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This may be belated news to a lot of you, but I popped into GW not too long ago to replace my trusty purity seal spray which had kept the faith for well over 5 years on and off. I was slightly perturbed to find that apparently GW no longer produce matt varnish - the only stuff they had was a 'satin' finish, which although not too OTT, is still a gloss varnish. Surely I can't be the only one who thinks gloss varnish is the work of the devil? Why would anyone spend hours painting a mini and then spray it shiny? I ordered some Army Painter matt varnish from Maelstrom which will hopefully do the job. Anyone know why GW have discontinued matt varnish? Seems a ludicrous business decision to me.

Who's Matt Varnish? Sorry to hear he died.

Chipping in to agree that a satin finish is indeed the work o' the devil. I believe GW ended the colour Tin Bitz too; these two can be filed in the same folder, labelled LAME.

You could go to a hardware/paint store and buy a can of matte varnish. I got a can of krylon over here for like $3usd. Matte varnish is amazing stuff. I guess its a good thing I have a couple pots of tin bitz hanging around....

??

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat190010&prodId=prod1200065

Edit: Perhaps it is only available in America since it does say North American.

The title of the item link is Matt Varnish Spray ( North American) so I would say it is a fair bet that it is US only.

Also, that can design is quite old - I remember that from years ago so I wonder if it is stock they have surplus?

Haven't been able to buy truly matt GW varnish for years. The move to satin was indeed the work of the devil.

I now use Humbrol spray and Vallejo paint-on matt varnishes.

I've had success with Testor's Dullcote too, but its not that easy to find in the UK, whereas I can get Humbrol stuff at any model shop, even Model Zone.

I'm not sure if Krylon is available as a brand in the uk though.

So if we can all agree that satin varnish is bad, and let's be honest, you don't have to be an experienced modeller to appreciate that, then why have GW made such a frankly appalling business decision? I mean, presumably they have some gamers / hobbyists advising them? Surely they aren't all faceless suits who have zero interest in the medium? I realise this is probably the latest in a long line of bizarre GW decisions but this seems frankly like lunacy to me.

This is totally my guess, and not based on anything other than my own unfortunate experiences with the last couple of "true" cans of matt varnish I bought from GW, but I wonder if they had problems guaranteeing the quality? The last 2 cans I bought dumped that horrible white crud all over my models and I had to strip them and repaint them. Fortunately it only affected a couple of models, not a whole unit or something, but it was a heartbreakng experience!

The first time it happened I just binned the can immediately and went out and bought a new can. Which then despite a good 2 minutes of shaking the poo out of the thing, and good atmospheric conditions, promptly did it again over another model. So that can went in the bin too and I never bought another can of GW spray ever again.

If others had similar experiences, I can see why they might pull the product. Still, if Humbrol and Testors can manage the trick of getting it right, I don't see why GW couldn't.

Of course this may be my total imagination, but as they still sell other spray cans, and it was clearly a necessary product for their range, I can't think of any other obvious reason. If any former "insiders" have any better info I'd be interested to hear.

Whatever else we may say of them, GW have a good track record of not selling something they know to be faulty.

I think Osbad has nailed the reason. I would be interested to know if GW would have given you replacement minis for the damaged ones; since they do for other reasons.

The only other sensible reason that I can come up with is that the regulations governing the control of hazardous substances could have changed substantially in 5 years. It simply might not have been possible for GW to produce a matt varnish using available chemicals for the right cost.

I often see products available in the US that can not be readily sources in the UK/EU; this is purely down to legislation. Sometimes I really envy those chemically addled Yanks and there beautifully protected miniatures!

Don't worry, for a marginal shipping and handling fee, I can make sure you have plenty of Matte Varnish

notprop wrote:
The only other sensible reason that I can come up with is that the regulations governing the control of hazardous substances could have changed substantially in 5 years. It simply might not have been possible for GW to produce a matt varnish using available chemicals for the right cost.

I often see products available in the US that can not be readily sources in the UK/EU; this is purely down to legislation. Sometimes I really envy those chemically addled Yanks and there beautifully protected miniatures!

Tend to agree with you also
though I doubt if the chemicals used for the matting agent has any harmful effects- but open to corrrection if someone lnows otherwise.

Matting agents seem to be fickle. Recently started using Tamiya Matting agent as after a while both Humbrol and Vallejo started giving an egg sheel shee to the finish.
At first it too was brilliant, but the last time i tried it, it didn't work. Ended up adding more and more layers of varnish trying to matt the piece down till it flipped and frosted GGRRRRR!

notprop wrote:I would be interested to know if GW would have given you replacement minis for the damaged ones; since they do for other reasons.

The first time I did it, I assumed the can was old, or had had an adverse reaction to temperature or something. I hadn't heard of the phenomenon before and it was new to me, so I chucked the can and tried again. I was disappointed with the second can, and could have pushed for one, but decided not to as I couldn't really be bothered arguing the candle for £6 or whatever it was at the time for a can. As the model was metal, the damage wasn't irrepairable so I just decided to leave it at that. Had I ruined an entire plastic unit, then things might have been different however!

As Chibi mentions, I have heard of (although not personally experienced) problems with other makes of matt spray varnish, so maybe GW just decided they couldn't guarantee the product being up to their desired standards on a regular basis and carrying it wasn't worth the risk.