Hairspray for sealant?

Bofur The Dwarf · **Posted:** Sun Nov 03, 2013 11:36 am

So recently, someone in my family thought of the idea of using hairspray for cheap sealant :lol:

. I'm not too sure on that idea though :-/. Has anyone tried this idea? Or does anyone know of the effects and usefulness of hairspray? Wether it could be used on miniatures and scenery?

I was thinking myself it would give a glossy effect and sticky feeling which most people wouldn't want, and I certainly don't :-X

Oldman Willow · **Posted:** Sun Nov 03, 2013 2:02 pm

Hair spray works to attach flocking to trees. I would not recommend it for much else.

Ukfreddybear · **Posted:** Sun Nov 03, 2013 4:11 pm

It will be tacky so I advise against it.

Hodush · **Posted:** Sun Nov 03, 2013 9:41 pm

Would you recommend using spray for trees or does it just work? I imagine plain old glue might be difficult.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:15 am

Like Has been said above. You can only use hairspray for attaching flock to tree armatures.

Oldman Willow · **Posted:** Wed Nov 06, 2013 3:40 pm

ukfreddybear wrote:

It will be tacky so I advise against it.

Me too!
Tacky will depend on brand but it is about useless for anything but maintaining and adding flock to trees. Some spray glue will stay tacky by design so read the label.

samoht · **Posted:** Wed Nov 06, 2013 11:34 pm

Apparently hair spray used as a fixative on drawings will turn the paper yellow over time. Maybe not a good idea on hand painted mini's.

Wise Old Elf · **Posted:** Fri Dec 13, 2013 10:49 am

As a trained artist, I would advise everyone to avoid hairspray completely! On acrylic paint (which 99% of all miniature paints are) the hairspray chemicals can dissolve the paint, making it either sticky like PVA glue, or sometimes it can bubble up like Nurgle pustules. As has already been said, it also discolours paper over time, so might do the same for your miniature.

Artist fixative however, though a little more expensive at about £8 per can, would probably work, and won't have any of the side-effects I've just listed. I haven't tried fixative myself though, so can't promise anything.

But I would also question why anyone would seal miniatures anyway - it seems like another GW ploy to me. I have a Rohan army that has not seen any sort of wear and tear over the nine years I've had it, and I play games very regularly with that army, though not so much recently. And I'm a clumsy fool, each miniature has been knocked off a table at least twice, and the only damage has been bent swords on the metal characters, which obviously needed a quick touch-up, but wouldn't have been prevented by sealing.

mertaal · **Posted:** Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:31 am

I was advised to use hairspray to fix static grass after it had been glued, to stop it shedding. It didn't work.

I don't think it's so terribly essential to varnish plastic miniatures. I would recommend people varnish their metal ones though.

Having said that, I do think a degree of paint chipping is down to lacking prep (washing, then sufficiently rinsing and sufficiently drying miniatures before painting) and incorrect priming methods/products.

Back in the day we used to "undercoat" our miniatures by hand (never heard of the term priming in those days, and GW certainly didn't sell spray primer). Paint chipping was a bigger problem than it is now. Oh, and we also didn't varnish either.

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:34 am

I still undercoat all my models by hand. I don't varnish my own models but do give commissions a couple of coats with matt varnish to give them a chance of getting to the client with their paint jobs still intact.

mertaal · **Posted:** Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:55 am

Dead Marsh Spectre wrote:

I still undercoat all my models by hand.

Burn the Witch!!

Erunion · **Posted:** Fri Dec 13, 2013 1:11 pm

I tried hairspray once, and like the others mentioned, it stayed tacky which led to a very fuzzy miniature. There was dust all over it after a few days. Had to strip that one.

I get cheap spray varnish from Hobby Lobby (<$5 a can) and when my minis are done I give them a layer of gloss varnish, followed by a layer of matte to kill the shine. Seems to do the trick, although sometimes I wonder if I couldn't just skip the gloss stage.

Wise Old Elf · **Posted:** Fri Dec 13, 2013 11:56 pm

mertaal wrote:

Dead Marsh Spectre wrote:

I still undercoat all my models by hand.

Burn the Witch!!

Sorry, I'll have to throw myself on the pyre too. Will I take less of a scolding if I plead guilty?

mertaal · **Posted:** Sat Dec 14, 2013 9:16 am

Wise Old Elf wrote:

Sorry, I'll have to throw myself on the pyre too. Will I take less of a scolding if I plead guilty?

You'll have to discuss it with the committee:

Hairspray for sealant?

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