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Watching the Long War on Next Level Painting, one of his "hacks" he uses is to gloss varnish his minis before washing to keep the wash only in the recesses and reduce the need to later highlight. The same guy also has a tutorial on spikey bits where he uses GW gloss washes with a similar intent and likens them to "cheating" they work so well. He doesn't, however, compare the two methods and I was wondering if people here had experience with these techniques. I am considering doing either or for my next batch of Deathwatch termies. Thanks.

Good question, I'd actually not really thought of it myself.

As someone who has done both, I can say that personally the GW gloss washes effectively replace the old technique of gloss varnishing and washing. The effect is as close to the same as can be, and looking at my painted miniatures, if I hadn't painted them myself I wouldn't be able to tell the difference personally.

The only time I won't use a gloss wash now is if I want a different colour.