Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey all, here is my first large creature that I am working with my airbrush. I picked this carnifex up second hand and am trying to revive it.... All of the chitin will be an orange color. I can post up more pics if others are interested as I go... Any feedback is welcome, Thanks!

More pics...

Looking good so far! nice blends, would look good with another blend under the body of a purple?

I have been kicking around the idea of basecoating with purple instead of the Kantor blue (which is kind of purpley)...

With the airbrush remember that the golden rule is less is more...

Put less than needed and add slowly cause once you lay the paint you cant take it back.

Yeah, I am still getting the hang working with the compressor air supply. It seems the lower the PSI the easier it is to blend and the smaller the pattern. I am still trying to figure out how to make the pattern even smaller... I think some gripping stuff on the finger trigger may make it easier to feather paint in instead of slipping on the metal trigger...

Hmmmm.....fascinating.

Love your progress, can't wait to see where you are taking us on this.

thanks for sharing!

Here is my finished carnifex! The orange blended into the red is not showing up in pictures since it is very subtle. I am not real big on the harsh edge highlighting that a lot of Nid armies are done with. Overall, I learned pinning, cork basing, magnetizing, green stuff molding, and airbrush techniques... My goal with the Nid army is to have all of the non HQ models painted very bright and the HQ models painted a dull color. The fluff being that the hive fleet has developed this biomorph as a protective measure to draw attention and fire away from critical swarm assets (Swarmlord, hive guard, etc.)... I also plan on running poison wherever available to fit their brightly colored fluff (most brightly colored animals in nature are extremely poisonous)...

P.S. My small Nid force was bought mainly to familiarize myself with airbrushing... So hopefully I am on the right track...

strengthofthedragon2 wrote:
Yeah, I am still getting the hang working with the compressor air supply. It seems the lower the PSI the easier it is to blend and the smaller the pattern. I am still trying to figure out how to make the pattern even smaller... I think some gripping stuff on the finger trigger may make it easier to feather paint in instead of slipping on the metal trigger...

Nice work

Thining the paint out more, using a low psi, and practising the trigger control is the way to get finer spray patters. the airbrush is capable of spraying a line comparible to the width of its nozzle when handled correctly (thats quite a feat though dont be disheartened hehe)

Thanks! Yeah, I have noticed that. I have been using 18-20ish PSI for large area coating and bringing it down to 8-12 psi for blending/shading... The chitin parts were done by brush with wildrider red and troll slayer orange and gone over with the bloodletter orange/red glaze. A third color may have made the edges pop a little more...

I appreciate any feedback I can get as I really enjoy airbrushing and strive to achieve master class paint jobs someday.... One paint job at a time...

It might be worth playing around with different ways of thinning. theres a few commonly suggested choices, I'm sure youve seen them before now.
But some do and some dont suit fine detail work.

I have my airbrush for painting canvases and other custom paint jobs on objects primarily. Freehand drawing/painting with them kinda needs you to be able to pull a nice thin line, and its all about the viscosity of the paint once youre at home with operating the airbrush.

I have noticed that some colors do not thin as easily as other colors. Also, if the paint is thin and the PSI is too high it will run. I have also noticed certain GW colors are more prone to clogging than others, but this may also be attributed to improper thinning... Or maybe pouring from the pots into the mixing cup...

What are you thinning with?

The running form having paint too thin, and pressure too high.Sounds like something known as 'spidering' usualy very undesirable. And means the paint is being laid down too fast, too much pressure or too wet a coat from the user perhaps.
Or both.

The paint needs to be like that to get those ultra fine lines though, it takes many many layers to build up.
Specialised airbrushing paints tend to be thinner by nature, some are designed for detailing.
Liquitex acrylic inks spray very nicely.

I would look into getting a seperate mixing container, to avoid lumps of non thinned paint clogging the tip.

HairySticks wrote:
What are you thinning with?

The running form having paint too thin, and pressure too high.Sounds like something known as 'spidering' usualy very undesirable. And means the paint is being laid down too fast, too much pressure or too wet a coat from the user perhaps.
Or both.

The paint needs to be like that to get those ultra fine lines though, it takes many many layers to build up.
Specialised airbrushing paints tend to be thinner by nature, some are designed for detailing.
Liquitex acrylic inks spray very nicely.

I would look into getting a seperate mixing container, to avoid lumps of non thinned paint clogging the tip.

I have been using liquitex airbrush medium and I mix in the small medicine cups (not sure what the name of them actually is lol). I think my problem may be using the same cup multiple times (rinsing in between). I have been working on narrowing down to the source of the issue. For aircraft paints at work, we use a paper filter funnel to catch any clumps... Not sure if that would work with these acrylic paints... I have seemed to notice that the higher the pressure the more prone to clogging the airbrush becomes. These are all probably normal growing pains of airbrushing (I hope)...

While I don't care for the 1989 color scheme, the end result is excellent when compared to what you had to work with. This is a model salvage done right.

I also use Liquitex airbrush medium for all my thinning, both for airbrushing and regular brush work.

For clogging, make sure you are keeping the needle tip oiled so that paint doesn't stick to it and dry.

I too use liquitex airbrush medium. Sometimes i also add a drop of flow aid, literally a drop!
I find that fine detail is pretty tricky to get with thinned acrylics. While it can be done, theres a lot of potential things to get wrong :( and a lot of possible solutions to try out.
As you say the best way is to play with it and treat it as teething problems.
Working with aircraft paints will be good experience for working with airbrush paint and airbrushes.
I guess you paint aircraft with pressure pot sprayers? its a little different using low pressure spraying devices but a lot is similar and many of the same rules apply.

Yeah we use pressure pots and HVLP guns (high volume low pressure). The airbrush is more similar to the HVLP but I can't figure out if it has a fluid adjustment knob. I have an Iwata hp-cs and it seems to have a fluid adjustment if you remove the rear part of the airbrush to loosen or tighten. But I am unable to tell a huge difference between adjustments (maybe this is a good thing). I am wondering if I have the fluid coming out faster than the air can move it resulting in clogging. Aircraft paints take a couple hours to set and dry but these water based paints, while forgiving for clean up, are really giving me a hard time. But it is exciting and new and still really fun!

Not sure you will find that on many airbrushes

Some have fine air pressure controls on the bottom.... I found it fiddly and not needed lol.
the needle should be sat finger tight (not forced into the nozzle) so that at rest position no paint flows, and then even the tiniest pull should give a minute amount of paint. (which is why detailing needs extra thin paint)