>>9247137if you're applying very very small decals (read: less than few mm long/wide) then you realistically dont need a varnish coat. if it's anything larger then it's advisale, but still not technically needed.
before I got an airbrush I used Testors glosscote rattle can for application after painting and before decals, then a dullcoat (couldnt get my hands on Testors dullcote so I used some spray used by car modelers) to seal in everything right at the end, post-decals and weathering. now that I have an airbrush, though, I use Vallejo gloss+matte acrylic varnishes, thinned with a little bit of water and with a single drop of Vallejo flow improver. so far it seems to work.
>just used whatever I haddon't sweat it. you may get laughed at here but a lot of guys here are oldfags who've been modeling on and off for literal decades. I started the first week of January and have been loving it since. pic rel is my first model, Eduard's Albatros D.V, which I decided to do in Hermann Goering's livery because 1. lmao and 2. it's an interesting mix of colors, especially since the underside of the wings were a bright and vivid cyan. it's obviously not the greatest model ever made and I *really* fucked the weathering but I had fun and learned a lot.
mind my asking what model you're doing?
