Homebrew PCBs

I didn't figure this would belong in the recent tinning threads-

I don't care for the "look" I've gotten on my past tinning attempts 
and it tended to muddy up my nice neat traces and left thick/thin 
spots. I realize appearance shouldn't be a priority here, but I do 
like the shine that the nice new copper lines initially have, and the 
look they have under a thin clear coat.

The most specific posts I saw on this mentioned a thin coat of clear 
spray lacquer. There wasn't anyone arguing against it for any reason 
and the guy only stated that it would put off a nasty stink while you 
soldered though it, which some may not care for.

Does this sound acceptable, and if so, is there a preferred "over the 
counter" spray? I'm not much of a perfectionist at my circuit building 
level right now, and the stuff I've been doing probably wouldn't be 
drastically affected by a less-than-perfect electrical resistance in 
most areas. I'd mainly like to preserve the pretty gold. :)

                                -Take Care
George

FWIW- My tinning was mostly by wiping a gel-type flux, melting solder 
at different points, and then just scraping it around with the face of 
a custom ground fat copper tip, and sometimes a tip riding on a piece 
of solder braid to smooth the lumps.