RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

On the WWW are plenty of vids showing how to create special weathering effects with the use of hairspray.
In all these vids acrylic paint is used.
Just wondering, if I spray a part which has been painted with enamel lacquer, and I spray 2 layers of hairspray over it, next paint it with the color to be, could I get the same effect when I use damp stiff brush with terpentine to weather it?
In the youtube vids they use water to wash the acrylic paint away with a damp brush.
When i do the same, but with terpentine to wash the last layer of paint, could it work?
Any of you guys done this?
I might give it a try with my German steel helmets.......

Best advice: Just try! I've been using this this technique for some time now and everytime it's different haha!

I have done this a lot with acrylics but never enamels.
I assume the outcome is the same but the energy needed to get the surface off could be different.

I would think the hairspray is a water soluble layer that allows paint to be flaked off. It would say you will create a mess with enamel paints and turpentine.

Thank you guys for the replies.
I think I just will test it on something to see what happens.
I will let you know how it worked out.

I usually use enamel spray paints as base coats, then seal them with a coat of clear flat before applying the hair spray. I've found this works better for me than just putting the hair spray directly onto the base color. I over coat the hair spray with airbrushed acrylics. It seems that if they are thinned more than usual they give a better effect when brushed off with water.

I think the water is basically used to loosen the hair spray, not the paint. Scratching the thin coat of paint allows the water to react with the hair spray, letting the paint come off.

Anyone, did I mis state anything above? If so, please correct me! Hope this helps some.

Bill

Soeren wrote:I would think the hairspray is a water soluble layer that allows paint to be flaked off. It would say you will create a mess with enamel paints and turpentine.

Yeah, the idea is that you apply paint to the layer of hairspray, then selectively dissolve the layer of hairspray with water. You could certainly do your basecoat in enamel, but I do not think that water would be able to penetrate a layer of hydrophobic enamel paint to get to the hairspray underneath. I would assume you'd have to go primer > enamel > hairspray > acrylic, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.