Master Toddius Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Just got done with my test mini last night and I took a brand new can of $10 GW matte varnish to it. I shook the heck out of it for 15 minutes or so watching a re-run of the Germany vs Turkey match and sprayed my test mini. The "hey look my mini is gritty and grey now" situation occured and I almost threw the can and the mini at the wall... I'm going to take the can and get my money back. :P Now I've dealt with bad matte spray before and in the past bought a new can of $5 krylon artist matte varnish and sprayed the mini which fixed the grey issue. I'm planning on doing this again, but how the heck do you get rid of the gritty surface issue? I carefully took a soft tooth brush and brushed the surface to try and remove some of it (sort of a wet sand) but the surface is still crappy... And i'm afraid to use a metal file to wet sand it... Any suggestions other than stripping the paint off and redoing it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HJL Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 you need to make sure that you shake the can up a LOT before hand, and that you sprey a couple of test spreys onto something else that doesnt matter before hand. if you get a decent jet from it then it is ok, but yes, ive lost countless models to that too, especialy annoying when its the last step and it ruins your peice of art. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outrider Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I just wish i knew it earlier :huh: .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HJL Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 yea, it would be helpfull if they put a warning on the side of the can, something like "be carefull, may ruin your model" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desert Eagle Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Yeah, that's a realy annoying when it happens. Had you thrown them imidiately in some water and used a soft brush you might have been able to salvage the mini, but i think it'll be rather hard to get the colours nice and rich later on. As for the grainy part, maybe a good coat of varnish can even out the surface some. I've noticed from my own varnishrelated accidents that a slightly textured surface gets less noticable with a somewhat thick coat of varnish. But it'll be really shiny and glossy instead, and that looks kind of ugly aswell... If you havn't spent like a couple of 100 hours painting it, i'd vote for stripping the mini and start over, but perhaps someone else has better advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vas Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 usually the biggest things that go wrong with spay paints and varnishes are that you are too close to the model... your environment is too dusty, too cold, too humid...and believe it or not, too dry... there are far too many things that can go wrong when you use the stuff... I tend to try and find the average day...and spray in a garage or something...where there is no wind... usually though, i end up regretting it... the best bet...is probably stripping the model back down again with something like simple green, or I have been told break fluid and transmission fluid...but that stuff is beyond messy and I have never had a complaint about simple green... but you may well be better off starting over. -sorry dude Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Nihm Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 No matter how much I shake my cans I sometimes get the fuzz effect (I suspect air humidity) -> I agree with HJL, now I spray on an old (and gooey, fitting...) DG marine before moving on to the actual model-to-be-varnished. It's the best damn advice there is, in my opinion. I really wish I had known about it before ruining 5 minis.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Toddius Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 THATS EXACTLY HOW MY MODEL TURNED OUT, brother Nihm. I was soooooo pissed. I'm going to try the different varnish as suggested and see what happens. I guess I have nothing to lose but my sanity, and thats on edge as well :huh: Thanks for all the quick responses. Very much appreciated :turned: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vodunius Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 er.. where did you get this brand new can? i was under the impression GW stopped making & selling Matt Spray varnish 2-3 years ago due to their inability to come up with a formula that wouldnt go all foggy at the drop of a hat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Toddius Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 I bought it at the Los Angeles Battle Bunker. I would assume they have the newest stuff there, but i guess that assumption might have been W R O N G! Uugh... To be fair I've had this problem with other brands as well. Its all magic and vodoo to me how one day its great and the next it sucks. But I guess it truly is the margin of error in air temp and humidity. It was probably 73F and relatively dry. I live near the beach, maybe it was the salt water gremlins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan the Lurker Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't but -- you can either hit it again with another light coat of the varnish OR try the brush on version. Sometimes this will reactivate the sealer and disolve the fuzz -- but sometimes it won't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HJL Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 i think the fuzz is due to an inconsistent depth in the varnish. as it was explained to me, if you have varying depths, you get light reflected in different directions which can either make something appear dull (if it is spreyed on from far enough away) or can make it appear as though it has a white powder on it. the best advice again is to shake the can up a lot so that you make sure that the contents are nicely mixed, and to test sprey something else first to make sure that you have a good mist of varnish before going onto your good minis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Toddius Posted June 7, 2007 Author Share Posted June 7, 2007 I went over to my local hardware store and bought a can of Krylon Matte Varnish for Art and shook the hell out of it as HJL suggested. I then test sprayed it on a peice of terrain and it came out clear. So I held my breath and shot the varnish at arm length and pretty heavy. It came out hick but most of the surface issues are cleaned up and the grey is almost impossible to detect. I'll take pics later tonight and post the test mini. Thanks so much for the advice. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzarhands Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Is spray sealant preferable to brush-on protection? I noticed that Vallejo has a number of varnishes, and I was hoping to use their matter one (once I finish a fig to a point where I won't want to change it). Can anyone point me in any direction for online resources as regards final protection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulceber Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Hey, I've used Vallejo's Game Color Satin varnish, brush-on style, and I've found it to be really effective. It's not too much of a hastle to put on (especially if you water it down a little) and it creates a nice protective coat that doesn't make the mini shiney or dull. I HIGHLY reccomend it. :) -MT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpatchers Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 OMG that always happens to me at a horrible times, like to my poor standard. The only way i fixed it was spraying it over again, sure it was glossy, but better than ruined. What i do now is hava a buddy in London sent me over paint on varnish. Liquid gold I tell ya!!! They need to sell it in the us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Bjoern Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 @Master Toddius: I´ve made a similar experience with the black primer from GW. After two hours of conversion from a normal SM dread to a Grey Knight dread i wanted to priming the model black like i´ve done it a hundred times before. But a minute after i put the black primer on it the plastic starts to corrode. I khow how to handle a spray color. The dread was scrap and i was pissed. I went back to the GW-store where i´ve bougth it. To my surprise their was a man with the same problem so it was no problem to get a replacement for both, the primer and my dread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horus333 Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Do what I do, dont use spray. I think the kind you apply with a brush is much better. You can put different kinds and different thickness on different parts of the mini, for example on a sharp edge on a big heavy metal mini like say a dreadnought, you can put 6 layers of the stuff. If you put right on the edge and only there, it wont be visible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakael Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I am also a convert to brush on clear coat. I use vallejo matt and I know that there are other brands as well, also in gloss and satin. All the craft shops will have the ceramcoat and Folk Art brands wich work fine, I use Vallejo simply for the fact that I like all my paint bottles to be the same style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shinohai Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 first thing you do is to not buy gw sprays. whether its varnish or primer, just say NO. its all crap do dont bother with it. next is to buy a varnish that says flat rather then matte. for some reason even though they are supposed to do the same thing, flat has a better success rate then matte. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Toddius Posted June 7, 2007 Author Share Posted June 7, 2007 Thanks again for the advice. The mini can be seen in the wip section if anyone would care to view :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Cadente Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 NEVER USE GW VARNISH!!!! that stuff is aweful, I know its too late, but really, don't ever use it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antarticus Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 Which brush on clear coat works best? Any brands available in the US or Canada? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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