Varnish advice sought

[Sardoo]

I recently painted a Manticore zombie using Games Workshop green ink as a wash. When the ink dried it was, unfortunately, quite glossy so I decided to coat the gloss areas with Vallejo Matt varnish to sort out the problem. This, unexpectedly, gave rise to a new problem - the dried green ink became "moist" again and began to come off the model.

I'd be keen to hear if anyone has encountered a similar issue with either the GW ink or the Vallejo varnish. I'd also be very grateful if someone could suggest a good (i.e. not temperamental) matt varnish for future use.

[Major_Gilbear]

What was the miniature - was it resin, or plastic, or...?

Also, it's a known issue with many inks (and some acrylic paints with strong pigments like dark blues and dark greens) that they reactivate with certain brush-on varnishes and bleed their colour into the wet varnish. In particular, old GW inks, W&N inks, and a few others are very prone this.

To avoid shiny inks, I recommend adding a little bit of matte medium to them on your palette before putting them on the models. This will make the ink dry matte.

For sealing, I would use a good water-based polyurethane varnish (find one that is both UV-resistant and non-yellowing from a trusted brand like Ronseal) and do a thinned gloss coat first. Afterwards when dry, do your matte varnish coat of choice - the gloss not only protects your models better, it also acts as a sealing layer between the paint and the final matte finish.

If you happen to be using Reaper Bones or similar soft plastic figure, then I'm afraid the problem is the material from which the miniature is made, not the paint/ink or varnish.

[Rhoderic]

Back when I used inks (old Citadel ones) I had problems with brush-on varnish lifting the inks more than once. It's part of the reason I've given up on inks altogether.

[Sardoo]

What was the miniature - was it resin, or plastic, or...?

It was plastic and the ink was indeed an old GW product.

Thanks for the advice!