Advice Needed

[van883]

Why does my humbrol aerosol matt varnish sometimes go cloudy when dry-ruining my lovingly painted kit?

I am at a loss with this!

Van

[Hobbes]

How long did you wait between applying the paint and the varnish? Enamels need a few weeks to completely harden; if you apply the varnish after a couple of days it'll react with the paint.  

[van883]

Thanks,
I use acrylics-the paint was completely dry...cheers


Van

[John Howling Mouse]

May I suggest trying Testors Acryl flat clear (if you're airbrushing)?
Not as good with handbrushing and can go a touch yellow over white subjects but the airbrushed application is amazing.

[van883]

Thanks John, I'm not sure we can get Testors in the UK-I'll check, though

Van

[Allan]

I've always used Testor's flat varnish in the small spray can--it's called dullcote or something like lustreless flat.
Anyway, it's all I will ever use and I recently tracked down some more from a Sydney hobby store and had 8 cans sent to me.
It was getting hard to buy in Australia.
Allan in Canberra

[Andrew Gorman]

Is the Humbrol matte a lacquer?  If so, it can turn white if sprayed on when the humidity is high.  If that's the case, the remedy is just to wait until the weather dries out, or until you can stink up the house with the heat on and just spray on another wet coat.  When that dries the problem should have cone away.  You can do the same thing with a light coat of lacquer thinner, but keep it light- styrene and lacquer thinner do not play well together.  If it's an enamel, is it possible you just layered on too thick a coat, and the matting agent has made the puddles white?  If so, some careful sanding with 800 grid sandpaper from the auto body supply place could work.  These are just suggestions from furniture work I've done- I haven't used the product in question.
Andrew

[van883]

The Humbol is an enamel-perhaps it is the matting agent pooling when I get too impatient or enthusiastic!
I 've been looking for a really flat varnish here in the uk-the testors/pollyscale etc are not AFAIK available here. Hannants acrylic flat is satin, strangely.

Van

[NARSES2]

Hi Van

I've had the same problem with the Humbrol spray varnish recently, which is why I dropped it.

I now hand brushe useing Xtracrylic matt varnish. As you say it does have a tendancy to dry satin, which for a lot of WWII aircraft is probably ok (so shoot me down in flames   ). However one thing I've found is that if you thin it well with Xtracrylic thinners (thanks Geoff) you can get a very matt finish - I was quite suprised how matt my P-60 ended up. Worth experimenting with.

I'm also told a little drop of Tamiya Flat base added to Xtracrylic works well, although the paints don't like each other much in my experience, but thas probably down to good old impatiant me !

[nev]

The other problem may be if you've over applied the paint.

I use a variation on Chris's last suggestion.  Tamiya flat mixed with Future/Klear about 50/50 (the ration can be varied depending on how matt or satin you want your finish).  They do need a good mixing though, and they will start to separate out after about 15 mins, requiring a re-stir.

[van883]

Thanks for all the suggestions-I'll give them a try on some old models.

Van

[SPINNERS]

Bin it, because Humbrol paint is now utter, utter poo-poo (with an english accent) since they moved production to China.  You'd be better off smearing your models with sludge, because that's what Humbrol paint is these days.

That explains a lot. I've re-started after a long, long break and thought it was just my imagination.