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Hi all,

I have been repainting some FFG x-wing ships and on finishing them used a gloss varnish and then came to dullcote them. Well the dullcote instead has stripped the paint back to bare, anyone know what the issue is? I have never had this problem before and at first thought there was white spirit still on the brush but after a couple of more goes at it has the same effect. Cant for the life of me figure out how a varnish has stripped paint, let alone through another coat of varnish.

I know it's enamel based and has some very strong solvent in it. If the can wasn't shaken enough then the spray coming out often has way more propellant and solvent than the actual varnish. Could that have done it?

Another possibility is you simply got a bad can that has way too much solvent in it.

Are you using a brush-on varnish instead of the can?

Ah sorry it is the brush on stuff and it was shaken pretty well.

I've never heard of a varnish stripping paint, especially a brush on...seems really weird to me. The brush on stuff is usually not as toxic and solvent based as spray paints. You might have a bad one, or maybe try stirring it instead of shaking it. Seeing as how X wing models are pre painted and probably made in china, who knows what types of stuff they used to prime/paint or if there is some residue left on them..if this was happening to brand new GW figures then i'd be even more baffled.

 Thargrim wrote:
I've never heard of a varnish stripping paint, especially a brush on...seems really weird to me.

Then you haven't heard of lacquer based varnishes, which dullcote is. Part of the reason it's so good is it literally bites in to the paint.

I have testors dullcote in the glass bottle vs spray on, however I only use it by airbrush or touch ups with a hairy brush (touch ups meaning when you have already sprayed a dullcote, touch up the paint and need to re-dull the spot you touched up).

If painting lacquer over acrylics by hairy brush, give the acrylics a few days to cure first and minimize how much you work the varnish on the model, just apply it and leave it, don't try and fix mistakes while the paint is still wet or you'll just make it worse.

Or just swap to a spray/airbrush.

Thanks for that Skink, I guess I hadn't left enough curing time. There was maybe five hours between paint and gloss, probably twenty between gloss and dullcote.

 ingtaer wrote:
Thanks for that Skink, I guess I hadn't left enough curing time. There was maybe five hours between paint and gloss, probably twenty between gloss and dullcote.

Yeah, that's nowhere near enough time. Acrylic paints take days to cure completely, I always leave at least 48 hours before any brush-on varnish (spot glossing for decals) and more if I'm not on a deadline. You can maybe get away with shorter times using a spray varnish since you don't have the force of the brush pulling at the softened paint, but for anything with a brush you're risking heavy damage.

Serves me right for rushing to get it done for regionals tomorrow, any ideas of how long to leave it for spray? Obviously longer the better...

For the spray it depends both what you're spraying over and how thick you apply it. If you apply it lightly and over a paint that is naturally quite resilient then a few hours worth of cure is fine.

If you get a bit heavy handed and spray too much what it'll do is dissolve the paint and then as the paint + varnish dries it'll recede away from any sharp edges, revealing whatever colour was under it (or maybe the primer if it soaks through far enough). It's actually a nifty way of getting edge highlights if you had control over it, but usually the effect is undesirable, lol.

Some paints a more delicate than other (Gunze's Acrylics seem to need forever to cure before they're resilient to being sprayed with a lacquer varnish, though I haven't had much issue with other brands, Vallejo Air varieties seem more delicate than the hairy brush varieties of Vallejo paints though).

But in general I just wait a couple of days to be safe either way. Not worth ruining a good paint job if you accidentally spray too much and end up dissolving uncured paintwork.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1724477/so-you-want-brush-testors-dullcote

The bottle stuff isn't really meant for brushing on. You can do it, but you have to be careful.