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I just bought an airbrush and I was wondering from the experts where to go for tips and paint selections any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. I would like to stay with acrylics if at all possible.

Vallejo's Airbrush Colors.

They work well and cover amazingly. However, you still need a thinner--and they really only work well with Vallejo's Air Color Thinner.

Vallejo Air Colors are easy to use, minimal effort as far as cleaning and fighting the gumming up some regular paints can cause.

However, Ive thinned it with Liquitex air brush medium, or even windex, and got quality results.

They can be sprayed straight out of the bottle- but you have to up the air pressure to like 40psi, and that tends to blow infantry figs around- (and the piant doesnt go as far as it would thinned).

Now- regular vallejo paints and GW paints can be air brushed- the trick is making sure you thin them to a milk like consistancy- and make sure thera are NO lump of bits of dried paint that will cause nozzle blockages- which means you have to stop painting to clear the nozzle, and possibly disassmble the brush to do it.

Just experiment, its how alot of us figured out what works best for us. And take your time, rushing and skipping the prep stuff usualy means 20 minutes spent fixing a minor problem that could have been prevented

I agree with what Mitress says
IM not a PRO Air brusher and we have been learning as we go
I use Reaper pro and GW and about 10% windex if its to thick i will use rubbing alchole.

here is 2 links of some of the work using GW paint.


The Devilfish is my work. (WIP)
the Baneblade is my friend

I use a 50/50 mix for my delta ceramacoat paint (paint/water) to shoot out of my AZtek brush. BUT, when I switch to the ps900, I will have to change my mix I think as the needle on the aztek is .30 and the ps900 is .20
"recipes" will vary on the paint and needle used as MoM and others have said.

Spacemanvic wrote:I use a 50/50 mix for my delta ceramacoat paint (paint/water) to shoot out of my AZtek brush. BUT, when I switch to the ps900, I will have to change my mix I think as the needle on the aztek is .30 and the ps900 is .20
"recipes" will vary on the paint and needle used as MoM and others have said.

I havent even tried the Delta paints in my AB, do they stick better from an AB than from a regular brush? I have a horrible time getting coverage with them when using them normally.

I use Tamiya Acrylic paint for my airbrush. Thinned 50-60% with denatured achocol. Results are great for my uses, and even the pro modelers use them. Price is 3.00 or so per small bottle, and I went through about 3 bottles of color for about 20 tanks. The paint lays down nice and flat and thin.

in order of preferences:

Tamiya (limited colours)
Vallejo ModelAir (again, limited colours)

And then much further down the list:

Folkart (no kidding, but mostly for terrain)
Vallejo Game Color (very finicky to get thinned right, though I'm experimenting with vallejo gamecolor thinner and model air thinner this week)


I haven't tried foundation paints, but would assume they would work as that's what citadel recommends you spray through their AB.


For those of you using Windex, would any window cleaning product work? Can't find Windex in NZ.

I dont use name brand Windex, just some blue generic stuff (I think its ammonia free though- it doesnt stink)

Mistress of minis wrote:

Spacemanvic wrote:I use a 50/50 mix for my delta ceramacoat paint (paint/water) to shoot out of my AZtek brush. BUT, when I switch to the ps900, I will have to change my mix I think as the needle on the aztek is .30 and the ps900 is .20
"recipes" will vary on the paint and needle used as MoM and others have said.

I havent even tried the Delta paints in my AB, do they stick better from an AB than from a regular brush? I have a horrible time getting coverage with them when using them normally.

I have never had a problem using Delta paints on either a brush or AB. When on a brush, I do water down the paint as it is a rather thick medium, more so when using it in an AB. It took me a while to get the right consistency to work in the AB as it is thick and can build up on the needle fast. Using the 50/50 mis though fixed that. Between colors, I fill a cup with plain water and hold the trigger down until the water flows clean, then change cups/colors. How fast is it to change colors in the PS900? I only see the one gravity cup, is there another way to mount a cup on that brush?

Now, disclaimer:
I base coat all of my minis except for vehicles in matte white. I have never liked using the GW black base coat then building up the colors. I use inks for shading and getting into crevices, as well as 000 nib pens to add detail work (panel edges etc). I am used to using white canvas for painting so it was just natural for me to carry that over to mini painting, plus I really like how the base coat of white really makes the colors stand out, especially reds, and yellows and blues.

Thanks all have any of you heard of Golden air brush paints? If so how are they?

I haven't tried Golden paints specifically... but I've experienced a few other (non-miniature) acrylic types, like Liquitex, Createx, Com-Art and a few others in the airbrush... and they all seem to go on quite nicely, but I've found them to be very delicate.
None of my minis are display case worthy, they are all for gaming, so the frequent touching worked against the delicate paints. Though I betcha someone here is gonna chime in with great success using these paints lol.

With delicate/thin paint, you lay a good clear coat over it to prevent it from wearing off Most air brush paint goes on thin(if you're using good technique) so sealing/varnishing/clear coating is a pretty good idea so regualr handling and transporting of figs for games doesnt rub the paint off.

Just remember:

Matte=not shiny at all
Satin= a little shiny
Gloss= really shiny

So, one trick- if you're using waterslide decals/transfers- is to do a thin gloss coat so the decal adheres easily to the smooth gloss surface. Then you can matte coat it if you dont like the shiny finish.