[Editor's Note: This is part of an ongoing series of articles originally written by the talented Hyun for his late, lamented Wee Toy Soldiers site. Since he's had to step away from the hobby for the foreseeable future, he's kindly given permission for his work to be reprinted in the interest of keeping it available to the community. The series will continue each Tuesday as long as the supply holds out.

This particular article documents one of Hyun's few debacles. I'm reprinting it because I think it's encouraging to see that even insanely talented people have projects go south on them just like I do...]

I use Future (yes, the floor wax) as a clear coat and also to give the miniature a coat of strong sealer. Future is VERY glossy, which is great for lining with Micron Pigma pens and for applying decals — the glossy surface makes it easy to correct mistakes.

Some people like their finished miniatures to look glossy and shiny. I’m not one of them. I usually go for either a satiny (semi-matte) or a completely matte appearance.

Here is a in-progress Tau Fire Warrior that we’ll use as our experiment subject:

I use Tamiya’s excellent line of acrylic paints primarily as my airbrush paint of choice. They don’t tend to paint brush as well, at least in my experience — they dry out fast and need constant thinning (to be fair, this is before I discovered acrylic retarder; perhaps that would make a big difference). Here is their Flat Base agent; to give glossy paint a flat appearance, you simply mix a bit of the agent with the paint before painting.

My experiment was to see if I could achieve a clear flat coat by applying this Flat Agent, mixed and thinned with distilled water. Sure I can use spray cans to flat coat the miniatures, but 1) I tend to work late at night, so it’s not really convenient to grab a can of spray paint/sealer and go outside and work on the miniatures; 2) I’m a big proponent of safe and environment-friendly hobby. You should try reading the warning labels on the spray cans sometime!

OK, the experiment went horribly wrong. After I applied it, as the coat dried, it looked great — the glossy surface became dull and flat, and at first it looked like the flattening agent was doing its job right.

Whoa — not so fast! A patch of white appeared here and there as the figure dried, and soon, the entire figure looked as if someone had dropped it in a jar of flour:

I’m sure there is a scientific explanation to this, but that’ s beyond me right now. All I walked away with was: This Does Not Work.

Now, being a stubborn fellow, I’m going to repeat the same experiment with Testors Flat Coat and see if I get any better results with that. Stay tuned.

Added November 14, 2005:

Following David’s comment on this article, I tried to see if I could get rid of the winter camouflage look by brushing with Future. It worked amazingly well. As soon as the brush touched the white areas, it instantly cleared up to reveal the original paint and ink job underneath. I also tried it with plain water, and it cleared up the white coat as well, but as soon as the water dried, the white returned.

Thanks David!

[Editor's Note: Check back next Tuesday for Kyun's far more successful follow-up effort at Brush-on Flat Coating using Testor's Model Master Acryil]

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