Hi all

As the title suggests, what do you guys do if anything to protect your painted models? I have considered a matt lacquer spray, but worry it will cancel out a lot of the weathering. Any suggestions please?

Cheers

Testors Dullcoat: anytime, everytime.

I tend to double-spray my ships and squadrons, putting them under a lamp a bit to dry evenly, then reapply not long after. It seems to work nicely for me. Yes, that stuff does matte down everything I'm doing, but that's exactly what I want to happen given how many different mediums I work with (it's not uncommon for my ships to look patchy because I use oils next to acrylics, next to artist inks, next to ghost tints. Dullcoat can be murder on plain metals though, it makes them look essentially like their composite colour, so it will depend on what exactly you want for weathering and effects.) In general, I find the matte lacquer spray ties everything together in a way that I like.

Nice, cheers Vykes! I am off crayon shopping soon for my name plaques ;-)

I don't varnish.

I double undercoat and that seems to help.

Then I just shout at anyone mistreating the models.

Testors Dullcoat: anytime, everytime.

I tend to double-spray my ships and squadrons, putting them under a lamp a bit to dry evenly, then reapply not long after. It seems to work nicely for me. Yes, that stuff does matte down everything I'm doing, but that's exactly what I want to happen given how many different mediums I work with (it's not uncommon for my ships to look patchy because I use oils next to acrylics, next to artist inks, next to ghost tints. Dullcoat can be murder on plain metals though, it makes them look essentially like their composite colour, so it will depend on what exactly you want for weathering and effects.) In general, I find the matte lacquer spray ties everything together in a way that I like.

Agreed! I've tried several ways to protect my models, and they always turn out being too shiny or glossy. Testors dull coat is the only one that hasn't messed up my models. I honestly don't see any change at all, even with metal (although I don't use much metal in my painting). If anything, the dull coat has preserved my weathering effects on my ships.

From the way pigments work, I've never seen any product that actually protects weathering without changing its appearance (reduces visual impact 50-75%?). So, for "non-touchy" models I apply them after, OR, I just do the effect 2-3 times as much as I actually want so that when it gets top-coated, it falls into normal range. It's kinda nerve-wracking though, not being sure how much will get retained

I have been using the Vallejo satin lacquer and I like it. It's just a tad bit too shiny under bright light on the bench but under normal game table lighting (whatever that is) it seems to catch the lesser amount of light better. If I have a "flashy" subject, I might use full gloss and dull coat if it's "military". But mostly the satin and I do a quick, thin coat. If you go to my thread (My Go at Tiny Spaceships) and look at my latest rendition of Soontir Fel's squadron, that pic (and a few others) captured the amount of light the satin reflects back.

GW Purity Seal.

Because I'm a cheapass and got like, 5 cans at Half Price before I had to leave the job working for them to raise my Toddler

GW purity seal, I used to like it, until it frosted 120 Vostoryans, 4 Leman Russes, 4 Chimera conversions, 1 Valk, and 20 Abhuman converted militia... Never gone back after that. I hate its guts. But when it worked, it worked fine. I'm not against it, I'm just bitter Like Jbar, Testors really proved itself to me, I guess I haven't actually used much real metal for a while. It does work pretty good in preserving my usual weathering.

And in the High-Humidity back home, I have some Dullcote Horror stories, so yeah, its all relative

I have sprayed with Dullcoat entire armies while in the summer rains that always seem to happen between finishing your painting and the tournament you are painting them for in January.

The question is, would a spray be better than a brush on, given our application?