I'm new to painting miniatures and was wondering what everyone's opinion on varnishing their completed X-Wing repaints. I heard plastic miniatures don't chip easily and for metal minis but paint rubbing off through use is a common issue. Also, a common practice to fully protect miniatures (especially metal ones) is using a coat of gloss varnish for protection and then a coat of matt to remove the glossy sheen is a common practice. Is this what X-Wing painters tend to do as well, or is it unessesary?

I was thinking of either leaving my repaint as is but painting a gloss varnish over certain areas of the ship specifically for the shiny effect (on the cockpit, engines, and on some metal bits), and I do have matt varnish I could paint on the rest, but if it might dull the colors, I wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort or not.

Anyway, I hope you guys could tell me your experiences with varnishing or not varnishing your X-Wing ships and how you typically go about doing it.

I have used a gloss coat followed by a matte spray on some of my repaints and not on others. Not sure it really matters much but that probably depends on paints used and what model you are talking about.

Applying a varnish is good for more than just 'chipping' it is also good to keep the paint from being worn off due to use and handling. These paints will wear off if handled over time, the varnish helps stop it..

So will a coat of matt varnish be enough to help keep the paint from rubbing off? I have vallejo matt acrylic varnish and vallejo gloss acrylic varnish, so I'd be brushing it on. I guess I'm just worried that it might end up dulling the colors or something if I do a layer of gloss and also matt, so I'm thinking of maybe just doing a coat of matt while glossing certain parts.