Vallejo medium Crackle.

[paddy]

Obviously i got this stuff completely wrong but then given it comes with the no instructions at all....its not really surprising.
I did watch a couple of you tube videos however even the Vallejo in house offering assumes you know how it works in the first place.
What i did was spray a base acrylic coat and let it dry. I then gave it a coat of medium crackle and again let it dry over night as suggested on the video ( says allow 24 hours. and use a hair dryer). the Vallejo dries in a mirror gloss. they say don't stir of shake.
In the morning i gave it another coat of acrylic colour and let it dry.
It then says mist it with water and it will crack.
what actually happens is the water washes off the second acrylic coat which does not seem to key to the ultra high gloss crackle coat underneath.

as i say i', obviously doing something wrong but what ?

 

[moon puppy]

Never heard of this stuff, Watching this video i don't see where they call for water to activate.

They just top coat it then dry with hair dryer. It looks like the same technique as the "Hair Spray technique" for white washes and other effects, just putting on the "crackle" medium much thicker.

 

[paddy]

So the top coat goes on the very wet coat of crackle ? then dried with a hair dryer.

 

[paddy]

This what i was looking at ?

 

[moon puppy]

That's some trippy stuff man, but yeah, that's what I'm seeing. The drying process causes the crackling. The video you posted seems to show adding more water causes more crackling as it dries. then he blows with the airbrush into specific areas, the airbrush being empty.

 

[paddy]

Its very odd , i have tried a gain just letting it dry on a painted surface and letting it dry and then painting over it and in both cases i might just have not bothered with the crackle medium. Oh well, i just wanted to crack the leather on some seats but its obviously not going to happen for me

 

[moon puppy]

I've had that effect happen to me before, think it was an enamel base that didn't dry thoroughly and then an acrylic top. When the enamel finished drying I had that crackling effect. I really doubt I could do it on purpose again.

 

[Greg Kimsey]

Its very odd , i have tried a gain just letting it dry on a painted surface and letting it dry and then painting over it and in both cases i might just have not bothered with the crackle medium. Oh well, i just wanted to crack the leather on some seats but its obviously not going to happen for me

The topcoat paint need to be pretty thin and it's a one and done coat. He is using model air which is already somewhat thin, but add some flow improver to it. I am not sure why it isn't working. I am sure it is frustrating!

 

[Brokeneagle]

You can get the same effect with Tamiya acrylic paint applied very thick (with a brush) with hardly any medium. It just cracks and works even more so when applied over modelling clay. Looks good for wet mud that is drying out.

 

[paddy]

Yes , much like the on line videos but i wanted to create this effect on a thin coat so as not to hide detail. It can be done, i have seen the effect on pictures on model sites where the paint is just sprayed thickness, almost transparent.