Hi Guys!
I have a little urban dio base with ruins and rubble almost finished. I made most ot the rubble out of drywall plaster, kitty litter and very fine colored rock. Lots of people talk about using hairspray to seal in baking soda etc in winter dios, will this work with fine rubble? All of the larger pieces are glued down but I am going to give it a final dusting of the very fine stuff and want to make sure it all stays on. Will the hairspray give the whole thing a dull look or a shiny look? A little advice would be great as I would hate to ruin the project after this much work! Thanks a bunch! Here is a pic prior to rubble/with figures and 251tacked on to give a feel of finished product.

Ola Bison

I secured my Babypowder snow with Hairspray and that worked very well. It made no coloration of the snow itself and the snow is after 2 years still white.. But When I did the camouflage on a 37 mm Gun wich I made out of Cottonballs dipped in white glue and added Birchseeds I thought I would seal the whole thing with Hairspray. By that time I had already added the camobranches to my 37mm Gun. When I sprayed it the Whole gun became a couple of tones darker and I could add all my dusting with MIG pigments again. I think it would work well but I can imagine that a light spray of Diluted Whiteglue would do the trick too.

I didn't think of using hairspray as a sealer. Would it also work on the model itself? As in enamel and acrylic? Oh, and a thing about your Hanomag: The treads look a little too rusty for my taste. Thanks for your time. (Good diorama by the way.)

I've used hairspray for baking soda snow. If you don't use too much it should'nt shine. If you're going to use it, make sure it's the old sticky kind in a can, like Aqua-Net. If you're going to place the vehicle, figures, etc. after the rubble, try a spray adhesive over the rubble/dust.

Art

If I understand your question properly ... your not making a snow dio but want to know if hairspray will work for holding down rubble????
To be honest, I dont know. I believe hairspray is used on the baking soda snow as white glue or other fixatives would wet it too much. But for rubble, dust, stones, balsa, etc, I would use diluted white glue. I paint it over the rubble area with an old brush, for best control. I tried the bottle spray one time, but when sprinkling fine sand afterwards, it stuck to places I didnt want it.
I normally fix all rubble in place with the diluted white glue and spray it the general colour of the rubble. Then I pick out details and vary the colour with brush painting. One things for sure .... when using white glue ... it wont budge.

STOP!!!!!

Some Hiarspray contains a form of lacquer... and it will ATTACK STYRENE! Better to use the diluted white glue and water to thin it down, and then "mist" it over your scene. It dries clear and flat, and as stated before, just holds forever!

If you want a light tacky fluid to make dust adhere to your vehicle, try 3M Sticky Mount spray - basically the liquid form of the glue used on "Post-It" notes. Still - overall, you can't go wrong with thinned white glue.

I tried to seal the pastel-dusting I did on a model with hairspray, and, as stated above, that's not a good idea. The pastels just 'disappeared'. For fine rubble I don't know, but I'd stick to the white glue too. It's clear, dries flat, it's easy to work with, and cheap, so what do you want more?

cheers!

What about a clear artist sealant? Like a Krylon Matte Finish?

I use that on some of my kits to seal in the pastel dust and it usually doesn't darken the colors

I'm with the other guys here, I would be very hesitant to use hairspray, it is essentially liquid glue thinned with potentially harmful (To plastic) solvents. Lots of other substitues, white glue, rubber cement, 3m spray glue, gloss and dull coats.

Hope this helps,

Scott Gentry

Thanks for all the replys. I was hesitant to use the white glue method as I wasn't sure I could get an even coat etc and get everything sealed without a massive build up of glue over everything. How do you guys "mist it", some sort of spray bottle? Will the diluted gluechange the color of everything and can I use my usual testors dullcoat over it if it looks too shiny? It was just going to be on the base and groundwork not on the actual figures and 251/1 so I wasn't worried about it eating the plastic. Thanks again for all the tips, I will post some finished pics after sealing in the rubble!

Bison... Go to your nearest hobby store or arts and crafts store (or The Container Store, if there is one in your area)... get one of their larger spray bottles used for spraying plants... these work well.

Set up everything the way you want it to look... spread around your debris, bricks, etc... then grab the misting gun.

To keep the spray head flowing, mix your glue 50-50 with very warm (not quite "hot") water, and make sure to really mix it well to eliminate any "lumps". Now aim the mist from about 9-10 inches above the scene, and cover all of your debris.

The secret is, you want to almost saturate the area... get it wet (but not "soaking wet"!).... then leave it out in your garage overnight, in a dust-free area... perhaps under a clean cardboard box. This will dry overnight, and will be dry to the touch the next afternoon. You can't tell the stuff is even there! If you have any shine spots were a puddle may have formed, just hit it with a quick burst of spray flat. I use Model Masters #1960.

Questions?

Sorry about the long layoff between posts. I ended up spreading a bunch of bricks, wood bits etc for debris and I have some very fine orange, grey, white and tan colored rock chips (from work) and sprinkled those on liberally as well. Before adding the figures i put about 3 coats of strong hold hair spray (3$ aersol can) and it all sticks together nicely. Even turning it over nothing fell off. It did darken up everything just a shade but nothing too drastic. Then i tacked on the figures and halftrack with white glue. The hairspray didn't seem to eat away at any plastic that was on the dio although i didn't spray it directly on figures or halftrack. Overall I think it worked nicely and I didn't even put a coat off dullcoat on after wards. Thanks for all the tips guys!

I like it alot. Nice job on those walls too

The figures look like the 1/24th scale white metal figures from Tamiya 9re-release)... if so, where did you find the 1:24th halftrack?

Or is this a 1:35th scale dio?

It is all 1/35, it is the very old Tamyia 251/1, kit #20 i think. Maybe they used the masters of those figures to make the 1/24 metal ones because the poses are almost identical.

I used aerosol hairspray as a fixative for turf groundcover. There is always some loose stuff that hasn't been caught by the glue base. It works fine.

Ooh, where did the kneeling figure at the front get his fetching brown boots? . Shouldn't they be black aswel?
What is the very fine rubbel, I'm still looking for some nice, multi-colored , fine rubbel in ready scatter form.

Cheers
Henk

Over and over again, I fond that spraying or dribbling matte medium, water, white glue and a touch of soap will secure and seal and not change color.

Sealhead

Hi Henk: You got me there..the brown boots are a fashion statement and he will get reprimanded by a superior. Honestly i just thought I would break up the monotony of all the same colored gear. The fine rubble is rock samples from an oil rig. I am a geologist and we have to catch these samples to monitor what kind of rock we are drilling through. I try and save small containers of the different colored formations so I can mix and match and get very fine multicolored rubble.