Saturday 13 August 2011

The dreaded [War]-Jack Frost strikes again.

When the pictures of my new Space Marine Dreadnought were being taken, the model had not been varnished yet, due to a period of wet weather in up here in normally sunny Scotland (yeah, I know!). Finally I looked out of the window one breakfast time last week and saw it was dry and sunny. Excellent! So I rushed out to give the piece and quick coat.

The dreaded frost

Unfortunately, it would appear that it was still to damp or cold or at least clammy, as the dreaded varnish frosting hit my smooth clean paint-job. Now I've experienced this before on my Warmachine Slayer last year, so I was disappointed but not panicked by the prospect of trying to get it back to some sort of fit condition.
After a coat of gloss Varnish

So first job - hit the effected areas with some gloss varnish. This is what I did last time, and it fixed most the problems. This time - not so good. It has improved some areas, but not all. The effect is more visible, ironically, because of my simple faster paintjob, as the imperfections show up on the simple flat surface more. On the areas with more variation (such as the scroll on the left leg) the effect has decreased enough for me to leave it. I will however try a "Plan B" for the front surface, as it is most evident there and if the need comes to repaint it's just a coat of blue!

Post nail polish remover
Plan B is nail polish remover on a cotton bud. As you can see it seems to have taken most the varnish off and some of the paint. This is why I have shyed away from applying it to a more detailed area. It's still a little rough though, so some light sanding will be needed.

Repainted
I did a small amount of light sanding (with some wet & dry paper) but the finish was still a bit rough. I stopped there anyway and re-applied the blue paint. Not as good as the original silky smooth finish, but alot better than I started out with, and should be fine on the table.

4 comments:

Scott said...

I just had the same thing happen to me on a sign I made. I was able to remove the frosting by using a hair dryer. Using the heat I was able to remove the moisture trapped inside that caused the frosting.

Possibly worth a try on a mini.

Scott

Sam Pate said...

Nice tip, Scott. I'll definitely try that should it happen again. And considering the poor summer Scotland has had I wouldn't bet against it!

Dave Garbe said...

Paint on the varnish!
http://www.wargamingtradecraft.com/2010/09/liquidtex-matte-varnish.html

Dave said...

I've totally given up on spray varnish as it's too 'risky'. I have found though, that if a spray varnish goes frosty then painting varnish over the top seems to work, :)