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omg....stay away...Propellant is a big con of spraying. I would spray everything if I didn't have to worry about my can of propellant running out.

I love spraying and I get good results usually,but It's really hard to get the paints exactly the right consistency. Not only that, but you still need to base your models with a spray primer first, which I don't have. The day I got my gun, took it out and tried to spray iyanden darksun onto a wave serpent, only to find after 4 coats that it wasn't sticking at all.

The next time I used it, I tried to paint tallarn flesh over a black undercoat....I don't wanna talk about it...

My experiences so far have been bad, but that's on account of my bad preparations.

I;d stay away from it unless you've got a compressor.

Thanks for the advice Samus. That makes sense.

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm there?

No problem.

No I wasnt trying to be sarcastic at all....

Well my couple of cents.

I admit I don't have one, but from what I understand the process of setting it up for all the painting processes from basesoat to highlights may be feasible, but given the OP asked if it was worth considering for speedily painting an entire army I would seriously doubt it.

Now I don't always agree with Kanwalun but I reckon he has at least some experience with an airbrush. And I am sure that he didn't paint the details in the cockpit of his 1/48 aircraft with an airbrush.
In fact I am pretty sure that all the chaps that paint their kits with airbrushes don't do the whole thing solely with an airbrush.

So to the OP I ain't got any beef about this issue either way. It's whatever works.
Problems are:
Expense. You need to invest in all the tackle, which you may find doesn't actually do the job you thought it would do. Consider what you realistically can do with an airbrush first.

Secondly like any other technique it requires practise and effort to get decent results. It is not a magic wand that will suddenly turn your minis into masterpieces.

Do you have a set up where you can safely get rid of the fumes. Not only are compressors noisy, but the fine particles of paint floating around the bedroom ain't good for your lungs. You need some system to ventilate the spraying area.

If you still feel that you want to paint an entire mini army with an airbrush alone, good luck to you.

BTW, real men use hairysticks and model in 1/72 scale

Thanks for the advice Chibi. Yea I was jus curious. Tho I didnt think it would replace the brush, jus wondering if it could cut the time is all. Does sound like it adds more steps then shortcuts from what Ive heard.

To give you an idea:

This is a "premium" setup. It gives you a good place to work while airbrushing, and not only that it lets you do detail work painting.

Get a turntable of some form and you're all set in that regards.

A big, big, big thing to realize? One of the things not ever really told to people is that most thinners that you'd be using for getting the paints down to where you can spray them through an airbrush...they're irritants that can damage your lungs.

I suggest a respirator or at the very least a dust mask. They're important tools to have, once you start doing weathering and working with resin too.

Kanluwen wrote:To give you an idea:

This is a "premium" setup. It gives you a good place to work while airbrushing, and not only that it lets you do detail work painting.

Get a turntable of some form and you're all set in that regards.

A big, big, big thing to realize? One of the things not ever really told to people is that most thinners that you'd be using for getting the paints down to where you can spray them through an airbrush...they're irritants that can damage your lungs.

I suggest a respirator or at the very least a dust mask. They're important tools to have, once you start doing weathering and working with resin too.

Oh my god you actually gave some sort of recognizable advice instead of insulting people.
Can I get a picture? All right. Ok.
Move a little bit more to the left. Smile a bit more. Perfect.

Personally, I really don't think it's feasible to truly "paint" a mini with an airbrush, no matter how much time/skill you have. Sure, It's obvious that it would be a great help doing a basecoat, but when it comes to fine detail, like previously stated, unless you're doing a tank (Or something bigger) put the airbrush down and pick up a brush. Probably cheaper, easier, and less time-consuming.

Also, as Kanluwen mentioned, paint-thinner will feth you up. I accidentally inhaled some yesterday when the bottle cracked, and I felt (and looked) like death for a long time, and I'm guessing the spray form would only make it worse.

lol Haddi...

Yeah the bottom line is, if you are basically just starting out the traditional paintbrush is really the way to go.

On the other hand if you have lots of free time, heaps of patience, money to spend, and you already understand the concepts of shading/highlights, texture, contrast and blending... than you might really enjoy using an airbrush. I love mine; but I struggled with it for a long time before I gained any proficiency.

Anyway, you can still get models done quickly with a regular paint brush... the new GW foundation paints and washes really help speed up the process. It really is the best way to go from the start.

Ok thanks guys for all your good advice and patience with me in this matter. I really appreciate it.

Modquisition on.

This is a public warning. Disagreement and supportable critique are acceptable, if aimed only at the technique. Anything that can be construed as an attack or an attack on someone's attempt (and not criticism that can lead to improvement) will be dealt with extremely harshly, as in permanent suspension harshly.

The mods view the P&M forums as sacrosanct and the usual list of warnings/suspensions do not apply. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Ok I understand. I didnt mean to start any arguments or anything.

Go look at www.awesomepaintjob.com and see how much Les can accomplish with an airbrush. It's amazing.

Bottom line, do not airbrush your minis now. Basecoating and even basic colors will work well with an airbrush, but its expensive. Do not try to airbrush your guys now becuase it will come out looking like crap. If you practiced alot, you could start working your way up to getting to totally airburshing minis. Keep in mind its expensive, and will take alot of work and practice, but if you work at it, nothing is impossible.
@Kanluwen and Gunzhard- Stop fighting. Youre argueing for the sake of argueing. No matter what you say, he cant airbrush them now anyways.

I suppose thats one way of looking at it. Though I never said I was going to paint any minis with an airbrush. I simply wanted peoples thoughts on the matter.

Also, I was in my local Hobby shop (not a gaming store) and they were selling airbrushes that work exactly the same as the GW one, but for model airplanes, tanks, etc.

The price was pretty steep: 90$! Honestly, I really think that the GW one is the best way to go for small jobs...I still wish you didn't have to thin the paint so much though....

Ive airbrushed ALOT of gw models but atleast for me, it is faster to just get the basic colours on there and do all the rest with a normal brush. I wager you can paint a full model using only an airbrush and kick-ass-maskingskills, but it would take alot longer than mixing airbrushing with normal brush strokes.
I did however paint a full necron army to a customer back in the day and with that project I barely touched my normal brushes. All I pretty much did were the eyes, guns and bases with a normal brush, rest was airbrush - And I know for a fact that the army has won best painted army in atleast 2 small tournaments. So, yes - depending on what you are going to paint you could save literaly days worth of hours by using an airbrush.

Some destroyers from the army I was talking about.

just my 2 cents.

LOL, that old land raider is ridiculous. those destroyers look great though. You did that with just an airbrush?

Hey! Its cult history on treads, dont hate it (not done by me tough, neither is the terrain) and yes, those destroyers are allmost only airbrush. Bases, eyes and light edging here and there is done with regular brush but id say the actual prepping up took longer than the actual paintjob per miniature.

Innom wrote:Hey! Its cult history on treads, dont hate it (not done by me tough, neither is the terrain) and yes, those destroyers are allmost only airbrush. Bases, eyes and light edging here and there is done with regular brush but id say the actual prepping up took longer than the actual paintjob per miniature.

I can imagine
Looks great. How do the metallics work with airbrushes? I've yet to try it. I'm scared that watering it down would degrade the look of them.

hah, alot of that "prepping up" was about trial and error with metallics, actually
Back in the day I used a siphon feed ab and only used Humbroll enamels - atleast back then, the difference between Humbroll and say Revell enamel paints was staggering from a quality-point-of-view, imho.
The thinning, air pressure and paint brand were very crucial. More so than normally even tough it is allways important.
I cant remember what I did, but 1 try out gave me an effect I can only describe as spider-man effect. I was basicly flinging silver-coloured web from my ab. Probably was due to wrong kind of thinner. No miniatures were hurt in the mishap.

Innom wrote:hah, alot of that "prepping up" was about trial and error with metallics, actually
Back in the day I used a siphon feed ab and only used Humbroll enamels - atleast back then, the difference between Humbroll and say Revell enamel paints was staggering from a quality-point-of-view, imho.
The thinning, air pressure and paint brand were very crucial. More so than normally even tough it is allways important.
I cant remember what I did, but 1 try out gave me an effect I can only describe as spider-man effect. I was basicly flinging silver-coloured web from my ab. Probably was due to wrong kind of thinner. No miniatures were hurt in the mishap.

*lets out a breath of relief*

I probably will NOT use citadel color then. I'm sure there's somthing better out their.

Which paint did you end up going with Innom?

I've not had great luck with Vallejo AIR metallics but the Tamiya (and tamiya thinner) seemed to work well.