"Frothing and air bubbles with Alcad II Lacquer?" Topic

So in using mostly acrylic brush on varnish, Army Painter and Vallejo specifically I never had issues with air bubbles.

But I noticed when using Alcad clear lacquer as a brush-on sealer, there were a few subtle areas where air bubbles remained behind and dried in place. For the record, I was sealing space marines and it seemed to happen on the shoulder pads or in the creases between armor plates on the shoulders and legs.

Any tips on how to prevent this? I'm thinking that because Alcad is so thin and so liquid, it tends to froth very quickly when applied, more so than acrylic. I use pretty thin coats, it's not like I'm glopping it on. Maybe going slower when brushing it on? I'm also thinking that maybe it's more suited to airbrush and applied as a fine mist more than a brush-on.

In any event it certainly didn't ruin the models, it was very slight and when matte varnish was put over it they are very difficult to see and mostly blend in. More an annoyance than anything but it would be nice to eliminate it all together.

Not sure about the clear finishes, but I believe that the Alclad products are intended for use with an airbrush: that may be the reason for problems when applying with a (hair)brush.

Exactly.

That's probably what it is. I saw on several modeling forums that it was claimed it could be used as brush-on. Wonder what they did and what kind of brush they used.

But it makes more sense because it is so thin that it is meant to be an airbrush only product.

I can see now that technically it DOES work as brush-on, for the MOST part The bubbles were sparse and a rare occurence. But it's not designed for that. Only way you could avoid the air bubbles totally is to go very, very slowly and just watch carefully to brush out bubbles at all times. But that's not practical.

Can anybody recommend a good clear lacquer that is brush-on and also safe for acrylic paints?

Liquitex or Winsor Newton varnishes are good, both gloss and matte.