Varnishing The Eurofighter: Enamel versus Acrylic

The time has come for me to varnish my Eurofighter, which I did. But first of all I had to figure out what kind of varnish I would need. This was not as easy as I first thought, as I was confronted with forums upon forums of people arguing that acrylic varnish will ruin everything and enamel is the best and vice versa!

So after a bit of reading up on what is actually in acrylic and enamel varnish, and on how they react with different things I made a decision.

Taped up ready for varnishing

I've painted the Eurofighter with acrylic paint, which is water based. But, most of the other model paint I have is enamel, which is solvent based (why it's more smelly!). So as it turns out the difference between acrylic and enamel varnish is very much the same (Although rumors are there are some varnishes that are labeled as acrylic but are solvent based). The problem comes when the paint under the varnish hasn't dried properly, with acrylic paint you're waiting for the water to evaporate and with enamel the solvent needs to evaporate. So if acrylic varnish has been put over enamel paint before it has had long enough to dry, the solvent will try to evaporate and cannot, and will blister up the varnish layer and then you have to get back to paint stripping and starting all over again. But the same can be said for the opposite way around.

There is a huge camp on either side of the fence here, some people will always use acrylic varnish on EVERYTHING, and the same with enamel varnish. So without being influenced by who is shouting the loudest, it is really down to personal preference. I used enamel varnish, but had waited a few months (not deliberately, but I hadn't got around to it) after painting and a few days after putting the transfers on, to make sure they had dried out properly, before I went putting the first coat of varnish on.

The Eurofighter has now had two lovely coats of matt varnish, and is starting to come together and look quite smart.

Underside with a fresh coat of varnish

One of the things I didn't do before I had taken the varnish to my little aircraft was to clean it of the dust and little bits that had accumulated on it, which Mr M told me wouldn't be a problem - using an aerosol meant that the dust would be blown off. Which sadly wasn't the case for me, and now I seem to have varnished in the dust so it now is permanent, oh well, learn for the future it seems.