Can lamhian medium be used to seal bases?

[Axineton]

So I’m basing a load of hellblasters today with the cracking paint from citadel, just wondering if lahmian medium can be used to seal it or is it not used for that?

If not what is the best way to seal this paints that crack because I’ve seen bits flake off of the Ultramarines I brought off eBay and I’ll have to repaint them bases by the looks of things.

[StraightSilver]

I don't see any reason why not as it is a varnish.

 

If you really wanted to seal the bases though a gloss varnish would be more durable.

 

So a coat of 'ard coat followed by lahmian medium to get rid of the shine would be my best suggestion using Citadel products.

 

There are better varnishes out there but it should do the trick.

[Axineton]

Nice one thanks mate. I do need to pick up some ‘ardcoat soon!

[jaxom]

Watered down PVA glue (like Elmer's Glue) works too.

[Subtle Discord]

Yup, anything from a layer of paint/varnish or some thinned waterbased glue should do it.

 

But that's the solution for the issue once it's a problem and I want to add that the crackle paint that GW makes is great but it really needs something to bite on to in order to really bond with a surface otherwise you have exactly the problem with the flaking that's happening. Before you apply the crackle paint be sure the surface has a good layer of matt primer, some matt acrylic paint, or another method of texturing the surface to give the crackle paint something to bond with.

[Arkhanist]

Lahmian medium will seal the base, but it's definitely not a varnish. It's a matte medium - it's basically citadel paint without the pigment, so it will only be as strong as normal paint is but dries transparent. If that's all the protection you need, then fair enough - it's certainly not uncommon for display models rather than gaming pieces.

 

Varnish is much more robust as it's quite different chemically (different types have alternative approaches to the same problem). So the conventional method would be a thin matte varnish spray coat, possibly with a gloss spray coat first for extra robustness. (gloss varnish is not stronger than matte, but doing gloss followed by matte it's easier to see what bits you've done, or not - and multiple thin layers is stronger than one thick coat, and gives a much nicer finish too). You can varnish with a brush instead, it's just more work!

 

You can varnish the whole model at once if you want the same finish, or do model and base separately then pin together if you don't want them both matte. If there's any small areas you want a different finish - gems, say - you can do a little brush-on gloss varnish on those areas to bring the shine back.

 

Finally, seconding that crackle paint works best when it's over something other than bare plastic; I've had success over a simple paint layer, or a dried layer of dilute PVA (gives bigger cracks)