Gloss varbish question

[kabaakaba]

Whats for you use gloss varnish? 
any time i'm see my bottle of gloss varnish i can't find a place to spill it on.

[sbarnby71]

If you're asking what do people use Gloss Varnish for, then in most cases it protects painted miniatures, especially when they're being used in games as picking them up, dropping them, shoving them around can chip or even wear away your nice paint job.  Another use for me is to apply over a painted mini before I apply a wash to help the wash flow away from flat surfaces like armour.  Some people also use it to make gems and things look more shiny.

[Sky Potato]

Applying decals is much easier over gloss varnish

[LameBeard]

Metallics tend to want a gloss rather than matte finish.

 

Gloss tends to be more hard-wearing. In some cases (including examples above) you want a gloss coat, then some other effect, then a final matte (or satin) coat as a finish.  

[kabaakaba]

43 minutes ago, LameBeard said:

Metallics tend to want a gloss rather than matte finish.

 

Gloss tends to be more hard-wearing. In some cases (including examples above) you want a gloss coat, then some other effect, then a final matte (or satin) coat as a finish.  

Thanks, that's the answer imma looking for. 

[Grotsmasha]

Gemstones and eye lenses are great places to add reflectiveness to with gloss varnish.

[Bryan Blaire]

One thing I’ll say for using gloss varnish for gems or eye lenses - don’t build in a tremendous (or any) shadows and light glints. The gloss will cause the object to shine and shade oddly against pre painted shadows and light glints, so you may have a bright spot in the area where you painted the shadows, or darkness reflected across where you painted up a light glint due to the room lighting reflecting off the gloss.

 

If you are using gloss varnish on gems and eye lenses, it often better (at least it looks better and reacts to the surroundings better) to do a darker defining area around the rim, and then let the gloss do the rest.

Edited 18 hours ago by Bryan Blaire

[gideon stargreave]

Do you water it down? It’s so thick

[Bryan Blaire]

52 minutes ago, gideon stargreave said:

Do you water it down? It’s so thick

I will if necessary, about 1:1 with a thinner/colorless medium, but it depends on what I’m doing. Different brands have different thicknesses and can be impacted differently by evaporation.

 

I use varnishes from non-GW sources - AK Interactive, Monument Hobbies/ProAcryl, and Vallejo are all good, but I know folks like some other brands too (I personally prefer AK and MH/ProAcryl’s offerings). I pitched all my GW mediums and varnishes except the Contrast Medium.