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Made in au
Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





Melbourne, Australia

Hi all,

Well, a couple of weeks back I bought an airbrush, hose and combined regulator and water trap (AU$18.50) from ebay to dip my toes in the wonderful world of airbrushing.

I have my fathers serious compressor that I now have out on loan (that you can see with my hose and regulator attached to the right hand side):



Here is the airbrush that I bought (AU$21.50 + postage):



and I tried it out this afternoon with my black wash mix:



and here is the result on the body of a falcon I had lying around:



Overall I was very happy with it. It worked well and I had good control.

Tips and problems:

  • Don't spray with too much paint/water in the mix - pooling on the figure is REALLY not what you want!

  • Make sure you don't clean your airbrush right next to a sink - I managed to drop one of the very small parts down the drain (and had to messily remove the water trap to get it back again).

  • Make sure you have a regulator - it is great to be able to dial in the pressure you want to work at.

  • Make sure you have all the stuff you will need available - I went to three stores and none had Wood Spirits available (sold out). I ended up completely taking it appart to clean (which is good anyway to get an appreciation of how everything goes together).


  • I will have a bit more of a play around and let people know what I learn through the process.

    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    OK - after using it last night for undercoating, had a go tonight at basecoating.

    So, pulled out my nearly finished green and brown foundation containers and went to work first on my Biel Tan falcon:



    followed by my sons nobs and warboss which he asked to be base coated brown before I put him to bed...



    Next, I will need to find something to try out camo on.

    Learnings today:

    - it gives a nice smooth finish.

    - I think I have been using it with the pressure to high (about 40 PSI) - running it at a lower pressure will make it easier I think for detailed work.

    - not sure if I'm mixing the paint right - when I work it with water works well - my paint however has a tendancy to stop/start - maybe because it's a cheap airbrush?

    Anyway, it's more fun to use and clean than basecoating a bunch of figures with a brush!

    This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2009/06/15 12:45:55


    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in us
    Moustache-twirling Princeps





    About to eat your Avatar...

    Looks quite good.

    Thanks for doing this, I have been interested in an airbrush for quite some time. Spray paint tends to get on my nerves, and seems very expensive.


     
       
    Made in us
    Regular Dakkanaut






    I just recently rediscovered my love of airbrushing tanks as well (see Leman Russ C+C thread for results).

    What are you thinning your paints with? In what ratio? And what brand of paints are you using? Also, what are you using to clean your airbrush with?

    Your airbrush does not look cheap.. it appears to be a dual action gravity fed model. You might look at the instructions for changing out the needle and see if you’re working with the finest needle possible.

    One last thing, check out some of the military modeling sites. Our models get way more abuse than a static display, but a lot of the techniques translate very well onto 40k tanks.
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    Wrexasaur wrote:Looks quite good.

    Thanks for doing this, I have been interested in an airbrush for quite some time. Spray paint tends to get on my nerves, and seems very expensive.


    Cheers - yes it is fun to use the airbrush compared to spray painting and you have much more control.

    Andrewdrexler wrote:I just recently rediscovered my love of airbrushing tanks as well (see Leman Russ C+C thread for results).


    I like the graduation you've gotten with the airbrush on it - nice!

    What are you thinning your paints with? In what ratio? And what brand of paints are you using? Also, what are you using to clean your airbrush with?


    The paints I'm using are citadel foundation colours and were already thinned - so I was simply making them look like a "milk consistency". Not exactly scientific!

    Your airbrush does not look cheap.. it appears to be a dual action gravity fed model. You might look at the instructions for changing out the needle and see if you’re working with the finest needle possible.


    Yeah - I took it completely appart last night and had a look at the needle. I'm going to have a look at the ebay seller and see if they have additional nozzle and needle kits...

    One last thing, check out some of the military modeling sites. Our models get way more abuse than a static display, but a lot of the techniques translate very well onto 40k tanks.

    Will do.

    Thanks for the feedback.

    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in us
    Regular Dakkanaut







    Thanks for the compliment on the tank.

    You might try to estimate how thin you’re getting your paint. One of the advantages of an Airbrush is the ability to put down ultra thin coats to avoid obscuring details. You might experiment with using alcohol to thin your paints. I don’t know how it will react to GW Foundation paints, but with the Tamiya paints that I have been using on my tanks it allows them to be thinned almost to the consistency of water without loosing coverage.

    Concerning parts for your airbrush, you might try Micro-Mark, a local art store, or the manufactures webpage.
       
    Made in us
    Jinking Ravenwing Land Speeder Pilot





    San Diego, CA USA

    TMT GOTS AND AIR BRUSH!


    Lol. Let me see if I can help with some of your little problems.

    -40psi is why you blew through your paints so quickly and if you need it that high to flow you have a dilution problem. I normally spray at 18-20psi for coverage and 5-10psi for detail. With any paint you put in to spray, it should be about the consistency of milk. Usually start with 2:1 color/water stir and go from there. Paint should run off the stir stick like..... milk. Your paint will go on thin and will require multiple coats which is required. You are basically doing it like you were painting a full size vehicle. You wouldn't try it in one coat and expect good results right?

    - If you paint a while and notice you get weird paint flow, having to pull back all the way for minimal paint, look at your needle. The paint likes to collect and all you have to do it scrape it off lightly with your nail. This happens faster if you move the air brush around fast while spraying.


    Future problem?
    - I had problems with water in my line even with a water trap at the regulator. I had to get a water trap that attaches to the gun itself and it works great


     
       
    Made in us
    Powerful Pegasus Knight






    Oxnard, CA

    I think im am give this a try with my dads compressor regulator and buy a airbrush. It seems to give the look and amount of time I want

    This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2009/06/15 22:37:35


    "That for all the Emperor's love of his space marines, his ultimate creation - he was in fact nearly killed by one of them, only to be saved by a mere mortal with a 5+ save and a flashlight."
     
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    Thanks guys.

    Hopefully metho will be back instores shortly and I can try that for diluting and cleaning.

    Jon - I am happy so far trying out acheap ebay brush with a serious compressor. It has cost me about the same as the gw brush for it andthe needed attachments, but will hopefully have a longer life and utility (vplus I don't meed to buy canned air).

    Next I will try masking onthe falcon.

    cheers

    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in gb
    Bounding Dark Angels Assault Marine




    London

    Like everyone else has said, I'm really impressed with the brush you got for the money you paid! The GW brush is very simple, the one you got looks like a double-action, which is handy. I hope you enjoy the wonderful world of airbrushing. The most important thing is that the compressor you're using has a built-in air tank... None of the ones I own do, and even though I have some very expensive brushes, the quality of my work can suffer as a result.
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    yeah - I am happy with the compressor - I fill the tank up to 100psi and then shut it off avoiding a racket.

    This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2009/06/17 08:50:23


    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia



    Seeing whether this gets automatically appended...:
    Hi

    Played around with the airbrush again tonight...

    Used metho with a little paint (very thin). The metho worked well as it dries almost immediately with a fine mist and if not you just hit it with some air to dry it out.

    As it does dry quickly I did get my needle clogged:



    I had to empty out the paint mix, remove the needle and scrape off the paint.

    My pyro mind wondered if you could make a little flame thrower with pure metho?



    I was having a go at making a gradually lighter coloured pannels on the front of the falcon:





    And finished off like this:



    The figure has been painted as an exercise - I will finish it off as is but it is not meant to be a very fancy figure (just aiming for table top quality) - the stripes and design were just to test out what I could do (including trying to base coat the jewels white with the airbrush as finicky work).

    So, learnings for today:

  • Have your PSI set to well below 20 and you will get better control and the paint will last much longer

  • Metho seems good as a mixer with paint for airbrushing - it did irritate my lungs however I think so make sure you use a mask

  • Cleanup after metho mix is harder, as the paint sticks more quickly

  • You can get very fine control with the airbrush


  • Happier now with the airbrush - for a little over 20 bucks, I think it is a great toy!


    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in gb
    Scuttling Genestealer






    That falcon looks incredible-I've got to try that with my airbrush! And you said it wasn't tabletop quality

    I know. I'm evil.
    I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff. And I want in.































     
       
    Made in us
    Moustache-twirling Princeps





    About to eat your Avatar...

    Did you use masking tape to make the crisp edges on the gradient colors?

    I'm thinking this should be the next tool I buy, and for under 100$ for the whole thing I'll end up saving a ton of money on spray paint. Heck, my friend would probably want to use it a bunch so we could split the cost. Oh and yes I have a truck that need some bitchin mermaids on its hood . No, not complaining mermaids...geez, think more stacked... erm. Yeah...

    Something like this: (not mine)


    This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2009/06/18 13:47:36



     
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    freaky angel wrote:That falcon looks incredible-I've got to try that with my airbrush! And you said it wasn't tabletop quality


    Thanks - I'm not really a fan of it myself but it was good to see the contrast between the white and green for trying out use.

    Wrexasaur wrote:Did you use masking tape to make the crisp edges on the gradient colors?


    Just an A5 piece of paper to mask - remember with the airbrush if you block the flow you end up with a hard shadow. You don't need to use masking tape etc - holding the paper over the top was sufficient.

    I'm thinking this should be the next tool I buy, and for under 100$ for the whole thing I'll end up saving a ton of money on spray paint. Heck, my friend would probably want to use it a bunch so we could split the cost. Oh and yes I have a truck that need some bitchin mermaids on its hood . No, not complaining mermaids...geez, think more stacked... erm. Yeah...

    Something like this: http://www.elfwood.com/art/m/o/morganc/mermaids.jpg (not mine)


    Yeah - happy with it - especially for an outlay of AU$50 or so (as I already had access to a good compressor).

    Can't see the mermaids pic though (404 error).

    Cheers

    This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2009/06/18 13:16:50


    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    Hello

    Bought some isopropyl alcohol today from the chemist (he decanted it for me rather than buying off the shelf which he said may have some mineral oils in it which you don't want mixing in with the airbrush).

    I really like mixing the paint with alcohol rather than water due to the rapid dry time, the thinner consistency and good mixing.

    As said, the downsides of the alcohol are: health and saftey risks (alcohol is very flamable and it is not good to breath in) and it will dry up in your well and on your equipment faster making cleanup harder (ironically, as alcohol is usually used to help clean up your airbrush!).

    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in gb
    Bounding Dark Angels Assault Marine




    London

    Are you using GW paint thinned with isopropyl Alcohol? Interesting, I didn't think that'd work. I might have to try that myself, now...
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    GlauG wrote:Are you using GW paint thinned with isopropyl Alcohol? Interesting, I didn't think that'd work. I might have to try that myself, now...


    Hi

    I painted with very old citadel white paint thinned with methalyded spirits. After reading that 10ml of Methanol (which makes up 10% of the spirits - ethanol is the other 90%) is enough to cause permanent blindness if injested or inhaled I decided that even with a face mask I would prefer not to use it!

    I have not yet tried the isopropyl alcohol, but would be surprised if it acted very differently to metho - will try it out on the weekend (and it is less toxic than methanol).

    Cheers

    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in us
    Regular Dakkanaut






    I usually spray with 70% denatured alcohol and 30% Tamia Acrylic paints. There is a slight odor when I spray outside, but its not the screaming headache waiting to happen that Turpentine is.

    I used some of that last week for some weathering techniques on my LR and I swear my hobby area still smells nasty, a week later..
       
    Made in gb
    Bounding Dark Angels Assault Marine




    London

    Ah, I have the correct masks for spraying organic solvents etc, so that's not really a deal for me. I was just surprised that GW acrylics thinned okay with a spirit of any kind. Weirdly, I think Tamiya paint is some of the nicest smelling kind you can get.
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    GlauG wrote:Ah, I have the correct masks for spraying organic solvents etc, so that's not really a deal for me. I was just surprised that GW acrylics thinned okay with a spirit of any kind. Weirdly, I think Tamiya paint is some of the nicest smelling kind you can get.


    In that case then, I recommend it - the ability to spray a thin coat (I was thinned down quite a bit - probably 20% paint) meant that you could spray it on, wait a few seconds (or hit it with some air) and it would be ready to coat again.

    Should have chance to try with Isopropyl alcohol on the weekend - will see how that mixes.

    Cheers

    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in us
    Privateer





    The paint dungeon, Arizona

    Somehow I missed this thread o.O

    Ok, the cloggin is a thinning problem as you have figured out.

    Water is not an ideal medium, nor is alcohol save for certain effects and uses.

    Find a decent art supply shop, pick up some airbrush thinner. Its basically a mix of flow release agent and distilled water. Using that Ive had no serious clog issues(just workin hte needle back and forth cleared it), and Im in the Arizona desert where the humidity is only like 15%. Ive never even had to empty my moisture traps!

    To avoid pooling that you mentioned- less paint, or more distance. Less is more with air brushing, its far easier to add more paint, than it is to take paint away- especially if it puddles or makes a starfish
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    Oh well - did some experimentation on the weekend.

    I can report that isopropyl alcohol is NOT a good mixing agent - may do like you said MoM (LOL) and get some airbrush agent - or just buy some airbrush paints of ebay to try (20 bottles for about AU$70 doesn't sound too bad...).

    I even tried out painting with the airbrush with poster paint - there is not enough pigment in them however to be worthwhile, but it did end up as an interesting weathering effect (I will not be using them again however).

    The airbrush ended up pretty clogged - I completely stripped down the brush to clean it in the end.

    Interestingly, at a little over AU$20 for the airbrush ($30 or so with postage) the airbrush works well, and whilst there are not specific replacements available (may ask if the ebay store can get them in) a whole new brush is close to the same price as replacement parts for other brushes (and it does work very well).

    Looking into maybe getting some airbrush tattoo ink to set up a stall at my kids school fete to raise some fundraising cash by giving kids dragon tattoos...

    ;-)

    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in us
    Privateer





    The paint dungeon, Arizona

    Yep, poster paints, and any general arts & craft paint, like the apple barrel stuff is really weak in the pigment dept.

    I really would urge the use of an actual airbrush thinner/medium. It works great, and its cheaper than paint- and will make the high quality paint last longer for ya.

    And tattoo paint is an investment, its not cheap, and make absolutely sure not to use it around flames as it is alcohol based. You'll probly need stencils too unless ya got some wicked freehand skills
       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    Mistress of minis wrote:Yep, poster paints, and any general arts & craft paint, like the apple barrel stuff is really weak in the pigment dept.


    Yeah - I thought it might be OK for painting buildings etc as a cheap alternative, but it is hopeless...

    I really would urge the use of an actual airbrush thinner/medium. It works great, and its cheaper than paint- and will make the high quality paint last longer for ya.


    Thanks,

    I just picked this up in respsonse to your previous advice:



    It runs at AU$13 for 250ml so on a 1-1 thinning basis, it would completely thin out about 20 full bottles of paint (or about $100 worth of paint to look at it another way - so it's cheap!)

    And tattoo paint is an investment, its not cheap, and make absolutely sure not to use it around flames as it is alcohol based. You'll probly need stencils too unless ya got some wicked freehand skills


    LOL - the image in my mind of the look on parents faces as I blow torch their children's arms is priceless! Not a public liability suit that I want to face any time soon!

    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in us
    Privateer





    The paint dungeon, Arizona

    I got my airbrush thinner at an art supply store, I believe its Liquitex, an 8 0z bottle was like 7$ I think 8 oz is really close to 250ml (im too lazy to google it!)

    But ya, its one of those items that will last a while.

    And with the alcohol based stuff- be careful around fans too. I jsut found out the exhaust box I made isnt safe for alcohol and solvent use, as it sucks in the vapors, the motor could spark them off. So, fans are bad too

       
    Made in au
    Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine





    Melbourne, Australia

    That's OK - I have the airbrush setup in my garage - the only things going are the fluro light - the compressor is turned off after it gets to 100psi.

    Oh - and the candles that I airbrush by, can't forget those!


    There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary, and those who don't.

    My work in progress thread 
       
    Made in us
    Wondering Why the Emperor Left





    I just thin my paint with car windshield washer fluid, it works great, I also use it to clean up. It's pretty cheap too.
       
    Made in us
    Privateer





    The paint dungeon, Arizona

    I clean mine with window cleaner, but the fumes are pretty harsh so I stick with the regular airbrush stuff. It doesnt stink
       
    Made in gb
    Bounding Dark Angels Assault Marine




    London

    Mistress of minis wrote:

    And with the alcohol based stuff- be careful around fans too. I jsut found out the exhaust box I made isnt safe for alcohol and solvent use, as it sucks in the vapors, the motor could spark them off. So, fans are bad too



    Since all my painting used to be done with lacquers and other flammable paints, I ended up building a spray booth out of PC case fans specially chosen for their brushless motors, they were the cheapest thing I could find. The spray booth I ended up buying in Japan is, unsurprisingly, safe anyway.
       
     
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