Varnish and glaze definitions

In a nutshell, they're clearcoats. Be it flat, semi-gloss or gloss.

CMMX

Yes, but are they lacquers, acrylics or other materials?

My interpretation is that a glaze is a transparent or semi-transparent pigment applied over an underlying painted surface to acheive a purpose (shadow, highlight, lowlight, corrosion, etc.).  A glaze may be applied to a limited surface of a model to acheive that purpose.  A wash may be broadly considered to be a glaze,  but my understanding is that a glaze is applied using a more controlled manner than a wash which is flooded on.  A glaze may be made using a varnish (clearcoat) and a pigment.

A varnish is a clear (gloss, satin, matte/flat) coating applied as a final top coat or as a protective coat between various stages of completing and finishing a model.  Varnishes may be either organic (lacquer, polyurethane, solvent based) or acrylic (water, alchohol based).  Varnishes are generally applied to the entire model.  

Thank you both very much!

EdGrune

My interpretation is that a glaze is a transparent or semi-transparent pigment applied over an underlying painted surface to acheive a purpose (shadow, highlight, lowlight, corrosion, etc.).  A glaze may be applied to a limited surface of a model to acheive that purpose.  A wash may be broadly considered to be a glaze,  but my understanding is that a glaze is applied using a more controlled manner than a wash which is flooded on.  A glaze may be made using a varnish (clearcoat) and a pigment.

A varnish is a clear (gloss, satin, matte/flat) coating applied as a final top coat or as a protective coat between various stages of completing and finishing a model.  Varnishes may be either organic (lacquer, polyurethane, solvent based) or acrylic (water, alchohol based).  Varnishes are generally applied to the entire model.  

 

I agree with everything Ed says, with a comment.  It seems a direction English is taking, is that words that were very specific in meaning are becoming broader in their definition.  I personally do not think this is a good direction for English.  Like the Eskimos with their many types of snow, it used to be that using words with their more well defined meaning could give a more detailed and specific information to a piece of writing.  By broadening the word usages, we have a lot of synonyms, but the writing is less informative while sounding fancier.  In literature when one wants to have a lot of beauty in the piece, and poetic style to prose, this is fine, but in tecnical or semi-technical writing it obscures things.  One reader may assume in reading something that the author means the term in its older, more specific meaning, while another reader realizes that the author is using the more generic, broader, but prettier meaning.  Confusion results :-(

Many of the words in this thread originally had more restrictive meanings that applied to their chemistry, but now are used more generically, and are proper English, but something is lost when a language starts doing this.

What makes it even worse when we are discussing paints and such, is that a paint usually consists of a vehicle, a pigment, and a solvent.  Now, chemistry has evolved such that synthetic or non-natural substances can be used in any of the three constituents, and the term for a particular paint or surface treatment may literally apply to a natural ingredient but the name carries over now into mixed chemistry with synthetic materials replacing originally natural ones. I am trying to think which paint/coating was originally made from a beetle, but the substance is now made without harm to any beetle :-)

Don Stauffer

I am trying to think which paint/coating was originally made from a beetle, but the substance is now made without harm to any beetle :-)

I believe you're thinking of shellac. An excretion from a type of beetle, mixed with alcohol to create a natural lacquer

Don Stauffer

I am trying to think which paint/coating was originally made from a beetle, but the substance is now made without harm to any beetle :-)

 

Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. It is processed and sold as dry flakes (pictured) and dissolved in ethanol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish.  (from wiki)

Lacquer a black resinous substance, obtained from certain trees, used to give a hard glossy finish to wooden furniture. A lacquer tree also called varnish tree. an E Asian anacardiaceous tree, Rhus verniciflua, whose stem yields a toxic exudation from which black lacquer is obtained.

I, too, enjoy writing. I grew-up understanding varnish to be a paint-like material we applied to our redwood yard furniture.  Here's the definition.

resin dissolved in a liquid for applying on wood, metal, or other materials to form a hard, clear, shiny surface when dry.

Of course, "other materials" could include polystyrene plastic, but that's a foriegn application in my mind. Anyway, I appreciate the clarifications. Thanks everyone!