Victim of varnish frost

[rolo]

It must have been over ten years ago that I bought a can of GW Purity Seal. The stuff in the white can with the blue top. It was a little bit shiny, but not too glossy. Brought out the colors really well, made everything seem a little bit brighter and a little bit bolder. Loved that stuff.

My old can ran out about two months ago and I bought a new one. "Citadel" Purity seal, with a brown/yellow can and a clear top. But it's not the same stuff at all. My models now look like I sprayed a really thin layer of gray paint. Some people like the matt finish but the colors are ... dimmer ... somehow. Very flat. Frosty.

It wasn't especially humid today and while it was a little cool, not especially cold. I've used the old stuff in worse conditions with no ill effects.

Any advice on saving my models? Worst luck, these are four that I'm painting for a friend of mine. I just told him a few hours ago that I finished and just needed to seal them and put on some static grass.

[the solitaire]

You can try brushing on gloss varnish followed by satin varnish after the spray paint fully cured. No other ideas unfortunately. If it is just the coarse surface that makes the colors seem dimmer thinned down brushed on gloss will pick up the colors again

[Kaiowas]

i'd the same issue with the army painter one also. UK winter weather sucks for this seemingly. I bought the vallejo matt varnish and the cote d'arms gloss

both brush on and they work fine for me, obviously more time consuming

[mikeyc222]

It's been a while since I have had that heart break, but I'm told that Testors gloss coat, with a layer of Testors dull coat on top will get rid of the cursed frost.

[rolo]

Heading to my game store tomorrow, I'll keep everyone posted

[J_Bone]

I have had a similar issue when being a bit over zealous with Purity Seal. Anything more than a light coat and you'll have problems.

Last time it happened to me I painted on a new coat of gloss varnish over it and the effect was fixed pretty much instantly.

[the solitaire]

As with most automotive clearcoats, spray on a very thin layer, wait for 10 minutes, add another thin layer, wait for 10 minutes, add a last layer and leave it to cure for a day.

That normally gives you a clean coat of varnish rather then the typical orange peel

[JPS]

My models now look like I sprayed a really thin layer of gray paint.

Was it a white frosty coat that appeared to kill the paint job? Or just a less shiny, matte finish?

Any advice on saving my models?

If it was just a dull finish when you wanted a shiny one, I'm not sure I can help.

But, if it was a white/frosty finish that appeared to kill the paint job, you may be able to save the models by resealing with a glossy spray varnish. I would use a new can and a different brand, but you may have luck by just shaking the ever-loving crap out of the can you have before spraying. It is important that you use a clear glossy spray varnish. My understanding (which could be very wrong) is that the frosting has something to do with the binder not working properly with varnish/sealant which causes the frosting and the most common cause is either insufficient mixing/shaking in the can before spraying or spraying too much on (can't recall which). Apparently, respraying with gloss varnish that has been sufficiently shaken and is not over applied causes the previous coat to bind properly, even though it had already dried. If you need to dull it down afterward, you can go over it with one ore two coats of matte varnish.

My experience was with an old bottle of a matte spray varnish. Sealed a whole team and a day later it looked like I had covered them in dust (rough texture on the minis) and given them a bad coating of white primer. Panicked, searched online, found above advice. One coat of spray gloss varnish cleaned it up like there had never been a problem, two coats of matte varnish brought it to the lack of shiny I had wanted in the first place.

[rolo]

Was it a white frosty coat that appeared to kill the paint job? Or just a less shiny, matte finish?

It looks like an extremely dull, very matte finish. It's like I lowered the color saturation in photoshop. The metal bits look flat, gold became yellow, steel became gray. I say frosty because it's like that super thin layer of frost you see on cars after a super cold night. It wouldn't be a bad look in some situations, if that's what I was going for, but not in this case.

After the first layer looked really frosty, I read the instructions on the can and they wanted me to shake for two minutes. So I stood there like an idiot, two minutes is a really long time to be shaking it. But it looked the same.

The look I want is a slight gloss. What the "old" GW Purity seal had. I'd be more specific but I didn't even know that they'd changed their recipe until Sunday. I used to go crazy with that stuff, spray it on thick. It would leave models really shiny, but then after a day or so it was just a little bit shiny.

I'm buying a gloss varnish tonight, a lot of you guys are recommending brush-on but I'll see what they have. I'll post some before/after pics probably tomorrow evening then.

And I guess if I keep using my GW seal, give "thin coats" a try

[rolo]

Success!!

This is what the models looked like with Purity Seal:

Notice how flat the metal parts look, the general frostiness, and especially the discoloration of the base rims (which were black beforehand)

This is after a quick spray with "Army Painter Aegis Suit Satin Varnish":

Night and day! This is exactly what I was looking for and I couldn't be happier. I expect that the shine will fade a little bit after a day or so, at that point I'll touch up the bases (they're still a bit discolored) and put on flock. But the colors are back to being bold, the metal is shiny again, the models "pop"!

tl;dr: Army Painter "Satin Varnish" is more or less the same thing as the old, shiny GW Purity Seal. GW (or I guess I should say Citadel) current Purity Seal is flat and makes models boring.
Although the Satin Varnish smells a lot stronger than either of the GW versions. Whoo.

And my friend's adventuring party can finally be represented by actual models.

[JPS]

Glad it worked! They look great by the way.

And I guess if I keep using my GW seal, give "thin coats" a try

And shake the ever loving crap out of it first...

[rolo]

Thanks! Guess they're not kidding about that whole "shake for 2 solid goddamn minutes of your life" step

[Chaos Dwarf]

I've had nothing but heart break with the GW varnish. I swear by only the Testors products now. I still insist on shaking for two minutes just in case though

[Dr. Von Richten]

I have one mini which is painted but which I never use and will repaint at some point anyway; I use it now as a 'test' model every time I want to varnish a bunch of mini's just to see how the varnish is affected by the temperature, humidity etc. This way, if the conditions are bad, I 'damage' only one model, and that one I don't care much about.

Also, shake your cans like it's nobody's business, because it matters ... a lot.

[gninocker]

Success!!

This is what the models looked like with Purity Seal:

Notice how flat the metal parts look, the general frostiness, and especially the discoloration of the base rims (which were black beforehand)

This is after a quick spray with "Army Painter Aegis Suit Satin Varnish":

Night and day! This is exactly what I was looking for and I couldn't be happier. I expect that the shine will fade a little bit after a day or so, at that point I'll touch up the bases (they're still a bit discolored) and put on flock. But the colors are back to being bold, the metal is shiny again, the models "pop"!

tl;dr: Army Painter "Satin Varnish" is more or less the same thing as the old, shiny GW Purity Seal. GW (or I guess I should say Citadel) current Purity Seal is flat and makes models boring.
Although the Satin Varnish smells a lot stronger than either of the GW versions. Whoo.

And my friend's adventuring party can finally be represented by actual models.

Thx for uploading these comparison shots. I'm considering on getting a GW (purity seal?) this weekend + a gloss varnish of any brand. To get a solid coat, then matt varnish it.
I used giant rat miniatures (reroll counters) which I held in my pocket to test different varnishes.