<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "At what temperature should I spray varnish?"]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/8.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net At what temperature should I spray varnish?


My question is, at what temperature is it OK to spray varnish models? I am using GW's Munitorum Varnish. The can is various months old but I did use it about a week ago so it's still fine.

The issue is that I live in the UK, and as those of you who live here know we're going through a bit of a cold spell at the moment. I'm impatient to get these models varnished but at the same time I don't want to mess it up and lose the paint job.

Of course the obvious answer is to read the instructions on the can. They state that the temperature should be between 15 degress Celsius and 25 C. I live in the south of England, which is warmer than a lot of the UK, but it's not expected to get up to 15 degrees C until at least the end of next week.

A few days ago I did undercoat various models using GW's Chaos Black spray paint. It was just over 10 degrees when I did it, so below the recommended 15 degrees, but it went fine. I've started painting some of the models I've undercoated and no issues. The reason I risked it is I figured that if it went badly I could just strip the models and undercoat them some other time. Messing up models that have already been painted would be a bit more of a disaster.



So am I overthinking it? Am I OK to spray varnish my models as long as it's not freezing outside? I certainly won't do it if it's raining, but if it's a bit nippy outside does that matter?

I'm not planning to spray indoors, I'd rather just wait until the weather warms up. I live alone so it wouldn't bother anyone else, I'd just rather not breathe in the noxious fumes any more than I need to. I live in a flat and spray on my balcony.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095649.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095649.page GMT At what temperature should I spray varnish? that fickle.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095666.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095666.page GMT At what temperature should I spray varnish?
Usual daytime temperature in the south of the UK for this time of year would be fine, so yeah about 10-15C. Around freezing as we are at the moment, and if you're doing it outside, I wouldn't try it unless your quick, i.e in and out of the house before the can gets cold. Although you could always warm the can in a bowl of warm water before you spray it, or so I've heard. YMMV.

Watch out for humidity though, that's caused me no end of problems with varnish products (Humbrol, Windsor and Newton, the current version of Future/Klear). Probably not a problem at the moment though.

One alternative if you can't get outside is to brush on your rattle can varnish. Bear with me on this.

Decant the varnish from the rattle can. You can do this by getting a container, and a plastic drinking straw - plastic old school McDonalds type works great. Put the straw against the can's nozzle and into the container, and spray. The rattle can's contents will then run down via the straw into the container (a pot or something) and gas off, leaving behind the varnish. Don't close the container up though, bad idea whilst the contents is gassing off.

You won't be spraying all over the place, so it's nowhere near as bad as waving the can around indoors to spray stuff.

Decant as much as you want, if the varnish doesn't dry off in the container, and once it's gassed off, you could transfer it to dropper bottles and use it later if you want.

You'll also save money.

Get a large brush, paint varnish all over the model, job done.


EDITED for clarification/corrections.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095675.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095675.page GMT At what temperature should I spray varnish?
Clears hate humidity. So if the humidity is about 50% I'd say wait. Too much humidity will turn clears milky and so your model now looks like you accidentally tried to clear it with white paint and not clear.

If you can just buy a jar of clear and paint it on with a brush. All the major paint manufacturers have their own clears. I use rattle can and brush clears. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095805.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095805.page GMT At what temperature should I spray varnish?
 skchsan wrote:
Only temperatures in the extremes will have any profound effect on the quality of the varnish. These products aren't that fickle.


Depends on what you mean by fickle.

I live in south norway, during december- feb we can sometime get some pretty cold times and this year we had a record cold period. For almoust 5 weeks in a row the temp did not go above -10*c, so air temp was somewhere around -13 to -16*c.
One day the sun was, out i decided to try gloss varnish during mid day so i guess air temp was around -8 to -10*c in the sun, it did not go well, the varnish kinda steaked and flaked.

I have sprayed at -3*c to 0*c during the winter for many years and know that has no negative effects, so i would say, in general dont spray below 0*c.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095860.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095860.page GMT At what temperature should I spray varnish? http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095966.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11095966.page GMT At what temperature should I spray varnish? http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11096273.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/797448/11096273.page GMT