Well, shit: I just ruined a fully painted miniature by using the too-thick dregs of my varnish bottle and completely fogging it out. I haven’t done that in years! Not since the last time I used spray varnish, at least a decade ago.
I should have trusted my impression that it looked a little thick, but I’d used the same bottle a couple weeks ago with no issues and I was in the groove.
That’s several hours of work — on a model slated for a first game of BattleTech with my kiddo next week, and a ‘Mech I was happy with — just wasted.
This little Stinger, an STG-5M piloted by Ozan “Gatling” Almaz, was the first ‘Mech I ever tried to paint in a camo scheme. Here he is after being base-coated:
Luckily I’ve got a Wasp partially painted, so I can scramble to finish that one and slot it in for the match Lark and I were planning on next week. If I grind hard and don’t paint anything else at the same time, I might even be able to finish it only a couple days behind when the Stinger would have been done.
It’s a silly thing to be bummed about, but I get invested in the minis I’m painting.
Update 1/8: As luck would have it, I had a light ‘Mech — a Wasp — already primed and fully based, so I spent a chunk of today finishing it up as a replacement for the Stinger. I’d forgotten how quickly this can go when I’m painting a ‘Mech, not a 40k model, and just painting one model, not several. It was a fun day.
Then, after testing my varnish on Brother Test-Mech first, I varnished the first lance of ‘Mechs I’ve painted since 2007. They won’t be done-done until a couple days from now, when I add flocking to their bases; I need the sealant to be bone-dry and fully cured for that step.
It’s a real joy to be painting ‘Mechs again!