Hi all,

I was wondering if one is able to seal in pastel chalk with a clear finish. My main concern was that for some reason the powder of the pastels would just get absorbed into the clear finish. Thanks.

-Joe

You can seal in pastels with any clear finish. They won't be absorbed, exactly, but the clear coat will darken them to some extent and reduce the contrast that makes them effective for weathering. So, the lightest possible clear coat is what you're after, and for that I recommend hairspray. But do test it first. I've had success and abject failure using the same hairspray over the same brands of paint.

As a recent returnee to the hobby after a 30 year layoff, I do remember all the problems we encountered back in the "good old days" with pastels chalks being washed away when flat coating. Some to all just washed away. Light dusting's of Dullcoat helped a lot, but their effect was way less after the flat coat. We got around this to some extent by over doing the dusting of the pastels.

Sealing chalk or pigments?

I would suggest NOT trying to do so, as IMO, there is little real benefit gained for lots of undesirable impact!

The "benefits"?: I can offer maybe two "distinct" potential rationales for doing so: protecting weathering dust from being knocked off during handling, and protecting it from possibly being blown off during any cleaning I may have to do to keep displayed builds "free" from household dust and cat-hair, etc. These two "risks" are rolled-together for those who take builds to shows.
There could be other(s), but not so obvious to me!

The down-side of sealing your loose chalks and pastels:

1) As Sean has noted, any sealant coat will darken your chalk or pastel layer and will certainly alter the weathering COLOR effect you are trying to create.

IMHO, this darkening is hard to predict and complicated (given using different colors and types of chalks and pastels, all of which will react differently with whatever sealant agent is used): Consider the work to create a desired new color by mixing paints... We add a drop of this, 2 of that, etc., or we look on the web and see what mixture someone else used - we "find by trial & error" the color we want. Now, once you learn the mixture to get your desired shade of "dunkelgrau, you are "off to the races" and can make that mix and get that color again and again. And there are recipes for mixing paints (based of course on brand, etc.)

No two builds are the same color with the same weathering, so each becomes a really new experiment (already is, just for weathering!). And there are no nice, neat, available recipes for compensation... "Controlling" or compensating for changing the colors of the mixture of weathering pastels and /or chalks on top of the established coats - all of which will be impacted by sealants - is a much more convoluted dance than mixing paint, and, IMHO, simply adds more complexity than it is worth to the build job!.

2) Sealing the chalk coat will also change its surface grain and texture - if you, as I do, apply chalks to actually emulate a dusty and gritty surface, sealing this with any binding agent can easily foil this desired outcome - at which point, if all I wanted was the COLOR of a dusted surface, and not the actual dusty texture, I should just have painted it!

Points 1 and 2 are potentially significant undesired effects.

The "risks" to the weathering are generally easily reducible by limiting handling of builds and by glassed-in shelves and display cases, etc.

There IS another side to the chalks and pastels... I have damaged my weathering layers in handling and in cleaning - but I've found I could easily repair it by simply re-dusting.

So: I avoid sealing as it adds yet another layer to the build, impacts the weathering effects, and does not confer much benefit, but that's just me and my opinion.

Cheers!

Bob

I haven't delved into dust yet, but you raise a good point-- if it DOES get knocked off, just re-dust.
Sounds good.
thanks Bob!
-Sean.

Seal with a light coat of clear. I use MM Flat Clear. If you don't, you'll end up with pigment all over everything. Of course, if you plan on putting the model in a case and never touching it again, you can skip sealing it. Either that or never, ever dust off your model.

Thanks for all the help. I'm glad I asked before I did it.Haha

Sincerly,
-Joe

They will be absorbed to some extent, I'm in favour of not sealing