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So I'm painting a lot of stuf using foundation paints but I find that they dry too quickly in the airbrush even when thinned with water. Does anyone have suggestions?

Thanks.

Use a proper airbrush medium... that is whole point of them actually - keeping your tip wet (Hey!).

Liquitex (or Golden) Airbrush Medium is what you want...

Foundation paints are probably the last thing I would put in my airbrush, it's just too thick!

I would suggest using similar colors of regular gw paint and thinning it with either a mixture of auto windshield washer fluid and water, or a mix of future floor polish and water.

I guess you could prob thin foundation paints down the same way, but I personally wouldn't risk gumming up my airbrush with that stuff.

I'm doing a mechanicus themed army and I use a lot of Mechrite Red. Anyone know of anything similar?

I don't know of any exact matches, and I've never seen mechrite red in person, but I wouldn't use foundation paints unless you thin it down to waterlike consistency (using an actual thinner, like tamiya acrylic thinner, etc.). Have a look at the P3 line of paints from privateer, I imagine they have something similar.

Failing that, you could always mix the color yourself from the various available citadel paints, and then thin down the mixture from there.

dreyco wrote:I'm doing a mechanicus themed army and I use a lot of Mechrite Red. Anyone know of anything similar?

vallejo has a red that is very close, and a black/red that makes an even better basecoat if you want to highlight/heavily drybrush the mech red.

thin down your foundation paints with flo aid and some slo-dri drying retarder. I use both from liquitex in every new bottle of paint I get.

And if your foundations are too thick for an airbrush, you're using them incorrectly. I get every single one of my paints thinned enough to airbrush but still thick enough to hand brush if I so desire. Foundations are no exception.

aerethan wrote:
And if your foundations are too thick for an airbrush, you're using them incorrectly. I get every single one of my paints thinned enough to airbrush but still thick enough to hand brush if I so desire. Foundations are no exception.

normally i'd agree, but mechanite red is a different animal from most paints

@Grundz yes, if you thin it too much it turns pink.

I airbrush with Foundations all the time in an HP-C Plus from Iwata. A few things:

1) I thin with Testors Acrylic airbrush thinner, usually 50/50 with P3 or Citadel paints. For foundations, I thin more along the lines of 60/40-65/35.

2) Before spraying, I ensure that my needle is lubed up with a Teflon based airbrush lubricant, like Iwata SuperLube. Be careful when you use this though, as many airbrush lubricants are Silicone based! Silicone based lubricants should NEVER be used on any part of the airbrush where paint will contact!!! Teflon on the other hand, is perfectly fine. I will place a drop on the shaft of the needle, and then gently wipe it up to the tip using a clean lint free towel. This will help keep the paints from drying on your needle, thus clogging the airbrush.

3) I usually only use foundations for basecoating, so I tend to spray it at a higher PSI than I usually do, around 15 usually does the trick(I usually spray detail work in the 5-10 range).

I use these tricks for spraying P3 metallics as well, and it works pretty nicely.

Good luck!