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Hello,

not long ago I never varnished models, but after playing some time there was abrasion on the paintjob, so i decided to try out varnish. I didn't like the effect of gloss varnish so I bought armypainter anti shine matt varnish. The models I used it on never had big parts of metalics, and on the hole I liked the effect the matt varnish gives.
So in the last month I did paint Magnus the red, took me between 80 and 100 hours and it is my best model to date(but not as good as most stuff here). I especially liked how the armor parts turned out and I was somewhat proud. Today I used the varnish spray and sprayed 3 coats. After the spray dried I looked at the miniature and I got a shock. The metalparts look horrible. The gold really did change in color, the stark contrast between the metal and gold parts is gone. Everything is dull and the color of the metalics is brighter and without shine. i wouldn't say it ruined the paintjob but it has a big negative impact and after so much work I feel deeply disapointed. If I had known how this did turn out I wouldn't have spend so much time. The nonmetalicparts are mostly ok. Big problem is that when spraying I don't see how much varnish got on the miniature so it could be that I sprayed to much varnish.

I did attach some pictures but its an effect that is barely visible one the photographs I have to say.


So my question. does anybody has similar experiences and is there a way to salvage it.

I will be away the next few days and likely not be able to respond to answers.

Matt varnish completely removes any shine from TMM paints. It's actually something I use to my advantage when weathering, I do a final pass after varnish with a metal colour on the chipped areas to give some older, duller wear and some newer, brighter chips.

As for a way to salvage it, you can try a pass with gloss varnish brushed on to the metallic parts, or you can repaint the areas over the varnish and either leave them unprotected (varnish isn't such a huge concern for protection on plastic as it would be on metal) or gloss coat them (not my taste, tends to make them too shiny, YMMV.)

Oh man that is unfortunate.

once the spray varnish is on, its on.

only way to salvage it might be to go over the gold again with gold.

or if you have an airbrush to mask off the non metal areas and go over it with a gloss varnish.

i would try the former first.

mix citadels gloss varnish with water, like a 60:40 ratio. Then paint it across the armor. Do a thin layer or two, don't glob it on cause then it will clog detail..less of it on the brush is better. I believe the eavy metal team also uses gloss on their metallics, like the shiny stormcast armor. I would try this on one armor section, wait till it dries and see if you like the change.

Secret Weapon makes a metallic wash or two that might be able to restore some metallicyness, but yea.

 Thargrim wrote:
mix citadels gloss varnish with water, like a 60:40 ratio. Then paint it across the armor. Do a thin layer or two, don't glob it on cause then it will clog detail..less of it on the brush is better. I believe the eavy metal team also uses gloss on their metallics, like the shiny stormcast armor. I would try this on one armor section, wait till it dries and see if you like the change.

Thanks a lot for all the the help I got. I will try out when I'm back at home next week first painting diluted gloss varnish on a small part of the armor. If this doesn't work I will try to repaint at least all the gold parts...