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Hi, new to miniatures gaming (and the inevitable painting of miniatures) and could use some advice on varnish. I'd prefer a brush-on varnish rather than spray, and have read good things about Vallejo varnish. Anyone have any good (or bad) experience with this? Looks like a layer of gloss varnish, followed by a layer of matt varnish, is the best way to go. Having never used this stuff, i'm just a little concerned about any varnish applications dulling the appearance and colors of the painted model...

You can brush those on, the beauty of brushing meaning you can hit the whole thing with gloss, then pick out the parts you want matte.

There is also a satin varnish which is about half way. You can mix gloss and matte for a similar effect.

Matt hides vibrancy alot, i used it recently on heavily battle worn marines and they look almost too battle worn.

I'm also interested in this topic. Is there any consensus on whether brush on or spray is preferable?

I've always liked the nice matte look models have after being sealed. I typically spray seal models with whatever Krylon is calling it's clear matte varnish at the time (brand changes it's look and some names every couple three years...) and have never really been disappointed with it.

Recently, because spray sealer hasn't been working out so well with bones, I've been using Testors Dullcote lacquer and it's preeety awesome. It goes on by brush without leaving any streaks that I've noticed and dries in minutes. The only (kind of large) drawback is that the stuff sinks to high heaven. I mean, you practically can't be in the same room with it, I try to use it outdoors whenever possible.

As to which is preferable, I think it comes down to what you're looking for and what you're comfortable with. I rarely spend more than a handful of hours on any given model, for those folks who are going to spend a dozen or more hours on a single piece... you certainly don't want to risk ruining something like that. I think both still work in either case though.

 General_K wrote:
I'm also interested in this topic. Is there any consensus on whether brush on or spray is preferable?

Personally, I greatly prefer spray, but that is mainly due to speed. I use floor protector as a gloss (future/klear/whatever) and Vallejo gloss/satin/matte as well. I am tempted to try and make my own satin and matte, given that I have the materials...

All good varnishes will self level, so brushing is not a major deal - I do a lot of brushing of varnishes before decals, before masking, and spot varnishing.

For example, the recent devastators I did. I painted the knee in a sand colour, and shaded it. Then I brushed on gloss varnish, masked it, sprayed it white. Varnished the white, masked it, sprayed it checkerboard. Removed all the masking tape, varnished it, masked it with liquid mask.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/300/648746.page#8406064

Overkill? Absolutely, but it worked, and it was easy.

I don't trust rattle cans due to the number of horror stories about them. I also have a better climate for spraying, as "cold" here is <15C - that said, I know a lot of folks swear by the testors dullcote range

I use brush on - liquitex (matte) because I got a huge bottle on sale. I have reaper and vallejo's small bottles and they're ok - I mostly use them when I want a different finish (have satin, gloss etc). I really like the liquitex tho, it's working great and protects well.

I have used gw's and while it was certainly convenient and seemed to work well... yeah not going to do that again here >< our humidity is simply too high (Georgia). It ends up clouding up or 'spotting' kinda, bit hard to explain.

i personally like using the satin finish the best,
although for some models i add the gloss in some areas
and the satin in others to achieve a certain look