I used up the last of some gloss varnish on a set of figures. I did what I usually do and cut it with some flow improver (basically just brand name Future) and a few drops of water. Both of them were Windsor & Newton, so I have no major cause to doubt their reliability.
When I applied it, it was very frothy in spite of the flow improver (this not something new, though it's worst I'd ever seen in terms of sheer quantity of froth), so I used copious amounts of blown air to make sure there would be no bubbles and that the coat would not be too thick. This was successful and I had a nice coat which was applied evenly and not too thickly (maybe slightly thicker than my usual gloss coat, but not dramatically or alarmingly so). No frosting or clouding or anything like that.
Usually the stuff dries in 24 hours tops. Well, it's been four days now and there's a slight tackiness to the figures which just won't go away. It has been humid here so that could be the culprit (though we have air conditioning which prevents this from being too bad), or it could be the slight over-concentration of the varnish given it was the bottom of the jar, but even if either of those were true, I would have thought they would only extend drying time a little. I've never heard of acrylic failing to air-dry for days.
I know flow improver is actually very similar to dish soap. Can using too much delay drying or actually CAUSE bubbles instead of cutting them? I mean, I don't THINK I used too much, but I don't want to rule anything out.
I still have to apply the matte coat (also acrylic, the Vallejo stuff). So should I just slap it on? I'm kind of leery about doing that. Is there anything else I can do to nudge the figures towards fully drying out?