Sealer Woes

[Hrothgar]

Yesterday, in a horribly ill-advised move, I shot 32 lovingly-painted Warzone figures with Krylon matte sealer without checking the humidity first. Surely enough, within minutes, I could see a milky, frosty haze settling onto the bottom portions of most of the figures. As if to drive the point home further, the sky started dumping rain within minutes.

I know that the standard fix in these cases is to shoot the figures again with sealer under dryer conditions. I took an early lunch and while home decided to shoot another coat of matte onto the frosted Warzone figures. Humidity was only 62% at the time, and I know I have sealed in much more humid conditions that that previously. I shook the can vigorously, made sure I held it at the appropriate distance, and coated them again. You can imagine my dismay when cloudiness started appearing again shortly.

Here's the really maddening part. A few figures seem cured. Some seem to have had the frostiness move to another portion of the figures. Some are almost entirely frosty now, but for the most part, the frostiness is limited to the lower portions of the figures.

Any ideas? Is it possible that it is -at least in part- a can of bum sealer? Is there any way to salvage them?

[marko.oja]

had similar problems a while back - varnished everything with gloss brush-on vallejo varnish, then matted 'em down with brush-on matt. Did the trick quite well, but I do admit that this dulled down the paintjobs slightly. Not a perfect solution, but better than nothing I guess.

[Hrothgar]

Well, I didn't have any gloss coat, but I do have a can of Krylon Satin Sealer on hand. I'm not sure why I have it, but I decided to try it on a few of the worst figures. They dried surprisignly clear, so I went ahead and shot about a dozen. So far, so good. They are curing without any cloudiness whatsoever. Hopefully when I check on them again in a few hours, they will still be in good shape. Afterwards, I will seal them with matte again (when the stars are right for it!)

Thanks for the input! I was seriously considering just busting out the paints and washes and having a go at the milky bits. Now it looks like that won't be neccessary after all.
 

[Hammers]

Yesterday, in a horribly ill-advised move, I shot 32 lovingly-painted Warzone figures with Krylon matte sealer without checking the humidity first. Surely enough, within minutes, I could see a milky, frosty haze settling onto the bottom portions of most of the figures. As if to drive the point home further, the sky started dumping rain within minutes.

I know that the standard fix in these cases is to shoot the figures again with sealer under dryer conditions. I took an early lunch and while home decided to shoot another coat of matte onto the frosted Warzone figures. Humidity was only 62% at the time, and I know I have sealed in much more humid conditions that that previously. I shook the can vigorously, made sure I held it at the appropriate distance, and coated them again. You can imagine my dismay when cloudiness started appearing again shortly.

Here's the really maddening part. A few figures seem cured. Some seem to have had the frostiness move to another portion of the figures. Some are almost entirely frosty now, but for the most part, the frostiness is limited to the lower portions of the figures.

Any ideas? Is it possible that it is -at least in part- a can of bum sealer? Is there any way to salvage them?

This topic has a such Pavlovian effect on me so I can't help but swearing. They can offer us such wonders as space travel and Guitar Hero 5 but the cant fucking give us a cloudy-proof matte sealer. 

[P_Clapham]

I'm glad that I've yet to have these issues with matte sealer.  I do use Krylon Gloss and Matte exclusively for sealing my figures.  After what you mentioned regarding humidity I'll be quite careful.

[Steve F]

a can of bum sealer

 

[Johnno]

a can of bum sealer?

 

Hahahahahaha

[Doc Twilight]

Not to worry. There is a fairly easy way to fix this.

Wait until a dry day and seal them again. Yes, you heard me correctly. Seal them again. In nine times out of ten cases, this will cause the fogginess to dissipate and/or completely disappear.  I'm not sure why it works, but a friend was telling me that it has something to do with the new sealer coat dissolving portions of the old sealer coat.

Has worked for me every time. Now, granted, occasionally it leaves a tiny bit of fogginess, but usually it's so minimized that the overall paint job is saved.

-Doc