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Hi all. First post on here.

The other day I ended up watching a Warhammer TV video painting a Sigmarine, and Duncan mentioned using Reikland Fleshshade Gloss on the gold armor. I really liked the look of that and am coincidentally currently working on a different mini that will have a lot of gold armor. Trouble is, I also really like sealing my minis in thoroughly with clear varnish to protect the final product, usually a flat or satin.

Seems obvious to me that the effect of using a gloss shade would be lost if covered by a flat or satin clearcoat -- am I wrong about that for some weird reason? If not, are there any clever ways around that? Would it be the same effect if I brushed a gloss varnish on the gold armor areas after that final flat/clearcoat was on and dried?

Thanks!

I don't know whether this helps but let me tell you about an experiment I just did. I'm painting some red metallic on some custom chapter space marines. I like the gloss finish. I paint all the red, then finish the rest of it just not touching the gloss. I wondered what it would look like if I hit it with flat afterwards. So I got a piece of old sprue and painted it, then hit half of it with dullcote. You might do the same on a piece of old sprue, paint it, dullcote, hit it with gloss again and see how it looks?

just buy some brush-on gloss varnish.
or gloss-varnish the model, if it's more than 50% gold then matt the bits you want.

Yeah a matte or satin clearcoat will effect any other finish when laid over the top. However, you don't need to worry about leaving a gloss finish over your metallics. Metallics aren't glossy in real life, I don't understand this fascination with putting gloss on model metallics.

It’s interesting to hear you say that, Queen Anne (especially since you’re a really good painter ). I’ve also thought of using gloss varnish, but it feels like the opposite of what you’re normally trying to achieve with non-metallic metals, i.e. controlled reflections.

Duncan said to put a gloss on them, so I used a vallejo gloss varnish over standard Reikland Fleshshade on my WH:Underworlds Stormsire's Cursebreakers sigmarines. In any case, paint a thin coat.

The metallics will have the metallic pattern so in any case they will look metal. But they absolutely will lose their luster if you apply a normal wash or a matte varnish on that metallic or gloss surface. If you want to get some of that luster back, apply a gloss varnish over it. You can take it or leave it, depending on the visual effects you want on your minis. It's less important to get that luster on gunmetal or brass than on gold or thematically polished surfaces.

That being said, I have never used gloss washes. It may be that the gloss medium acts as an acrylic varnish itself. Since one point of using the gloss varnishes before sealing is to reduce surface tension for further paint effects, and it is my understanding that is most of the reason why those gloss washes exist.

If you're going to apply a matte varnish to the whole mini, I would use normal Reikland Fleshshade, then the matte varnish, then a thin coat if acrylic gloss varnish on the sigmarite areas.

I don't use gloss on anything, except possibly when I want a shiny black plinth. Satin is as far as I'll go, but I prefer matte. Matte allows the paint techniques you've applied to the model to show, without having any interference from the shine left by gloss. If you speak to scale modellers this is pretty much gospel. If I need something to be gloss, for example the eyepieces of the goggles on the pilot bust in this months challenge, I will use a layer of clear acrylic resin.

But as i mentioned before, not many things in real life are truly glossy or shiny, even metals. And if you use metallic paints, the glitter/ metal flake in them actually benefits from being toned down a little. That's why I don't lose sleep over using matte varnishes on metallic paints. You're not suddenly going to have flat colours.. Other wise you could just apply matte over a true metallic metal painted area and boom, non metallic metal! If only it was that easy

Thanks everyone, this was super helpful!