Sunday 19 July 2009

136 FAIL on Veterans

Ok.

For those of you who follow this blog, you may be aware that my veterans - 'in progress' for around 18 months or so - are almost finished.

I actually finished the painting last night, so all I had left to do with them was to varnish them and finish the bases.

So I varnished them this morning. Purity Seal - same as I always use. Brand new tin. Shook it for FIVE minutes. It went on beautifully...then frosted.

Bugger.

Here they are, frosted; though it's not the clearest of pics:
Luckily for me, I discovered a means of limiting frost damage back in January. Unluckily for me, I don't know quite how well it'll work with these. They're not too badly affected, but I've a feeling they're always gonna look a little...dusty.

Grrr.

So what have I learned? There was a lot of discussion around January time as to how to avoid frosting and when/why it occurs. From my experiences, I'm now fairly convinced that low atmospheric pressure is the main reason behind it: I should've waited for a nicer day. I still like purity seal, but I think patience is the true virtue for my future uses.

No work tomorrow!

- Drax.

21 comments:

  1. Frosting sucks! i switched to valejo's dull glaze in a bottle. 3 bucks, will do a ton of models, and no backlashes from mother nature. I highly recommend it.

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  2. Sorry to hear about the bad luck again mate, but they honestly don't look too affected this time round

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  3. Ooh that sucks. So frosted lightning can strike twice. I hope that you can get them to come back up as well as you did before, and I also hope that I don't have the same problem when I get around to varnishing my guys. Let us know if it all works out ok.

    - Courtney @ Cadian 127th

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  4. I feel your pain. I am so afraid of frosting that I pretty much only use brush-on sealers like hardcoat or a watered-down solution of Modge-Podge Matte finish.

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  5. Thanks, Chaps.

    Paul: I'll look into that - I assume one can get Valejo products in the UK...

    73rd: Thanks - I've just touched-up a couple of details and they look okay...everso slightly as if they've just emerged from a collapsed building. Which is apt, I guess, given my style of basing.

    Courtney: Yes, apparently so! The remedy hasn't worked quite so well this time - God knows why - maybe I didn't wait long enough before applying the surgical spirit. Worked a bit though...

    I've just put the rubble on, so hopefully I'll be able to get the bases painted up tonight and get some pics tomorrow morning, weather permitting. These guys have been a looooong time coming.

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  6. I actually forgot to say well done for finally getting these guys done; they do look fantastic together so very nice job

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  7. Ouch!
    That's one thing that always scared me in spray varnishes. I only recently started using varnish at all and I picked up a jar of Humbrol Matt Code, works great as long as you shake it really well.

    Admittedly it seems I might have to pick up one, since I don't brush vehicles and there seem to be a few chips on the Valk!

    I'll have to keep atmospheric pressure in mind. I remember I had similar weird issues with GW black primer. Once it was my fault as I sprayed a day after heavy raining, but the other it was a dry sunny day yet it still went... bubbly? Guess it could've been a similar thing.

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  8. I've heard on a few message boards that GW's Purity Seal is notoriously bad for this, so I'd avoid it in the future.

    I've been using Krylon's gloss varnish, with a coat of either Testor's Dullcote or Army Painter's matt spray to take off the shine. Haven't had any problems, even on the worst days this country has thrown at us.

    Another coat of (good) varnish can also cure the problem, so if your sual method doesn't work it might be worth a try. It's worked for me before.

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  9. I don't know if you can get it or not, but I'll second the vote for Testor's Dullcote. Great stuff.

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  10. Nice models, but isn't there 1 too many special weapons?

    As far as varnish goes, I personally airnush on Klear, which is very high gloss, but very protective, then I nuke the shine with testor's dullcote, as I like my models very Matt.

    It's so matt in fact that it dulls metallics, which I like and water effects, which I reapply :)

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  11. Thanks for all the tips and ideas, guys.

    @ Karitas: I hope to do the proper post tomorrow, with muchos pictures, but basically they're equipped as follows:

    The baldy with the heavy bolter is a 'counts as' G/Sgt Harker; the three special weapons are the grenade launcher, the melta gun and the heavy flamer; and the missile launcher is one half of a heavy weapon crew - I have a base for the two of them - you'll see it tomorrow.

    In addition to that, one of the shotgun guys has a demo charge on his webbing - for when I take that squad upgrade.

    They're pretty tooled-up and (naturally) hugely over-priced at around 205pts.

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  12. Hooray! All finished (at 0100hrs) and if the light's good tomorrow morning I'll get some photos - frost and all!

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  13. I've actually heard that over-shaking can lead to frosting just as much as under-shaking.

    This will of course make you want to poke out your own eyes with frustration, but maybe it will be of some use to you. I usually shake my varnish for 1-2 minutes before spraying. I use Krylon Matte Finish, and I've never had problems (crosses fingers).

    Good luck.

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  14. If I remember correctly, the reason for the frosting had something to do with the amount of propellant in the varnish.

    When you shake the can, you want to combine all the ingredients in the varnish (whatever varnish is made of), but keep it from combining with the propellant, which is more dense, and will gather toward the bottom of the can.

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  15. The frosting doesn't look that pronounced on the pic's - I hope you are able to salvage.

    It's stories like these that really put me off varnishing my models, but i have started to notice that some paint is starting to wear thin even just from the time spent in the travel cases.

    I still love those Forge World shotties your lads are trotting around with.

    Well done on finishing the squad and staying dedicated after 18 months.

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  16. Bugger.
    Well done for finishing tho.

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  17. Well done on getting your veterans complete, at last. Can't wait for final piccies!

    I'm in that "do I dare?" kind of stage myself. The last thing I want to happen is the paint I've already done chipping off, but I really don't want to ruin the model itself. I may have to have a look at brush-on, as this sounds much less risky.

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  18. Argh - Frosting is the bane of my painting existence. Interesting link on how to deal with it though!

    It's been my experience that heat and humidity are the prime culprits for me, too much of either is a recipe for disaster.

    Nevertheless, I like the vets you've done - they look really neat. Keep up the great work!

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  19. I have two cans of purity seal lying around and I'm scared to use them...

    Think I'll find an old piece of model to test it on before spraying it on my lovely DW

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  20. I would, Dazartfox - 20:20 hindsight's a wonderful thing, but I really think I ought to have done exactly that!

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Thanks for taking the time to comment!