Second Vyper and Sealing

Pair of Vypers

I finished up my second Vyper today.  There is not much different than the first in terms of techniques applied.  Sorry for not having good progress shots on these.  I will endeavor to provide some progress shots with the Reaver/Skyweavers jetbikes that I am going to use for my Five Hexes jetbikes.  Importantly, builds for yellow take a lot of layers.

A friend asked that I provide a tutorial for sealing models.  I think of this as fairly straightforward, but realized there are some important nuances, after the link.


I use spray sealers that are very similar to spray-paint.  Importantly, these are a clear coat.  There are a variety of clear coats to choose from that include matte finishes - which dull colors - to glossy finishes, which make it shiny!

Games Workshop's Purity Seal (and no longer available!) is neither a matte nor a glossy finish.  It provides a very good clear coat, in my opinion.  In the past for a matte finish, I have used Armory's Clear Matte.    Given all of this, I apparently need to find another sealer... possibly The Army Painter's product.

For the technical act of sealing - Army Painter has a good visual guide.

Straight from The Army Painter

You do not want to learn these things the hard way.  I have entire units that are off because it was too rainy/humid to seal.  Sealing is useful to try to protect miniatures during use and affix static grass and sand to the base.  I have had mixed results with how well it keeps transfers or static grass attached.  Many of my transfers are coming off over time, but that may not be the sealers fault!  My experience with transfers inclines me to either buy modeled components or free-hand the art.

I highly recommend using a varnish finish of some kind.