said that only seemed to make matters worse.

I kept restoring the damage I did to the model with ard'coat which worked perfectly through the airbrush. I'd much prefer a finish that isn't as shiny. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Don't know if it is applicable here but I had a bad batch of Vallejo Matt Varnish and it was frosting really bad no matter how I applied or diluted. Then I tried another bottle and the problem was gone.

Ive had this issue as well myself. It's pretty depressing but you can get rid of it by applying Vallejo airbrush thinner to the frosted model.

I've used it just recently to save a miniature of my own.

I've had similar issues with Vallejo's varnishes, and I have tried different bottles although I suppose it is possible they could both be from the same batch.

I posted in a similar thread recently about my search for a good matte varnish. You can check it out for further information here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/627462.page


I've heard good things about Vallejo's Polyurethane Varnishes.

I'll be picking up about 3-5 different varnishes hopefully today and hope to test them all out on the weekend.