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I've been running into problems with my varnishing, and I wondered if anyone has suggestions for something different I could try.

Here's what I've been doing:
1. Shade with inks. If there's a paintjob that doesn't require copius amounts of brown ink, I don't want to hear about it. Brown ink is practically my signature style, and I'd like to keep using it.
2. Wait 24 hours.
3. Varnish with brush-on gloss varnish. I use Vallejo, but I'm not married to it. So far so good.
4. Wait 24 hours.
5. Varnish with Testor's dull-cote, brushed on. I use a rattle can when the weather permits, but that's only for about 3 months out of the year where I live.

That Step 5 is where the problems happen. The solvent in the dull-cote somehow dissolves the ink right through the coat of gloss varnish, and little chunks of ink turn back into liquid and stick to my brush, leaving holes in my ink coverage.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I should try next? Thanks for the help!

I wouldn't have thought that was even possible! The whole purpose of the gloss varnish is to protect everything below from anything above...

I'll be very interested (although not quite as interested as yourself obviously!) in what the cause and/or solution is. Hopefully someone knowledgeabe will be able to chime in. Unfortunately, that someone isn't me :(.

What type of model? I had resin ones where the mould release was a problem and had to use simple green to degreese it.

What exact varnishes are you using? The only dullcoat I found on Amazon that was NOT spray looked strong enough to eat through any acrylics(including gloss coats), and if you sprayed dullcoat from a can into a puddle and brushed it on it'd likely do the same thing. Have you tried another brand of matte coating?

 troa wrote:
What exact varnishes are you using? The only dullcoat I found on Amazon that was NOT spray looked strong enough to eat through any acrylics(including gloss coats), and if you sprayed dullcoat from a can into a puddle and brushed it on it'd likely do the same thing. Have you tried another brand of matte coating?

I tried Vallejo Acrylic Matte Varnish and found that, even when I watered it down, it left little white spots in all of the recesses of the model. So I tried the Testor's Dull-Cote.The spray Dull-Cote worked great, but when I tried the brush-on Dull-Cote, I frequently had the results described above. The Dull-Cote (which comes in a glass bottle) is indeed very caustic-smelling; I have to open the window to ventilate the fumes.

Is there another brand of acrylic matte varnish that you've gotten good results with?

If the varnish has any solvent it will melt/ dissolve paint, I use solvent gloss to soften waterside transfers. Then brush on neat vallejo anti shine matt.

Ive heard about problems with dullcote, that's why I don't use it. Any other brush on varnish should work fine. Personally I use Windsor Newton, but this is all finish, no protection. I will say that with this product, and I assume other brush on matte varnishes, thinning down is to be avoided. I found that this made it pool and leave white patches. You need to control the amount on your brush, wiping off the majority of the excess, rather than thinning it down.

Some more information about gloss and matte varnish might help you. It's a myth that gloss protects better than matte, so I have to question what the point of your gloss coat is.

Have a read of this:
https://www.iwillnevergrowup.com/2014/03/28/hobby-tips-gloss-varnish-vs-matt-varnish-the-logical-myth-explained/

Dullcote is a lacquer. If you're brushing it on, you're probably using a lacquer thinner of some type to clean your brushes?

But lacquers attack basically everything. Lacquer can melt plastic, which is actually partly why it's such a good paint on plastics (it bites into the plastic, it doesn't just sit on the surface).

It can also attack acrylics, especially if you're "agitating" it with a brush, but I've had acrylic gloss varnishes literally crack under a coat of dullcote. I do use the brush on Dullcote, but primarily I use it with an airbrush, and if I use it with a hairy brush it's only to touch up a small area, maybe a decal or something like that, and I do so very gently.

As for what you can do. If you really like the dullcote, you could try waiting a lot longer for the acrylic gloss varnish to fully cure. I'm talking a couple of weeks depending on weather. For a while I was using Gunze acrylics followed by Humbrol clear followed by dullcote and there was some incompatibility in that mix and the only solution was to wait weeks between applying the clear then another few weeks before applying the dullcote.

You could try using a lacquer based spray on gloss under your dullcote, it might have a better chance of surviving, but honestly I've not tried it. Gloss varnish is less sensitive to weather, so you can spray it in weather that would cause a matte varnish spray to frost up, then apply your dullcote via hairy brush. I believe Tamiya make a spray on gloss lacquer, or you could just use Testors Glosscote.

If you aren't attached to using dullcote, you could try Vallejo's polyurethane varnishes in matte and satin varieties. I bought both and find myself mixing them to get the matte-ness I like. A word of warning, like all matte varnishes, test them on something you don't care about first. Mine were sitting in my cupboard for a few years and they went bad. I don't like them as much as dullcote for airbrushing, but for hairy brushing they're a lot easier to use than dullcote.


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 WaveyRaven wrote:
Some more information about gloss and matte varnish might help you. It's a myth that gloss protects better than matte, so I have to question what the point of your gloss coat is.

Have a read of this:
https://www.iwillnevergrowup.com/2014/03/28/hobby-tips-gloss-varnish-vs-matt-varnish-the-logical-myth-explained/

I assume the OP was using the gloss to try and protect from the matte.

One other advantage of doing gloss then matte is you end up with a thicker layer of protection. You could have just done two layers of matte, but then you end up with twice as much of the matting agent on the model.

the solvent in Testors Dullcote is particularly strong. It's dissolving the gloss varnish as well as eating into the inks.
I think the only way to use it would be by putting it through an airbrush.

You could try GW Stormshield?

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Ive heard about problems with dullcote, that's why I don't use it. Any other brush on varnish should work fine. Personally I use Windsor Newton, but this is all finish, no protection. I will say that with this product, and I assume other brush on matte varnishes, thinning down is to be avoided. I found that this made it pool and leave white patches. You need to control the amount on your brush, wiping off the majority of the excess, rather than thinning it down.

It sounds like this is where I was running into problems with the matte acrylic varnish I had tried earlier. I'll give this technique a try. Thanks!

It tried it out on my latest mini and it worked great! Thanks for the tip, queen_annes_revenge!

This thread has been quite enlightening - thanks for raising it!

I avoid brushing on varnish if I can help it, I like to use a rattle can followed by a hair dryer to ensure no unwanted frosting. Just be aware of flammability

 Pariah Press wrote:
It tried it out on my latest mini and it worked great! Thanks for the tip, queen_annes_revenge!

No problem!

Since you already use gloss varnish for protection, you can use just thinned down acrylic medium to dull the shine down. Doesn't have to be a matte varnish as such. Lahmian medium will probably do the trick just fine, or any other cheaper alternative.

I just happened to have bought my first pot of acrylic medium! I'll try that out.

I've done this (applied medium over gloss varnish - although potentially not thinned...) - just don't let it pool.

QAR has it right. I also use Windsor Newton matte varnish but I airbrush with mine. I've never had a problem with it.

You could always try gloss coat first.
Let it cure properly.
Then go matte coat