Varnish problem (gloss varnish, cracked effect)

[Malebolgia]

Yes, another varnishing topic...but I couldn't find any topic on this one through the Search function.

Okay, here's how I varnish my miniatures
1) Spray them with gloss car varnish
2) Spray them with Army Painter Matt Varnish or brush-on Testors Dullcote

I've never had any problems with number 1 before. The gloss car varnish is very forgiving and never gave me any problems (with about 200 models done this way).

Yesterday it did gave me problems however.
I had 6 miniatures to be varnished. I blasted them all with the gloss varnish. On 4 of them it worked out fine as normal. On two of them, however the varnish dried cracked/crumpled in some places. It looks horrid as it adds a lot of texture to the painting and is really noticable. There is no frosting on the miniature by the way...just the cracked/crumpled effect.
Weird thing is all six miniatures were close together and were varnished in one go and dried in the same place. Baffles me why some of them were fine and crisp while on two of them the varnish was botched.

So...anyone got a solution for this one? Can this be repaired. I thought about re-blasting them with gloss varnish and placing them beneath a very hot lamp (all metal models, inclusing metal washers for the bases so shouldn't be a problem), does this work?

Cheers!

[Antenociti]

hate to say it, but.... too much varnish: if you over-spray with either gloss or matte varnish there is the chance that you end up with that crackle-effect which happens when the varnish dries out at different rates due to the thickness it is applied at.
Generally more of an issue with aerosols due to the application method, accelerants and so forth.

I dont know of any method for repairing them, sorry. You could try adding more varnish by brush to "fill in the gaps" but.... sorry.

[Malebolgia]

Ah darn. But odd I never had this before and I tend to spray heavily with the gloss varnish as I game a lot with my miniatures. Hmmm, I'll see if I can repair it with some Testors as it's aggressive as hell and if not...I'll file it off and repaint the areas.
Cheers for the input!

[Galland]

I had some icing/wite effects while matt varnishing, but... in my frustration I nuked it with air from my airbrush and some water, then varnished again, all fine

[Antenociti]

Ah darn. But odd I never had this before and I tend to spray heavily with the gloss varnish as I game a lot with my miniatures. Hmmm, I'll see if I can repair it with some Testors as it's aggressive as hell and if not...I'll file it off and repaint the areas.
Cheers for the input!

its varnish - if it didnt do weird things it wouldnt the same!

there are only two reasons how i know the crackle-effect occurs, the first being over-spray which is the more common, the second being "wet" paint - the crackle is caused by the same thing in both cases though, which is different drying rates of the varnish. It IS pretty rare though - from memory we had one customer last year who did it with testors but i cant think of anybody else since then until you... so it seems a rare thing and is problably down the wrong conjunction of planets and Mars being in the ascendent,.... or some other silly combination of temp, humidity and the wife's mood that day.

good old varnish. 

With varnish though it is always much better to do thin, multiple coats, than one ehavy one - in the case of matte varnish the heavier you spray, the less likley you will get a matte finish.

Its the most common reason why people say "I tried that, it wasn't very matt at all!" when discussing Dullcote: they put too much on... trying to link to a long post on varnishing but steve-deans forum isnt responding...

[Malebolgia]

Cheers for the input. Much appreciated.
When I cam home after work the varnish had well dried and saw there was only one real solution: file the crackling away and repaint the areas. It sucks, but they'll look better afterwards. Finished the first and although there is still some texture on him, it's not that bad for gaming. Sucky for photos (they'll follow Friday), but manageable for gaming.