Saturday, April 30, 2011

Matt Varnish Issues, Please help!

It all started so well.  I was getting some models finished and I needed to protect them.  I picked up some Army Painter Anti-Shine and in the beginning it worked great!


But now some of the last few models (my best ones in my opinion) have turned out horrible!  I've painted them to the level I desire and sprayed them with anti-shine.  They seem to be scabing up almost like paint left to dry in the sun too long.

I thought this was due to humitity...so I started priming / varnishing in the basement near my de-humitifier.  Still no good.  I measured out the distance of 20-30 cm.  Okay its about 8 inches.  Still no good!  So if anyone can help I'd appreciate it.

My checklist of things to try:
1)  Spraying some of the anti-shine before spraying it on the model (maybe the initial spray is dry?).
2)  Leaving it to dry longer (how long is long enough?).
3)  Don't spray in my box (maybe this will prevent the cloud effect?).

Let me know.  My Ravens need their armor looking their best and anything less is a disgrace to the Emperor!

6 comments:

  1. ***Update*** I have started spraying a bit of the varnish in the box I use to prime instead of on the model. This seems to clear any dried varnish off the nozzle.

    I am also spraying the model on top of the box to eliminate the need to move the model a lot while spraying and to prevent the particles from clouding up inside the box around the model.

    This seems to be helping but only time will tell!

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  2. Hi. Welcome to Blog-land. Nice so far, added you our blogroll and will follow your progress. Saw you over a Jawaballs site.

    I have had a few varnish cloudy days, shake the can for at least 2mins and spray a test on a piece of scrap first. I don't know what causes it, whether it is humidity etc, but since i've done these 2 (touch wood) I haven't had a repeat disaster!

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  3. Thank you for adding me to your blogroll. I do truely hope my blog will be of use to everyone and I think that many senior players will not only be able to lend their support to me (and my club) and may rediscover why they got started to begin with.

    I think I may have solved my vanish issue, and it is doing exactly what you said. Only wish I could save my Necron Lord as he looked amazing before hand. Oh well, a few bad models to save an army of models is well worth it!

    Keep following as I have many posts planned (trying to avoid more than one post a day)!

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  4. I think that the best Matt Varnishes are the ones that you have to aply with your brush or with an airbrush. For example the Vallejo one or the Reaper one.

    That way you have much more control on it and you can apply it really thin if you like.

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  5. I keep hearing that. I'm going to have to give them a test run. But I seem to have figured out how to use the Anti-Shine. Everytime it gets easier!

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  6. I've used Testors DullCote with very little problems. I've heard on the grapevine that you can gloss coat then re-dull coat minis with some cloudyness problems to fix them. Never tried it though...

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