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I am doing up the basing on my SW army and am at a point where I will be applying snow to the bases and natural areas on top of the shoulders, heads and backpacks. Should I use the army painter matte varnish spray before or after apply the snow? I have a couple practice guys done and am at a cross roads. I have about 30-40 mintues total touch time per model (I only went to a second level highlight) so I would like to get this step done right. Thanks!

How are you applying the snow and what is it made out of? If it's sprinkled on top of glue and is itself matte (baking soda, normal snow flock), matte varnish shouldn't affect the look, much. If you're using something fancy, like crushed glass, or mixing it with PVA into a paste, then it would naturally have more of a sheen which the varnish will do away with. You could always selectively reapply gloss by hand if you want to use the varnish to ensure that everything is locked down firmly, but I've found that gloss over snow makes it look smooth and icy, like drifts that form a hard shell after a partial thaw and refreeze. Looks a bit odd over fluffy clumps or a light dusting, in my opinion.

I'd suggest playing around with your snow effect a bit, applying some test patches to scrap card and varnishing them in different ways (gloss brushed over matte, matte alone, left untouched). That should tell you whether to varnish your models before or after applying and whether post-treatment is necessary.

Right on, yeah I figured as much. I need to get some blank test bases set up amd try different methods out. I have the winterland scenics snow base and am using clear elmers glue. I really like the clear since it looks so much cleaner and not cloudy like the white glue