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A good matt varnish?


Sparzanza

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For the record Humbrol 49 is an enamel varnish which from my experience would never use for anything, especially since it's thinner/solvent can damage expensive decals.

 

Never happened to me. I have used it for so many years. The only problem I've had with it has been since I returned to the hobby and Humbrol came up with a new "recipe", causing the varnish to get the consistency of jelly after a handful of uses. This is even after cleaning around the lid thoroughly before putting it back on.

 

The old, good varnishes are orange, almost red as you open the tin. They require no thinning, and no stirring. A little shake is all you need to perform for them to spray beautifully. They are touch-dry within minutes. This even goes for their gloss varnishes. I have found two of these cans in shops since 2013. The rest have been garbage. Old recipe Humbrol varnishes are simply the best, changing the recipe was a huge mistake - but not once have they affected the decals in any way, shape, or form for me.

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Never happened to me...snipped...

 

That is because, if you did as you said, never bothered to add thinner to the airbrush cup, which can splash and damage decals.

Edited by Gigant
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I will try water. Clumping and blobs was not the issue. It just stopped spraying randomly every 3 seconds, like the varnish dried too fast or something. My main gripe when shooting acrylics.

 

I thinned it with alcohol as I figured it would do a better job at thinning than water. But yeah as you and Hardcore suggested - water. I will try it.

Just try alcohol base acrylics like Tamiya or Gunze, that's totally different than the Vallejo-like paints.

 

Otherwise, MRP seems to make a pretty good air-brush ready varnish, which DOES dry (whereas the Alclad ones never does).

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Are all the matt finishes we use varnish? 

In the art world varnish has been  used for hundreds of years to protect the oil paints of fine art. After a number of years the varnish darkens so it later has to be expensively removed to enable a person to see the original brilliant colors. 

Will this happen on our models?

Should we worry about it?

:hmmm:

 

Let's talk about it in 200 or 300 years, when the humans from space will try to settle again on Earth after the nuke fallout of WW4 are no danger anymore. They will dig into the ashes and maybe find one of our stash !

 

Then they will fight about strange facts like "RLM81 was violet-brown. No it was a dark green, you believe it was brown but it's because of the varnish which has darkened".

 

Life is an endless cycle. :)

Edited by Zero77
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Really it's only the carrier and smell. The particulate is all acrylic and performs same.

 

I don't mind the smell. I just remember the lacquer varnish I used interfered with something on my Hurricane causing the paint to crack quite a lot, forcing me to partially repaint the underside. It also left weird spots on the upper surfaces. This is what I am not too keen on experiencing again.

 

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Just try alcohol base acrylics like Tamiya or Gunze, that's totally different than the Vallejo-like paints.

 

Otherwise, MRP seems to make a pretty good air-brush ready varnish, which DOES dry (whereas the Alclad ones never does).

 

Thanks for the tip. This month I can't afford anything. Probably not the next either. Perhaps in january.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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