Tuesday 28 August 2018

Purity Seal – I’m done with you!

For nearly twenty years, a light spray of Citadel ‘Purity Seal’ has been the finishing touch for every figure I have painted. Normally, I would paint about five figures, and then spray them together in a little batch. Every so often, however, something went wrong, and the figures would be ‘frosted’. At worst, this looked like an actual layer of frost covering the miniature, at best it dulled and blurred the colours. It was frustrating when it happened, and there were factors that could lessen the probability of it occurring, but in the main, I just considered it a necessary risk in painting.

Well, over the last year or two, it seems that more and more of my figures have been suffering from frosting, and I don’t think I’m the only one. Just google ‘Purity Seal Frosting’ and you’ll see what I mean.

Looking for an alternative, I sent an email to Jamie Gordon, who is best known in the wargaming world as the author of Outremer: Faith and Blood, a fun skirmish wargame set in the crusades. Jamie is also responsible for painting the Frostgrave demo figures used by Osprey Publishing. Having recently played with these figures again at GenCon, I was impressed not only by the paint job, but by the sealer. The sealer, whatever it was, seem to really preserve the colours underneath and also appeared to provide a better level of protection than Purity Seal. If you really want to test your paint jobs - use the figures for a weekend full of demo games!

Jamie told me that he uses Army Painter ‘Anti-Shine Matt Varnish’ on his figures, so I decided to give it a try. It comes in a little dropper bottle and has to be painted onto the figures. I’ve recently tested it out on a few figures, and I’ve got to say, I’m very pleased with the results. The varnish adds just a tiny bit of shine to the figures, which I think actually enhances my paint jobs, but otherwise doesn’t change the colour at all. Also, it feels like a much stronger level of protection.

It’s early days in my use of the Army Painter varnish, but I’m happy enough with the results that my Purity Seal is headed for the bin! (Or however it is I am supposed to dispose of aerosol cans these days.)

Just so people don't think this is an anti-Games Workshop post, I am still happily using Citadel Chaos Black primer as the first step in painting all of my miniatures, and very happy with it.

((Update)) As some readers have pointed out, Games Workshop dropped 'Purity Seal' in favour of 'Munitorm Varnish'. I don't know if this is more than an name change or not. I have used Munitorm a bit and had some of the same problems. So, for now, I'm going to try paint-on varnish, to see if I continue to get better results.

26 comments:

  1. "Purity Seal is headed for the bin! (Or however it is I am supposed to dispose of aerosol cans these days.)"

    Will vary by location but here (Southampton) empty aerosols can go in recycling.

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    1. Guess I'll have to go frost some rocks to get it empty!

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  2. For priming, have you tried this stuff?

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pebeo-Studio-Acrylics-Auxiliaries-Gesso/dp/B00480LWXM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1535461825&sr=8-3&keywords=Pebeo+gesso

    It's superb - and dries in ten minutes or so. It produces no fumes, covers better than spray and is actually quicker to apply, because you can brush it on fairly sloppily as it tightens when it dries. I don't think white gessos are as good, but I'm never using black spray paint again.

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  3. You are aware for couple of years there is no Purity Seal?
    It's called "Munitorum Varnish" now days.
    Most of frosting coming from mainly 2 source (mostly combined):

    1) weather condition is bad (too hot, too cold)
    2) your varnish is pretty old and before spraying anything you should do some test on old useless miniature.

    People just throw away their 5yo cans, buying new stuff and they are literally AMAZED with no frost effect.

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    1. I have a can of Munitorum Varnish, though I admit, I didn't realize that one had replaced the other. I've had the same problem with that though.

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    2. Must be a weather then. I've used Purity Seal back then and I'm using Munitorum Varnish nowdays. I've had 0 problems with both.

      But everything what works for you Joe is fine.
      Result >>> Tools you've used.

      To be fair, I hate GW paint pots and if there is a good replacement in Vallejo I do not hesitate.

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  4. GW did away with Purity Seal a little while back and replaced it with Munitorum Varnish which I think was more than just a rebranding. I've been using it for the past year I think it is. I've had one real frosting incident with it when I think I may have sprayed too close and too heavy (thankfully fixed with a coat of brush on matt). It does appear to occasionally react with the silver paint (Vallejo Model Air Steel) that I use which frosts and greys the colour out. Very odd and not always fixable with brush on varnish afterwards. Varnishing in general though is so hit and miss unless you go old school and gloss everything.

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    1. Yeah, I've tried Munitorum Varnish and didn't notice any real difference. The problem may be with spray cans in general. For now, I'm going to try paint on and see if my early good results continue.

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  5. I got the same experience with " Purity Seal". I though maybe something wrong by accident. But apprently no when I read your own experience. For the moment I use Tamya matt varnish and I'm very happy. (Except the price of it for a small quantity)Ready to follow your advice with Army Painter one. Just for an add : I use also Citadel Chaos Black for primer and I'm happy with it

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  6. Yeah... I gave up on this rubbish a while back. I've been using paint-on varnish from Hobbycraft. It's cheap as chips, easy to use, and leaves a nice slightly satin finish that appeals to me. Above all, no frosting (too late, alas, for my destroyed Greyjoys and their freehand shields...).

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  7. The Army painter varnish comes in Spray form too.

    Been using it for a few years and no problems so far...

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  8. I have used Testor's Dullcote spray varnish for the past couple years and have not had any issues. I had tried a different brand once and got a frosted effect that I was mostly able to fix with olive oil. But I'd rather not risk that again and stick with Dullcote.

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  9. To me, it's not a matter of Purity Seal vs other varnishes, but about spray varnish vs brush on. In the past years I had too many 'frosted' models. I've read countless web pages on the subject, talked to people, trying every suggestion and different brands (inc Army Painter spray one, and many from arts stores) to no avail. The frosting seems to happen very randomly, notwithstanding your attention to weather, distance you're spraying from, intensity of the spray. It was very frustrating and almost caused me to leave the hobby.
    Now I'm sealing my models with brush-on varnish only (in my case, Vallejo one). This to say that the issue is not GW as opposed to Army Painter (imho) but spray varnish as opposed to brush-on one.

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    1. Agree with this. I've had both GW and Army Painter spray varnish cause frosting. I now only ever use brush on (W&N) matt varnish for figures.

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  10. I occasionally get 'crackling' with Army Painter spray varnish, but that's only when I give it too thick a coat in places when I try and hit a model from multiple angles.

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  11. A 2000 point Black Templar army of mine suffered from the curse of frosting. Kevin Dallimore in his book, `the Foundry Miniatures Painting And Modelling Guide', used gloss yacht varnish followed when dry by a coat of Blackfriars Matt Varnish 101

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    1. I don't know why I didn't think of asking Kev! Probably I figured his answer would be too complicated for me to understand. Man, a whole army (and Black Templars where it's really going to show up) that hurts.

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  12. I now use two brushed coats of GW’s ‘Ard Coat followed by a brushed on coat of Valejo’s Matt Varnish. I started doing this after a 10 year varnishing hiatus caused by a can of Purity Seal and 8 lovingly painted Elyrian Reavers. By painting on the Matt coat, I can avoid the metallic areas - I’ve found that Matt varnish applied to metallics turns them grey rather than silver.

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  13. Anyone have any before and after pics with brush-on varnish?

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  14. I will second Testors dull coate, though I do like to use army painters primers. Though with anything, especially clear sprays, humidity can cause various bad effects. But dull coate seems to not be affected by aging as much as other spray primers and sealers.

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  15. I too gave up GW's seal many years ago after too many frustrating results... I've also switch to Army Painter but, in a spray can (excellent results all around!). However, i do plan on trying the brush on AP sealer when winter comes in, so i don't get a huge reserve of painted minis waiting for warmer days to be varnished!

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  16. Joe - give Windsor and Newton galleria pro matt varnish (silver spray can with black cap) a go - never had it frost or anything like that, and dries absolutely matt.
    Not cheap, but really does seem to work.
    ironically, I've given up on varnishing - unless you go the heavy duty gloss route, I'm not sure any varnish is really worth the bother.

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  17. Hi, to be honest, I stay away from matt varnish sprays. They are too random and in UK it's almost impossible to get the right weather conditions to get it right. To much risk for me. I use the Army Painter varnish you mentioned in your article. If you have access to an airbrush, it work very well. At least that's my experience, you get a very flat finish.

    Cheers,

    Andrés.

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  18. Hi !

    Old thread, but I want to switch to army painter matt varnish. Just to know: does this matt varnish dull the metal, or is it ok ?

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