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Hi all!

This is my first post here. I used to play Warhammer 40k (Orks) as a teenager and have recently gotten back into board games and wanted to pick up the hobby aspect again so I have been painting the miniatures. Below is a goblin archer from Massive Darkness I have completed. After spraying the matte varnish (Purity Sealer) and taking an up-close pic I noticed the odd texture on the mini. Spray can was shaken vigorously for 3 minutes, sprayed in sweeping motions at a good distance and the temperature is perfect today. Any idea what this is and how to remove it? Is it dust particles? Any other ideas? I really appreciate the help! I've enjoyed getting back into the miniature painting hobby (not that I've overly good at it) and would hate to have the final result have some odd texture.

Uh-oh. When I read the title I thought "purity seal", and when I saw the pic that confirmed it. Astounding that they still haven't fixed it after all these years... at least it was only one model.

I used it ages ago with no problems on maybe a dozen minis, but even then I'd heard it could cause problems. Then one day I nearly ruined a batch with it. I've never used it since. Complaining to the guy at GW didn't help much. I've heard excuses like "a bad batch went out" but this was years back.

Varnishing is the most risky bit of painting. I avoided it for years after, using brush-on when I absolutely had to. The most confident varnishers I've spoken to all use an airbrush. Many canned spray-on matte varnishes will have some risk of misting, but there are some that stand out as being better than the rest. I recently tried Testors Dullcote and was impressed (but still very nervous!). I've heard it doesn't provide much protection though, so if you want that I've heard you should use it over a harder gloss varnish.

Regarding spraying technique, sounds like you are on the right track, but two more rules: 1) Always spray on a test model first, every session, to catch issues before they cause strife. 2) less is more- you can always put another coat on. Another tip would be that matte varnishes go on easiest over a smooth gloss coat.

The good news is that there is a way to (mostly) fix your model. The white misty effect is caused by a microscopic rough texture that scatters light (or so I've heard). You need to smooth the surface out again. Test the theory by painting some clean, clear water onto the mini- before it dries you should see the misty effect diminish. The solution is to paint the model with gloss varnish- perhaps several coats. This gets rid of most of the misting but creates a new problem of how to get it matte again! I tried Vallejo brush-on matte varnish for this, but it was really not great- sometimes I just couldn't get it matte, even with shaking the hell out of the bottle and many coats, and it would sometimes leave white residue in crevices once I got frustrated and started putting more on than I should. Now I'd just use Testors I think.

Hope this helps. Interested in any other responses you get!

The varnish dried before it hit your model, most likely. I've had this happen with Army Painter Matte Varnish before - I will now ONLY use Testors Dullcote for rattle can varnish. When I had my incident with Army Painter varnish I came here and asked about it as well. My model looked pretty much just like yours. I received several suggestions about how to fix it, including brushing on olive oil or dabbing on isopropyl alcohol. Ultimately I found that the effect could be reduced to a degree, but that the coat of varnish was tough. It took several passes of gently rubbing alcohol on the model with a cotton swab to significantly reduce the effect.

You can fix this a number of ways - Liquitex makes a product but I'm not sure which one it is. You can also satin or gloss varnish it again and it'll fix it.

If it's humid or hot (or both) this'll happen to most flat-coat sprays.

Thank you all for your helpful comments! I will try the q-tip + alcohol trick and see if that helps. It's 65 Fahrenheit today and I was about 8-10 inches away as suggested. I live in a very dry climate, think it still dried before hitting the model?

Perhaps it has something to do with the batch session I did. I had 12 of them, lined them in a row and sprayed from off to one side, then over the models to the end and a bit past, then the other way. Right away I turn them 180 degrees to do the same to the back. From there I do the top and both sides with a final one at an angel (I lay the models down) so the spray goes kinda "up" the mini to get underneath arms and whatnot.

See any holes with my process?

As for the Purity Sealer, I have read about bad outcomes as well, mostly about a white mist and images showing it. A co-worker of mine who has much better paint jobs that I for tabletop gaming uses it all the time though and said it is fine. Is this really they "white spray" often talked about?

Again, really appreciate the info! I'll post a pic after the alcohol work later today.

I found that lining my models up was detrimental - the overspray that inadvertently got on the models I wasn't actively spraying is what caused the effect. I would do one at a time to be safe, and don't have the other ones anywhere they can get overspray on them.

 Luciferian wrote:
I found that lining my models up was detrimental - the overspray that inadvertently got on the models I wasn't actively spraying is what caused the effect. I would do one at a time to be safe, and don't have the other ones anywhere they can get overspray on them.

That was exactly what I was thinking after your first comment. I bet there was spray kinda on the sides that settled on them slow enough to dry up. Testors Dullcote was not as readily available and it comes it a pretty small can but if it looks better/applies better I'm up to grabbing it. What makes it so much better?

Sefris wrote:

 Luciferian wrote:
I found that lining my models up was detrimental - the overspray that inadvertently got on the models I wasn't actively spraying is what caused the effect. I would do one at a time to be safe, and don't have the other ones anywhere they can get overspray on them.

That was exactly what I was thinking after your first comment. I bet there was spray kinda on the sides that settled on them slow enough to dry up. Testors Dullcote was not as readily available and it comes it a pretty small can but if it looks better/applies better I'm up to grabbing it. What makes it so much better?

I've found it to be more predictable, and you can barely tell that it's on the model once it's dry. I'm no scientist so I don't know what makes it better in an objective sense, but it has just worked well for me without any kind of issues like this frosting.

So, alcohol messed up the mini. It did fix the texture (as seen on the left foot cape area) however it took away the varnish and paint. My understanding is a spray on matte varnish does not offer much protection but enough to handle the mini with your hands (so okay for board game pieces) but this is kind of a bummer.

So pro: it fixed the issue I posted. Con: I now have one less finished mini.

Is this something where painting on gloss would seal it better and then spray the matte on that? I've never done that before. Finishing up these minis is proving harder than painting them.

Sorry the alcohol took off some paint, that didn't happen for me but the textured coating on mine was pretty thick. I had to use a lot of alcohol to get rid of the texture.

Like I said, the other suggestions I tried included brushing on olive oil, which didn't have much effect. I was too skittish to try glossing the model and then varnishing again on top of that. I think that should work when the varnish is simply frosted without the grainy texture, but I'm not sure how it'll work when there is texture. Stacking up layers of varnish sounded even more risky to me than using the alcohol, but people say it works so it might be worth a shot. Just test it somewhere first like you did with the alcohol.

 Luciferian wrote:
Sorry the alcohol took off some paint

That's okay, I appreciate the help and ideas!

 Luciferian wrote:
Stacking up layers of varnish sounded even more risky to me than using the alcohol, but people say it works so it might be worth a shot.

That's next on the list. It's cooled down now so I'll have to attempt tomorrow. I'll post with my findings though. Hopefully there's a pretty fair solution to this in case it happens again. These sprays sure are finicky.

I have had that happen. Over spray check. Holding the can too far away check. Too hot toocold too dry too humid check. I got an airbrush recently and am moving to Vallejo matte varnish from now on. Cans suk bols ...

Looking around a bit I found this:

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

Spraying on gloss worked pretty well for him and it's reassuring to see actual pictures of the process. This is definitely one of the most horrifying things that can happen in miniature painting!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 jeff white wrote:
I have had that happen. Over spray check. Holding the can too far away check. Too hot toocold too dry too humid check. I got an airbrush recently and am moving to Vallejo matte varnish from now on. Cans suk bols ...

Yeah this is a good call, I just got an airbrush as well amd I will not miss messing around with spray varnishes.

 Luciferian wrote:
Looking around a bit I found this:

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

Spraying on gloss worked pretty well for him and it's reassuring to see actual pictures of the process. This is definitely one of the most horrifying things that can happen in miniature painting!

Fantastic! Will be trying this after the aloted time wait. Great find, thank you very much!

Note:I'd have no qualms against brush on matte varnish but I heard brush strokes are frequent and there can be air bubbles in it. No safe option is seems minus the airbrush.