"Hairspray technique" Topic

I was reading an article about applying hairspray to a model as a part of the distressing process. My utterly simplistic summary is:

Undercoat
Gloss protective coat
Hairspray coat
Top coat
Distress

Why the hairspray?

The hairspray scrubs off as part of the distressing process revealing the undercoat.

Provides a water soluble coat that when agitated will remove the top coat of paint. Generally, much talked about, with varying results, works better for the intended audience of 1/35, maybe with the exception of worn white wash maybe.

As you mention you need the sealer coat.

Pics? Let us judge the results.

I have seen mostly used with terrain and vehicles. Pretty effective as long as it is not over done. Normally there is Kosher salt also involved. Use a moist brush or sponge to allow the rock salt to come loose from the hairspray layer. I have actually seen it done with multiple layers of paint for good effect.

I used toothpaste in place of hairspray on this T-34:
link

Nice T-34 !

I've used rubber cement.

I used hairspray (among many, many other layers) on my 1/35 Tiger:

I found it much more controllable to pour off some of the hairspray into a bottle and paint it on with a rough brush, rather than spray it. It took a lot of experimenting to get the amount of hair spray, number of coats of paint, protective gloss or matte coating, etc. right.

I haven't used this technique on my gaming models because at 15mm, where I do most of my WW2/modern gaming, it would be too labor-intensive for what would end up as a minor detail. At that scale, it's just as effective to paint your chips by hand.

I suspect that if used in gaming with a lot if handling, that the models would look like heals of rust in no time.
This seems to be a method for display models only.