AK interactive heavy chipping solution

No, semi gloss clear won't do the same job. The purpose of a varnish is to protect, not to chip.

What you can use as a substitute is hairspray. Just do a search on youtube or google for "hairspray chipping" or similar and you will get plenty of hits. My advise is to test on some scrap plastic before you spray it on a serious model.

Hairspray works just fine as it seems to be the same stuff as the more expensive AK product. I used regular cheap hairspray from the Dollar Store, decanted and sprayed thru my air brush recently on this Tamiya Seiran.