So what if I WANT a cracked finish?

[jaymcminn]

Building the Italeri Alfa 8C kit now. The idea is a weathered car a few years into its racing career. The problem is the seat... it has no sort of detail or character whatsoever. I can do a decent faux finish to give it a worn leather look but I'd like to simulate cracking in the leather. Any ideas?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Couple months back, I shot some very hot aircraft engine enamel over a base of SEM self-etching primer.

As the SEM stuff is pretty much impervious to everything shot over it, you can imagine my surprise when the enamel produced a cracked finish on the broad flat areas, probably just about what you're looking for.

I've seen "cracked" finishes for faux-aging furniture, available in hardware stores too, that intentionally take advantage of adverse reactions of topcoats with basecoats.

Lacquer over enamel is well known to cause wrinkling, lifting, or cracking, and hot lacquer over bare plastic may cause crazing or cracking too.

Just now remembered...last week I shot some Transtar 6183 self-etching green over bare Gunze plastic to see what it would do, and a wet coat generated cracking, again, probably pretty close to what you want.

Problem is that it's not really very predictable, so much experimenting will probably be required to hit your sweet spot.

[Fat Brian]

Usually shooting Rustolem or Krylon over Testors is a sure way to get wrinkling, especially when you don't want it, but as Bill said it can be unpredictable. You might be able to find a crackle paint kit at a home improvement or craft store or online.

[El Roberto]

Or you can paint the seat, let dry and spray a fairly generous coat of hair spray. Then when the hair spray dries (1/2 hour or so), over spray with acrylic.  I accidently screwed up a paint job on a aircraft this way.  

Edited April 13, 2020 by El Roberto
addition

[jaymcminn]

I'm going to play around with what I've got around the house to see what I can get to happen. It's weird trying to intentionally screw up a paint job. Thanks for the tips and keep 'em coming!

[NOBLNG]

Could you use a straight pin or an exacto blade to scratch through the paint down to the primer to simulate a crack?

[OldNYJim]

I found (accidentally) a while back that blasting too-thickly-applied Tamiya acrylic with a hair drier will make subtle splits and cracks as the paint shrinks and blisters a little when it dries too fast.  Just used the same trick, intentionally this time, on a coffin that I painted for one of my projects:

Im doing to go back in and brush some black pastel dust into the cracks to exaggerate the effect, but that might be a trick you can use?

Edited April 14, 2020 by CabDriver

[jaymcminn]

1 hour ago, CabDriver said:

I found (accidentally) a while back that blasting too-thickly-applied Tamiya acrylic with a hair drier will make subtle splits and cracks as the paint shrinks and blisters a little when it dries too fast.  Just used the same trick, intentionally this time, on a coffin that I painted for one of my projects:

Im doing to go back in and brush some black pastel dust into the cracks to exaggerate the effect, but that might be a trick you can use?

Whoa. That is exactly what I was looking for. Did you airbrush or brush the Tamiya acrylic? Was the paint still wet when you hit it with the dryer? I see that working really well with a tan base coat and a leather/brown top coat for the effect I want. Great paint on that Chevy (and the coffin, too)!

[OldNYJim]

I airbrushed the acrylic on, nice and heavy of a coat and unthinned right from the jar and then blasted it with my wife’s hairdryer on the highest setting (which seems like it’s hot enough that it would burn your head if you actually used it on yourself ?)

The longer you blast it the more of the effect you’ll get, within reason.  I could’ve got a more extreme effect on this particular project but I didn’t want the candy to split too much and reveal the silver base underneath in this instance.

Might take some experimenting, but I suspect it would work with paint other than Tamiya too 

[Roadrunner]

I'd just scribe them in, then paint them.

[Mike999]

14 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Lacquer over enamel is well known to cause wrinkling, lifting, or cracking, and hot lacquer over bare plastic may cause crazing or cracking too.

Thanks, I hoped somebody would mention that trick.  It was a "customizing" suggestion in early AMT annual kits: to simulate leather, paint the interior with enamel, then over-paint it with lacquer.

Testors Dullcote should work for that trick, but I'd use it from a bottle thru an airbrush, so you have some control.  Unless you're very careful, blasting Dullcote from an aerosol can might melt the enamel paint, not wrinkle it.  Lacquer will also melt/deform unpainted plastic.  Don't ask how I know this...  

[Hermann Kersten]

Maybe an idea, I have often seen people do this with paper from the After eight chocolate.

The result looks also awesome.

Leather seats

 

Hermann.

[jaymcminn]

2 hours ago, Hermann Kersten said:

Maybe an idea, I have often seen people do this with paper from the After eight chocolate.

The result looks also awesome.

Leather seats

 

Hermann.

That does look awesome. I'm actually going to try a crackle medium by Ranger. The results I've seen look good and if I don't like the results it won't attack the kit plastic. I'll post up some trial pics in the next few days.