Got into a pickle with Vallejo varnish and decal softener

[keiron99]

I'm building my first model in many a year. I treated myself to a battery powered airbrush and a selection of Vallejo materials: paints, varnishes, and their decal softener.

 

I painted my Harrier and it looked fantastic for a first effort. 

 

Today, I tried to spray the Vallejo gloss varnish on it prior to putting decals on. But it would not spray. I tried to think it with water and it spluttered. Then it started flowing a bit, so I sprayed the model while it was flowing. Then it started spluttering again. No idea what went wrong there.

 

I left it a couple of hours (that's maybe where I went wrong...) then started to apply the decals. I used the Vallejo softener in this process. Unfortunately it appears to have softened the varnish and/or paint around the decals and it's spoilt the finish

 

Firstly, any ideas why I had problems spraying the varnish? (It doesn't actually say "model air" on the varnish, so maybe it's to be applied by brush?)

 

Second, what caused the reaction when I applied the decal softener? Was it because I should have left the varnish to dry for longer than a couple of hours?

 

Third, any thoughts on how I can rectify the situation where the finish is now a bit "mushy"?

 

Thanks for your time!