Using Hairspay to Seal? What Madness is This?

[Chaoswolf]

10 hours ago, DocPiske said:

Railroad modelers use hairspray to affix and "seal" flock to tree armatures. It kinda works. Not suitable for sealing miniatures.

 

 

This is the only use for hairspray as a sealant that I know of.

[Heisler]

Hairspray is often used, the classic method as it were, for doing chipping on military and railroad models because it is water soluable. You usually start with the color you want to show through as your first layer, let that dry (I usually go 24 hours, even with acrylics, it must thoroughly cure). Then apply the hairspray, let that dry then apply your topcoat of paint. Let that dry but not to long, then poke and brush at it with a brush loaded with water. There are chipping fluids out there now that make this easier and more controllable.  So sealing with hairspray is right out in my opinion.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Heisler

[DocPiske]

You could in theory try household bleach on the poly formadehyde figures. This will chemically etch the surface while also making the plastic more brittle. I don't recommend you try, but if you do, do so outside. Far more trouble than its worth. I'd just go buy some Bones or the new Wizkids skelies and be done.

[Wren]

People have used spray matte sealer (Dullcote, most notably) on plastic minis to give the slick surface a tooth to paint over. My guess would be this is along the lines of the suggestions you're getting? I take the philosophy of using products intended for purpose, so I would try that with actual sealer and not bother about hairspray.

I know in the early days of Bones, there were a lot of suggestions to use Dullcote as a primer. And it does give tooth and lessen the beading up that can happen with the slightly hydrophobic plastic surface. HOWEVER, I would also want to mention the results of my testing as an important caveat. While it makes the surface easier to paint ON, it makes that paint much less durable. In my durability tests, the figure I 'primed' with Dullcote suffered much more extensive damage to the paint job than the figures with no primer, brush-on primer, or Duplicolor spray primer. (Though I will now mention that I don't recommend spray products on Bones at all since they often don't cure and remain somewhat or very tacky to the touch depending on product and weather conditions. My Duplicolor test figure was a little tacky where I didn't paint over it, but still more durable than the Dullcote primed one.)  So if your goal is figures you can play with, it's not a great answer, and I don't imagine the hairspray would be any better.

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

I wouldn't use hairspray based solely upon my only use for hairspray; removing ink stains from clothing.  I once washed a ball point pen in with my dress white uniforms and ended up with marks all over.  Bought the cheapest hairspray available at the time (Aussie IIRC) and sprayed the marks.  Tossed it back in the washer.  If it can remove pen ink, I don't want to be spraying it on my figures.

[SamuraiJack]

Maybe spray adhesive in a light coat would work the same way?  then hit that with a primer coat..

 

I use Armory primer which we all seem to think is Krylon self etching primer and I've had no issues on 99% of everything I've sprayed.. 

[Pillpeddler]

Try Kilz or Kilz2, I bought some plastic coins at Dollar General to use as round bases.   Paint peeled, primer peeled, hot glue peeled, superglue peeled... but Kilz is shellac based (I think, on phone at work hehe) and stuck like boogers on a baby blanket.  Haven't turned the baboons loose on them yet for the ultimate test.  Fairly cheap for a quart and worth a try.

Edited May 16, 2017 by Pillpeddler

[alchemist]

We know that Reaper liners can provide good adhesion in an initial coat on Bones models.  I am wondering to what extent these liners have been tested on other plastics?

[Jokemeister]

2 hours ago, alchemist said:

We know that Reaper liners can provide good adhesion in an initial coat on Bones models.  I am wondering to what extent these liners have been tested on other plastics?

 

It would be an interesting experiment but I wouldn't count on the liners being a good primer on other plastics.  

 

If the rationale is that the liners are a good primer simply because they provide good adhesion in an initial coat on Bones models, then that rationale could be used for any of the Reaper paints as all of them provide good adhesion in an initial coat on Bones models.  This seems to be a property of the Bones material itself rather than a property of the paint.

[Pingo]

45 minutes ago, Jokemeister said:

 

It would be an interesting experiment but I wouldn't count on the liners being a good primer on other plastics.  

 

If the rationale is that the liners are a good primer simply because they provide good adhesion in an initial coat on Bones models, then that rationale could be used for any of the Reaper paints as all of them provide good adhesion in an initial coat on Bones models.  This seems to be a property of the Bones material itself rather than a property of the paint.

 

No, actually, as this entire pinned thread is all about.

 

The property of Reaper's liners that Buglips first illuminated was that they adhered to Bones even when diluted, whereas other paints, even Reaper paints, did not.

 

Not all paints act the same way on unprimed Bones.  I prefer, as some do, to prime my figures with a light wash, and for whatever reason Reaper's liners work for this, spreading evenly and smoothly, where everything else I've tried beads up something awful.

 

Once there is a layer of Reaper liner over the Bones, however thin, anything and everything can be painted over it and it behaves.

[Jokemeister]

22 hours ago, Pingo said:

 

No, actually, as this entire pinned thread is all about.

 

The property of Reaper's liners that Buglips first illuminated was that they adhered to Bones even when diluted, whereas other paints, even Reaper paints, did not.

 

Not all paints act the same way on unprimed Bones.  I prefer, as some do, to prime my figures with a light wash, and for whatever reason Reaper's liners work for this, spreading evenly and smoothly, where everything else I've tried beads up something awful.

 

Once there is a layer of Reaper liner over the Bones, however thin, anything and everything can be painted over it and it behaves.

 

I actually didn't realise people were thinning their Reaper liners with water.  I thought they were thinning the liner with medium.

 

As to the liner acting as a primer though, I notice that RouterMike in that thread, comments that an actual primer was more resistant to scratching than a liner on Bones.  Granted, this was an experiment on Bones so it doesn't mean that the liner won't fare better on other plastics.

[Caleb]

On 5/16/2017 at 0:43 AM, Wren said:

. (Though I will now mention that I don't recommend spray products on Bones at all since they often don't cure and remain somewhat or very tacky to the touch depending on product and weather conditions

 

 

With Bones stuff my priming experiments have pretty much shown that liner, no primer or Vallejo brush on primer work best.  I had one really nice spray day with Army Painter grey that worked out well but that was under optimum weather conditions that I haven't been able to replicate.  I have also had good luck with slightly diluted Vallejo brush on sealer matte sealer to help protect the minis.

[Kangaroorex]

I'm late to the party but I'll note that the one thing that hair spray works well for is paint you want to chip off as battle damage later.  Spray your rust and damage layer, paint on your finish colors and then you can take a knife and flake off the finished paint to create damaged and rusted areas because the hair Spray prevents the paint layers from bonding.

 

I don't think it would work well as a.sealer but it's probably where the idea came from

[ds615]

Use of hairspray as a sealer is an old, old idea.  Popular with model railroaders and artists that work with pastels, chalks, etc.  

It worked at the time, but today we have actual spray sealers that are designed for the purpose. 

In fairness, I have no idea how the hairspray of today compares to the hairspray of 20-30+ years ago, so it may have been an exceptional thing to do at one time.

 

This is one of those ideas that hangs around, passed from person to person, but has long ago lost it's reason for existing.