Disaster strikes

I thought I was pretty clever with the whole "varnish part of my airship so I can hold it and paint the other part" idea.  It was successful enough.  I held the varnished part while I finished painting and the varnish held, keeping the underlying paint safe and intact.  The problem was the overspray on the unfinished areas.  It made basecoating tricky, but nothing too bad.  The real issue came when it was time for the wash.  Instead of behaving like a normal wash, it beaded on the ship like a freshly waxed car.  No running into crevices and away from high areas, just sitting where it hit the model, pooling here and there, no rhyme or reason to it.  I'll stop short of calling it ruined, but I'm not happy.  I'll look into stripping a varnished model and consider doing just that and starting over again on it.  I'll have the problem then of where to hold the thing while I paint it.  I suppose I could use a brush on varnish and paint a wing first, then do the rest.  Or I could try using a flying stand or a dowel to hold, but then there's the issue of painting the underside where the stick wouldn't hold.  Problems for another day.  In the meantime, not pleased.