Nightmare while varnishing.....

[Army of One]

Howdo all......bit gutted but stumped......I was spraying my Su25 with a rattle can of humbrol Matt varnish. Can shaken for two minutes (given the stare that says get out by SWMBO'd). The model is pained in 3 colours on top....two  acrylics and an enamel from a tinlet.....sprayed the topside and after a few seconds one of the colours from the tamiya acrylics 'wrinkled' I don't know why. The paint used is reasonably new and the one that wrinkled was used on my Havoc...same jar n same rattle can.....didn't happen then. The only difference when sprayed was the havoc was in a warm room n the Su25 was done in a very cold conservatory.....can't believe that that has anything to do with it....any ideas as to why? Any ideas how to rectify..? It was a coat overthe decals to seal them.......many thanks......H

[deathjester]

Ah yes, I've had that.  It always seems to happen when acrylics, enamels, and spray varnish are used together.  Use one sort of paint, or the other, but don't mix them.  How intense the spraying is seems to have a bearing on it too - a quick, light misting of varnish works ok, but spray a little heavy, and wrinklage occurs!
As for a remedy, I've tried smoothing them out, but it's not that effective - best thing to do: wipe the paint off of the affected area, and repaint.

[Army of One]

Mr DJ.....gratitude......it seems to have settled a bit now....gonna try a nail buffer in the am......the area effected would appear to be the bit that boy the most of the varnish....wing tips n tail fin are ok but would appear to have had a lesser covering....I'll see how it is in the am......don't see how the Havoc wasn't effected when I used same paints on it....thanks for the reply.....H

[deathjester]

Mr DJ.....gratitude......it seems to have settled a bit now....gonna try a nail buffer in the am......the area effected would appear to be the bit that boy the most of the varnish....wing tips n tail fin are ok but would appear to have had a lesser covering....I'll see how it is in the am......don't see how the Havoc wasn't effected when I used same paints on it....thanks for the reply.....H

I guess it would be what affects a lot of modelers - SDL : Sheer Dumb Luck!

Hope you can fix it ok.

[NARSES2]

gonna try a nail buffer in the am......

Ask SWMBO first 

It's a bugger when that happens. Must admit if I use acrylics over enamels I always put a coat of Clear over the enamel first, same for Tamiya over acrylics. Enamels over acrylics seems to be ok. Where's Nev when you need the chemistry ? 

[Army of One]

It settled down loads by this am to a barely noticeable wrinkle....the only thing I can think of is the klear reacted to it as it had had a coat of that for the decals.....I'll see what happens with a gentle buff tomorrow with a nail buffer......I was gutted last night but not feeling so bad today.....H

[JayBee]

Temperature and humidity, thats the problem.

Like your women you have to keep it warm and comfortable

[Army of One]

JayBee.....so would spraying in a cold....unheated n very cold conservatory....have an almost immediate effect on the finish...? Just for future refference............H

[ChrisF]

My similar troubles are well documented on here elsewhere but yes another good reason why i've gave up on enamels completely 

[Mossie]

What do the 'wrinkles' look like?  Is the whole surface wrinkled in a fairly even pattern?  If so I'd say it was down to the temp & humidity like Jim mentions.  Cold temperature affects rattle cans badly, you can't keep the pressure up & you get an orange peely or splattery finish.  Try keeping them in the room with you, or pop them in a narrow jug/vase of warm water (so the majority of the can is upright in the water).

If it's more 'crazed' & random (like happened to Ron's Hellhound here which he turned around magnificently) you've got a reaction of the enamels & acrylics, which could have been kicked in when the varnish started to penetrate the top layer.  My advice is try not to mix the two types (sometimes you get away with it, other times not) or do like Chris said, put a layer of Klear between the two types of paint.

[Army of One]

Mossie.......the upper cam scheme is a three tone affair....I used two Tamiya acrylics and a Humbrol enamel for it. The rattle can had been kept at room temp.........coz of worries re smell/fumes not mixing with my two year old son/SWMBO'd cats I used it in the doorway (o/s door) to the conservatory....the temp o/s was very cold...I brought the model back in and put it on a table.....I then noticed that the area covered by the enamel 'wrinkled'....this was within a minute......the effect was like having used a heat gun on paint to strip ot....not bubbled though.....an irregular sort of honey comb bout the only way I can describe the effect...........

[Mossie]

Does sound like a reaction.  Was the Varnish acrylic?

You can sometimes get away with mixing the types if you put the enamel over the acrylic (I'm guessing that you put the enamel on over the tamiya paints & that's why it didn't react then), although somtimes not.  Do it the other way around though (acrylic over enamel) & your bound to have trouble.

When it happened to me I filled the lines using putty, then coated with Klear before repainting.

[Army of One]

The model was undercoated white then brush painted in a Tamiya acrylic all over the upper surfaces....the other two colours,the darker ones,were added next but only over the lighter shade and not ech other.....the klear followed by decals then more klear....not excessive.....two days drying then the varnish. I will hopefully sort it the next few days....H

[matrixone]

It appears the coats of the varnish was put on too heavy for that combination of paints, lighter coats of the varnish would have prevented that from happening.
I have never had anything good come from thick coats of varnish not matter what brand is used.


Matrixone