This week was very stressful. I invested in a
collection of about 200 28mm painted plastic ACW infantry. They were finished with satin/gloss varnish so
I organised them on trays to spray matt.
All my 28mm figures have been successfully sprayed with matt varnish with not a single failure. This time I was too impatient to spray them so took them out to my garden shed on a cold wet day Scottish day and a catastrophe ensued. A 100 figures approximately went frosty, some very much so! Aaaagh disaster!
All my 28mm figures have been successfully sprayed with matt varnish with not a single failure. This time I was too impatient to spray them so took them out to my garden shed on a cold wet day Scottish day and a catastrophe ensued. A 100 figures approximately went frosty, some very much so! Aaaagh disaster!
What to do –
I washed some in warm water no effect, painted some with white spirit – it looked
good at first but dried to frosty. Repeated
each method with no effect. Repeated again
no effect. Panic heightening at each failure!
Then my
friend Jack Glanville told me of his solution.
Olive oil! Yes amazing. A brush with some extra
virgin olive oil worked perfectly. The
figures emerged with no frostiness but with a glossy sheen. Saved saved! I have now got them back to the desired matt state. My thanks to Jack - I owe him a couple of drinks.
Here are some
photos of Zouaves before and after the olive oil treatment.
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| Some were much worse than this |
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| The other side - panic! |
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| After the olive oil - with no extra coats of matt varnish. Saved! |
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| Back view - after 3 days of the olive oil drying - much glossier originally |
Another thing you can do is spray again with full gloss varnish. It gets rid of the frosting and you can spray with matt when the weather’s better. But good to hear the olive oil worked for you! Phew!
ReplyDeleteGood advice Bill, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI'll remember that one!
ReplyDeleteGood tip there. I spray over with gloss varnish then respray with matt.
ReplyDeleteI had the same issue last year but didn't know any of these tips and had to repaint! good to see an actual example of it working!
ReplyDeleteI always found the Olive Oil to be best, over srpaying just tends to soften the figure. I have a box of stuff now waiting to be varnished. Oh for a dry warm day.
ReplyDeleteI also gloss varnish and then matt to solve this problem.
ReplyDelete