Sticky varnish problem

[modelwarrior]

Varnished two figures a couple of weeks ago and forgot all about them until this morning and discovered they are still sticky. They have been sat in a cardboard box,sealed from the outside world at room temperature. I dont really want to strip them down again,any suggestions ? They were sprayed with W & N Matt varnish.
 After reading around I have given them a blast with a hair dryer and am going to leave them in the open for a bit and see if it hardens up. They already feel less tacky after the hair dryer treatment.

[Pattus Magnus]

What material are they made with? If they’re Reaper Bones figures, the problem may be the material rather than the varnish (that semi-soft plastic doesn’t play well with some spray paint/varnish - maybe due to sprays often being enamel-based?).

I haven’t come across a super effective cure for ongoing tackiness. I probably would try a brush-on acrylic varnish to see if that ‘seals’ it. It might not work if the problem is enamel in the spray varnish reacting to the figure.

If the figure is some other material, the problem is probably that your varnish is curing very slowly- no idea what to do about that, other than keep waiting.

I hope someone posting here can provide better advice and you can resolve the problem, it’s a huge drag when something goes wrong with painted figures!

[Daeothar]

Enclosing them in the box might be the reason why the medium has not evaporated fully yet. It's best to lt them dry in a large, ventilated space, so the moisture has room and opportunity to evaporate.

Don't worry about dust and the like; as soon as the top layer solidifies, particles will no longer get caught by the liquid varnish.

Also; make sure you don't put on too thick of a layer of varnish. It's as Duncan Rhodes says: 'two thin coats'... 

[modelwarrior]

Small update on my problem. I decided to leave the figures out in the open to the fresh air and completly forgot about them until today. Mixed results. The figures are not 100% sorted but 95% dry but the bases seem worse than ever. So i decided to remove the paint from the bases and discovered the bases have basically turned to rubber They are old school purple GW square bases and I think the plastic has either failed due to age or had some sort of chemical reaction. Anyway ordered some new mdf bases and will start afresh.

[Daeothar]

Wow... 

This is a very weird reaction indeed. Polystyrene should not have reacted to spraypaint like that, unless it's a weird mix between styrofoam and harder styrene, and the bases reacted with the propellant gasses in the spray can.  Or perhaps they are of a different material altogether 

But did you say purple though? that must be from well before my time then, as I only have black (lots of black) and some grey bases from GW. do you know where and when they released those? Are they slotta bases?

[fastolfrus]

But did you say purple though? that must be from well before my time then, as I only have black (lots of black) and some grey bases from GW. do you know where and when they released those? Are they slotta bases?

I've never seen purple either, I have mostly black, but have round slotta bases in palew grey and red. If I remember correctly the red ones came in Space Hulk to distinguish sergeants etc.

[Daeothar]

I've never seen purple either, I have mostly black, but have round slotta bases in palew grey and red. If I remember correctly the red ones came in Space Hulk to distinguish sergeants etc.

That's right! I had all forgotten about those... 

[modelwarrior]

Typo by me. They are purple but are not GW bases,they are Parker bases for Dungeons and Dragons board game(2003 ?). I was painting up Mialee and Lidda if you remember them ?