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While I am looking for a compressor to power my airbrush I'm using propellant cans. However, I have been finding that I can only spray 4-5 infantry models before the can gets too cold and looses all pressure (I even had ice on the outside of the can the first time I used it as I did not know why it had stopped spraying paint after only a couple of guys - whoops!).

Since then I have tried wrapping it in insulation, putting it in a box filled with packing material, etc, to try and maintain the temperature of the can. The most this seems to have done is extend the spray time by a figure or so.

Anyone have any tips on upping the spray time? It is a pain to have to wait for the can to regain a high enough temperature that I can start spraying again.

Buy that compressor, chuck away cans, profit.

Seriously though, I have heard of some people keeping the cans in fairly warm water to try and combat the cooling.

Other thing I have seen people do is run multiple cans, so they can swap between them as one freezes.

I haven't tried the warm water yet (though I have had it suggested - my set up isn't optimal...) but I have tried the multiple can swap - with three cans - you still get diminishing returns when you go back to the first can (maybe warm water in addition to this would help it go further). Basically, just delays the inevitable frustration. I think I am going to have to consider a real airbrush and compressor at some point too... (Thankfully I no longer have large blocks of models to spray...)

Can't believe that they run out of puff that quickly is all - I mean spray cans work for quite a while before loosing pressure (I know they are slightly different but hey ).

Just a bit disappointed with the propellant cans. Was hoping to at least do 10-20 models at a time with them.

I have a whole eldar army to spray yet. And after that an entire IG army. Don't want to have to do 4 guys at a time with a big wait between them

Just hope these compressors I am looking at don't get too expensive... One quite cheap one that I decided not to bid on claimed it worked at 97db - that is fricking loud!

Any comments on what most of them run at?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just tried the warm water approach and found it to be very good. Just painted up the first layer on ~30 guardians and 2 falcon grav tanks.

Here is a hint though - don't just float the can in warm water as it will over pressurize and it is not fun. I found that I could use the airbrush for a few minutes, then dunk for about 30 seconds or so with pretty good results. I was using quite warm water just from the hot tap.

I was spraying for a good 10-15 minutes solid using this technique. Though I think I have almost emptied my propellant can :(