Dear friends,

I have dubbed into the hairspray method for a few of my tanks, but 90% the times do not turn out as well. I used it for winter camouflage and also chipping of tanks.

My 1st coat is either dark yellow with white 2nd coat. Or red brown with dark yellow on top, with hairspray in between. I use a cheapskate random brand hairspray that you will probably see in the 1980s movies from the local dollar shop.


a) Oversized chips

The chipping of 2nd coat is random and naturally complex compared to say fine brush chipping, large pieces of 2nd coat will come off, making it not to scale, its like someone decided to use a 1:5 scale scrapper to chip off a 1:35 tank. I use a flat brush, hoping to create vertical streaks of the 1st coat, but tends to chip off entire 2nd coat. Even when using a fine 0 brush on the edges tends to chip off more than "to scale"

b) From the can or AB?

How thick should the hairspray coat be? Spray from the can or from the AB (the hairspray expressed into the AB tends to clog up the nozzle). Should it be only as thick as a layer of model paint?

c) Dull finishing and lifeless dark colors after chipping

Even when the chipping seems to scale, I realized the overall color using hairspray method seems to produce dark/ dull finishing compared to my normal works, this is especially true of winter camouflage. I am very certain I have mixed the colors in the same way. Why is this so, is it due to the brand of hairspray I am using?

d) Use of Gunze flat topcoat when using hairspray method- finishing seems not as "flat"

I always use Gunze flat coat to give my tanks a very nice flat finishing, but I noticed for the few projects I did, the Gunze flat coat simply refuse to create the dead flat finish when there is hairspray below? Is the hairspray blocking the Gunze flat coat from doing its work?

e) I have a feeling all these problems seemed to stem from the brand of hairspray I am using. Can someone recommend me some brand of hairspray which you have tried successfully?

Only 1 model turn out well out of the 4-5 models I tried, it is only after many many days of trying and fine-tuning. Even then it is not as neat and tidy compared to my other paint brush chipped tanks.I had to correct the over sized chips and too deep chips with light overspray of the final color scheme, in this case dark yellow.

However, I am still strongly believe that it must be a case of need for refinement of skills and techniques and getting the right materials. I have seen many impressive works using this method from many modelers like Mig and European school of modelers.

Please help shed some light. Thank you very much.

Cheers
Kiongs