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I’ve had cans of both Games Workshop’s Munitorum Varnish and Purity Seal kicking around my hobby shelves for years, but I’ve never really known which one to use. I generally have just grabbed whichever one of them was nearest to the front (I have a lot of spray cans) and use it. Judging by the weight of the cans today, it looks like I’ve been using Munitorum Varnish about twice as much as Purity Seal.

But I can’t tell anything anywhere that tells me what the difference between these two Games Workshop varnishes are. So I decided to test it out. Was one gloss and one matte? Let’s find out.

I got a box of Wargames Atlantic’s German Infantry 1916-1918 (a box I’ve wanted for a long time) but after I painted them I noticed that their woolen uniforms were just too shiny. Time for an experiment!

Here the six are before I did anything. Not the greatest picture, I know, but you can see they all have a little glare to them.

I sprayed the three on the left with Purity Seal, and the three on the right with Munitorum Varnish. And the results?

Well, the look pretty much the same. Purity Seal is a little more matte, but Munitorum isn’t very gloss.

I guess it’s worth noting that you can only buy Munitorum Varnish anymore, so Purity Seal isn’t even around. (But Munitorum Varnish DIDN’T replace Purity Seal. They existed at the same time.) (And technically, Munitorum Varnish is temporarily out of stock on the website anyway–as are most of their rattle cans. I’ve heard rumors of people buying Averland Sunset cans or Macragge Blue cans on eBay for as much as $35. I don’t know why. GW isn’t making a lot of sense lately.)

So there you have it. Results: negligible. Buy whatever you can find. (Or use a can of varnish that doesn’t cost $18.)