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Hey, just wondering and making sure i'm correct or if its common etc, So would it be safe to assume most people use a matte varnish finish for a regular mini for e.g space marine instead of gloss?, or do you find more people use gloss?. Or do most people go gloss and then put matte over the gloss? or vise versa.

And for the decals which i have had this question answered before but i couldn't really make sence of it. So was it that i first gloss varnish then put the decal on that, then matte varnish over the decal???

Thanks heaps, and sorry for another thread.


Storm.

Most people don't use varnish on plastic and resin minis seemingly, but generally one would use a matte. Though a gloss can be used for effect as well (I tend to use it on engines glows and similar).

For decals, yep that's right. Worth getting microset/sol to soften the decal so it conforms better to the shape of where you are applying it. Especially on things like marine shoulder pads.

 ingtaer wrote:
Most people don't use varnish on plastic and resin minis seemingly, but generally one would use a matte. Though a gloss can be used for effect as well (I tend to use it on engines glows and similar).

For decals, yep that's right. Worth getting microset/sol to soften the decal so it conforms better to the shape of where you are applying it. Especially on things like marine shoulder pads.

Thank you so much ingtaer. When you say people don't use varnish on plastic and resin minis seemingly, can you tell me what that means , when you say "seemingly", if you could explain it in the most basic of words i would probably understand lol cheers man appreciate it heaps. Like i don't understand what that means.

The topic of varnishing models comes up quite frequently and a lot of people say that they don't use a varnish at all. It is not really needed if you have used a good undercoat as plastic and resin models don't have the paint chip off like you get on metal.

Yeah, i was looking at my old thread of similar subject, and there were enough people saying its better to just do it for overall protection from sunlight and dust to make me thing its needed, and im always accidently touching the models because the bases are so small its very hard to grab base and not bump mini a bit. But if its not really needed that would be cool and save me a lot of time aswell. Oh well guess ill think about it. Thanks heaps.


Cheers, storm.

I would recommend using matte varnish and quick spray from 3 angles each about 1 second from 1-1.5 ft away; yes plastic and resin don’t chip like metal, but the main damage done is by your hands, every time you handle your minis, putting them away, playing games, the oil in our hands rub the paint off.

Edit: for decals, you don’t use a spray varnish; you want to think where you want the decals first, then use GW ard coat with a soft brush to go over where the decal lies, let dry evenly as possible, apply decal, no need to use Microsol if the area is flat like a sheet, use Microsol if there is any curve, you may need 2 coats, then let dry for 30 minutes(don’t apply lahmian medium right away otherwise you get a cloudy effect, redo everything)and apply GW lahmian medium, make sure it gets under any decal air bubbles, if there are any pockets, use xacto knife and poke a hole and apply lahmian medium again, let dry evenly as possible.

Weekly varnish thread :p a coat of matte is all you need really. It gives you a nice even finish. For decals, yeah you can use a gloss before applying, although I personally just use a satin designed for car paint as it makes the final matte coat a lot easier to cover and is still nice and smooth.

Ok thanks people.

Also i just quickly have another question which im glad i have this thread for it. Are mediums usualy either matte or gloss? Or is there another type?


Thank you.

Its a nomenclature thing. You will also find glaze. You want matte or GWs Lahmian.

 ingtaer wrote:
Its a nomenclature thing. You will also find glaze. You want matte or GWs Lahmian.

Haha, what does nomenclature mean. I could google it, but others who are reading might not know i guess

its a posh word for name. lahmain medium is your best bet for what you're after, which i assume is for making glazes and layers.

 Big Mac wrote:
I would recommend using matte varnish and quick spray from 3 angles each about 1 second from 1-1.5 ft away; yes plastic and resin don’t chip like metal, but the main damage done is by your hands, every time you handle your minis, putting them away, playing games, the oil in our hands rub the paint off.

Edit: for decals, you don’t use a spray varnish; you want to think where you want the decals first, then use GW ard coat with a soft brush to go over where the decal lies, let dry evenly as possible, apply decal, no need to use Microsol if the area is flat like a sheet, use Microsol if there is any curve, you may need 2 coats, then let dry for 30 minutes(don’t apply lahmian medium right away otherwise you get a cloudy effect, redo everything)and apply GW lahmian medium, make sure it gets under any decal air bubbles, if there are any pockets, use xacto knife and poke a hole and apply lahmian medium again, let dry evenly as possible.

To add to this here's a Warhammer TV tutorial for transfers:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
its a posh word for name. lahmain medium is your best bet for what you're after, which i assume is for making glazes and layers.

I personally would steer clear of Lahmium and make your own to be honest. I bought a tub of Windsor and Newton Matte Medium and some de-ionised water. Total cost was sub £10, and will do me an unbelievable ammount of home made medium. You can make it as strong or as week as you want, and in as large a quantatiy as you want. Transfering my GW paints to dropper bottles over the last week I went through about 4 15ml dropper bottles of home made medium, which totalled about 12 drops of matte medium, leaving me pretty much afull tub. If I bought Lahmium to do all that then its over £10 already.

If you are so inclined, you can also buy Irridescent and gloss mediums which you can try to make a home made coloured mettalic, or home made 'Ardcoat with gloss medium.

The varnish im using at the moment for glazing lava after painting it says on the front, Gloss medium & Varnish. Its called Liquidtex Professional. I suppose this is same thing as medium that we are talking about.

The best is Golden acrylic varnish. I prefer the satin finish myself but it comes in gloss and matte too.

I like this stuff a lot. I'll use it on the model in a fairly thin mix and do a couple coats, maybe a third in high wear areas. You can also thin it down quite a bit and apply it as an all over sealant for your bases too. Quite handy for that.