How do you apply different types of varnish?

[Magos Takatus]

Hi all, I'm just about to finish my Kroot army box and will soon start the varnishing stage. I was planning on using a matte or ultra-matte varnish for most of the miniatures. However, I don't really want to kill the metallic finish on the jewellery and the metal parts of the weapons. I could paint some gloss varnish over the top afterwards, but will that work, or will the matte varnish permanently mess up the finish? am I better using a gloss/satin varnish and then hand-painting the matte varnish on? Or even mask off the metallic areas if I was sufficiently masochistic?

 

How do you typically tackle this dilemma?

[Grotsmasha]

Generally, I settle for the middle ground and just use GW Munitorim Satin Varnish.

 

However, Gloss Varnish is harder wearing, so if you open to brushing, spraying Gloss, and the brushing on Matte will give you the most durable wearing coat.

However, generally the Matte portion of the model is generally more than the Gloss portion, so it will be quicker to Matte the model and pick out the netallics.

Another option is to paint and varnish the model in Matte, and then paint the netallics and not varnish again.

[Oxydo]

Gloss, matt and satin are equally hardy nowadays and has been for maybe 20 years or so. There is no need to go gloss->matt.

 

You can easily spray matt and then apply gloss or satin with a brush to return the metallic shine you want. I do it quite often to achieve wet effects and the like. But as with all things, try it before you commit.

Edited March 24 by Oxydo

[sbarnby71]

Not sure if this helps, but I go the other end of the scale, I don't want any shine coming from my finish, otherwise it looks more like a painted model (ok I'm not the most amazing painter, but I want my stuff to look a bit realistic).  I hit every model with Lahmian Medium to blend and tone down my finish.  Just my way of doing things.  Also I don't play/field my models, they just go straight into a display case so I don't have to worry about handling.

[Magos Takatus]

Thanks. I think I'll try spraying matte and picking out details in satin/gloss. Since nobody here said matte varnish will permanently screw up metallic effects I'll try satin or gloss over the top and see how it works. I'll test it on one of the basic Kroot rather than a Shaper I think. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

You should be fine to cover the matte/satin varnish with the gloss varnish and get a shiny result (I've never had a problem doing this with the Vallejo polyurethane varnishes).

 

As always, if you're concerned, paint up a bit of sprue, spray it with matte varnish, and then put gloss over the top to see what it'll come out like (whilst this is a little bit of a waste of varnish, but nowhere near as much as stripping the models if you don't like the finish).

Edited March 24 by Firedrake Cordova

[Magos Takatus]

The Ultra-matte varnish was a bit much, I put a drop of satin varnish in to balance it out and stop the Kroot looking a bit too dry-skinned. I put some chrome paint on some blade edges, some blood effects over that (army painter dried blood and then Blood for the Bloody God sparingly over that), then gloss varnish over the jewellery, leaving the guns themselves pretty matte. I'm happy with the result. Pictures will later or more likely sometime tomorrow.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Good to hear you got a result you were happy with.  Would it be worth trying AK Interactive's regular "Matte Varnish" when the Ultra Matte runs out, to see if that saves having to do mixing?

Edited March 25 by Firedrake Cordova

[Magos Takatus]

I'll have to consider that. Different projects seem to benefit from different finishes in my opinion and I think ultra matte made them look too dry in this case. I think I do have a few matte varnishes around but I'm not sure how good they are. I'll have to keep experimenting. Anyway, since I'm talking about the models I might as well post the results.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think they came out very nicely.  

 

I like the turquoise quills, the red skin-tone on the Kroot and the mixed tone on the Krootox, as well as the bold designs on the shoulder pads

Edited March 25 by Firedrake Cordova