Testor\'s Dullcote and blending?

Cosmotiger

New member
This is kind of a newbie question, I know, but I haven\'t painted minis in years, and now that I\'m back into it and experimenting with new techniques, I noticed something that I never noticed before. I sprayed a painted miniature (Vallejo paints) yesterday with Testors Dullcote, and it seemed to have a definite effect on the blending- it seemed more stark and less subtle. Areas that were dark grey seemed to dissapear into the black undercoat, and some of the highlights became less pronounced. I used two coats, one light dusting and then a heavier wet coat to give a smooth final result. On a second mini, as an experiment, I used a Satin spray then a dullcoat, and the effect seems even more pronounced- the highlights are very subdued.

Is this just a inevitable side effect of the dullcote, or did it react in some way with the paint? I\'m concerned with protecting the paint from handling, but I definitely think that they don\'t look as good after spraying. I\'ve been told by one knowledgable painter that he doesn\'t put any kind of clear on his minis, and hasn\'t had any chipping problems even on gaming minis, although other have stated that it\'s mandatory for protection. So I\'m looking for more input...
 

mouse

New member
yup...

...varnish coating does in some ways dull the contrast of colours...

a few things that may help...

(1) do apply thinly (duh!)
(2) paint with more contrast (duh!!)
(3) use vallejo varnish (they seem to lessen this effect but they still do)
(4) don\'t varnish and pray...:)

PS: the duhs are directed at myself. lol
 

Valander

New member
Yes, I\'ve noticed that any varnish tends to cause subtler gradiations to disappear. This seems to be more pronounced with spray varnishes than brush-on.

Best advice I can give you here is to plan for it. Do your gradients a little sharper than you normally would, knowing that the varnish will soften them.

As for protection, I have had gaming pieces that were not sealed, and they chipped pretty rapidly (using GW paints then; haven\'t done much gaming since I got Vallejos). I usually put a coat of Krylon matte, then 2 light coats of Testors Dullcote. I haven\'t had any chipping problems with those.

I got a bad batch of Dullcote recently, and this prompted me to try some brush on varnishes. I\'m pretty happy with the Vallejo matte, and it was able to rescue a couple of \"shiny Dullcote\" models.
 

Cosmotiger

New member
Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I\'m going to try out the \"overdoing the contrast\" idea to see if I can get it to work.
 

supervike

Super Moderator
cool...

I always liked the way the dullcoat does \'dim\' down the contrast. It seems to pull together all the colors a little for me (and all the help I can get helps!)
 
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