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I think at some point in our hobby career, everyone entertains the notion of adding an airbrush to their painting tools. We've all seen pictures of amazing works of art that people are able to produce with such a tool, and think to ourselves 'Hey, I could do that too!' That first step, however, is far more dangerous than it looks. While there is tons of information scattered throughout the web on what to buy, where to buy it, how to do it, and other issues, I've rarely found it in grouped together. There seems to be no 'How to Learn' type of report out there for all those looking to get into it.

Thus, the purpose of this blog is now revealed. My name's Brian, and I am learning how to use an airbrush to hopefully produce better painted miniatures and armies than I've done in the past. I've never used an airbrush before, and I hope to record my trials and errors in an effort to possibly help others out there who take the same step that I am about to undertake. While at some point I will actually work on creating an army, for the time being the blog will consist the tips and tricks of the trade that I learn as I slowly develop my skills. With all that being said, let's dive right into things as I show you how I've acquired the tools and work space for this new endeavor.

Day 1: Buying the compressor, airbrush and tools

The first step in learning how to airbrush is obviously acquiring an airbrush and compressor. I looked over dozens of threads spread across a half dozen forums in search of information on what to get. Something with a tank was stated as an almost requirement, as well as reccomendations to stay away from Home Depot and Lowe's style ones. Having heard about the amazing deals that could be found on eBay, I directed my search there and discovered this company: http://stores.ebay.com/AplusChoice

I found one of their items that had the compressor, as well as a dual-action airbrush for less than $150. It seemed one of the better deals on there, so I went ahead and purchased it. Free shipping, along with UPS as the shipper found the item at my door quickly, and I wasted no time in unboxing it and hooking it up. The airbrush is obviously a knock off, but it seemed well manufactured and very similar to an Iwaata or Badger model. With the airbrush and compressor now in hand, what was needed next is a workspace. Something well ventilated, and away from items that don't need paint fingerprints and such on them. Luckily, an unfinished room in my basement was the perfect location.



With a location now ready, more tools would be needed. In no order of preference, here's a list of what I figured should be purchased before starting out:
Drop cloth to go over the table
Some type of spray booth to contain the paint
Bottles to mix paint and hold cleaning supplies, thinner, etc...
Something to thin the paint down with
Brushes to clean the airbrush with
An airbrush cleaning bottle
Some sort of mask for mouth and nose ventilation
A quick release valve for the airbrush

So where to pick up such tools? A quick browsing of the internet led me to my first stop of the day: http://www.harborfreight.com/ I was able to pick up some cleaning brushes, as well as the airbrush cleaning bottle for barely $20. The cleaning bottle was listed as $20 at many other places, so I thought that was a steal. They also had a nice painter's tarp available, as well as some cheap face masks. I promptly snagged them up. One store and half my shopping was already done!



Next I need something to thin the paint down with. Anyone know Brandon from http://www.gmmstudios.com/? I have the pleasure to say that I do and have always been amazed with the quality of work that he does. It was primarily his armies that made me want to learn how to use an airbrush. I had recently received his The 7 Day Army Painter dvd collection, which has a ton of great information within it, as well as some amazing videos of airbrushing in progress. One tip I picked up, was how to thin your paints down. Which meant I needed some alcohol. Not the good drinking kind sadly, but the medicinal quality kind.



A quick stop off at Walgreen's picked me up these, and another item on my checklist was taken care of.

The last few items I wanted were some bottles for for the thinner and paint, as well as a quick release valve for the airbrush. I had a feeling Hobby Lobby would have these. Not only that, but their handy 40% off coupon is always nice to have when buying supplies. Although I had no idea what size quick release adapter I needed, apparently the one they had in stock was exactly what I needed. It was about $17, but my 40% coupon dropped it down nicely. Found some small bottles on clearance and a larger one for cleaning solution, and I was good to go!



With all my supplies in hand, I headed home to set things up. At some point, I want a real spray booth to use for the airbrush. I've seen the ones for sale, but another tip from GMM studios was a quick explanation on how to buy your own. Some 2x4's, a bit of plywood and a bathroom ventilation fan combined with a furnace filter and you've got all you need. For the moment though, a simple cardboard box to keep the paint contained is all I have available.



With everything now set up, I can begin to utilize my airbrush! My practicing will have to wait for another day though. I'll put together some test models and start trying some techniques and see what I can come up with.

Well good luck! I'll be following this as I'm looking to pick up an airbrush soon.

This is awesome, I have to admit I am afraid of my airbrush a bit, even after using it on my Marauder Bomber, confidence and control are needed. I will be following this man, great work!

This looks great! Looking forward to more!

I recomend getting some plastic or latex gloves of the disposable kind to wear on the hand that is not holding the brush. Nothing more annoying than getting an ugly fingerprint on your newly based model. It will also help with the cleanup (of your hands) if you like me hold and turn the minis in your off-hand.

I also started using a box to stop paint overflowing the workarea. But I found that the overflow from an airbrush is not at all as bad as from a spraycan. So the box is really not needed, a simple paper under and behind the models are usually good enough. But I guess it depends a bit on the paint as well... some paints dont dry quick enough, and they can travel farther in the airstream before settling, meaning a bigger area need to be covered. In such cases a box might be prefered.

You can dillute paint with water, but alcohol is better. Water dries to slow when using it on models, so if you use water you need a really low paintflow (never full-throttle your airbrush!), unless you want that drainy effect (I use it sometimes on scenery). Alcohol dilluted paint dries at impact with the miniature, unless you apply it to thick. If it appears wet, just blow it with clean air.
Use as low airpressure as your paint can handle. When I first started i had problems with thick paint clogging the airbrush and thought that I needed more pressure... well... it didnt improve the flow at all, with to high pressure you can get a grainy effect in your paint. So, dillute paint with alcohol (or special dilluters) and lower your airpressure to get the best results. Exact numbers is something you should experiment with your airbrush to find out, what works for me might not be the best for your airbrush. The only times I use a bit higher pressure is when basecoating big flat areas such as on vehicles, this makes you able to hold your airbrush farter away and thus covering a wider area more quickly.

I was able to get some free time this afternoon, so I decided to start working with the airbrush and seeing how things turned out.

@McRage - Thank you for posting those tips, as I'd actually forgotten to mention some of that stuff. Some gloves are absolutely a necessisty when airbrushing. Luckily I had some latex gloves sitting around for when I strip models, and they were quickly added to my collection of tools.

Day 2: Thinning paints and applying base coats

With my airbrush setup and my tools at hand, it was time to start airbrushing. A project I'm thinking of working on in next few months is to repaint a friend's marines. He had built a Soul Drinkers army and painted it up, but wasn't really happy with how it turned out. It looked too much like the Hawk Lords than Soul Drinkers. I mentioned using the airbrush to try and get a better paint scheme for them, and he was totally on board with the idea. Not wanting to use his models to practice with, a scrounging through my random bitz led me to discover quite a few AOBR Marines and Terminators, still brand new on the sprue. An hour of clipping scraping mold lines, gluing and priming had them ready to paint.

Lesson 1 learned today: Thinning these paints is a bitch! I'm hoping that this is a skill that will just come to me over time, but finding that right consistency currently is far from easy. My thinning solution is a mixture of distilled water and the 91% Isopropyl alchol I had bought previously. I'm working with a 10/1 water/alcohol mix currently. It's possible that I might increase the amount of alcohol over time though. I might have to try McRage's idea from above and simply dilute with 100% alcohol and see how that works. I did notice that the paint stayed wet longer than what I had hoped it would once applied to the model.

Thinning the paint is going to take practice. The rule of thumb I've always heard was that you want it to be the consistency of milk. Too often mine ended up farther towards water consistency rather than milk. I feel this may have led to paint drying issues, as to much water made the paint take longer to dry.

Lesson 2 learned today: Have your compressor set to the proper PSI. I have a feeling this is going to change depending on what kind of work I'm doing. Right now, the compressor is set to 30 psi. I'm almost thinking this might be a little high for regular infantry models. Perhaps it's fine with large vehicles that have a lot of area to cover. The next basecoat I lay down I'll try dropping it down to about 20 psi I think and see how that works.

Actually using the airbrush was completely easy to mange. The trigger on my brush was smooth and easy to work, and it didn't feel awkward at all to hold it instead of a brush. Here's a few pictures of some models after I put down the first basecoat of Vallejo Night Blue over a black primer.



As I had stated above, I had some issues thinning the paint, and thus the basecoat didn't go on quite as smooth as I would have liked. There were a few models that I had to go back over certain areas to make sure the paint covered over everything. I'm not sure if this was due to my just not getting every spot with the airbrush, or if the paint was just thinned down too much. I'm hoping this is just another area that will correct itself with more practice.

Since I'm waiting for a few new colors to arrive via mail, this was all the painting I could do today. Which leads me to my last lesson learned today.

Lesson 3 learned today: How to clean the airbrush. Cleaning the brush was nothing short of simple. A cleaning solution I'd thrown together made short work of any paint left in the brush.



Not only is it good for stripping models, but it's a great cleaner as well. For the airbrush, I diluted it a good amount. I don't know the exact about, but something around 20/1 - 10/1 water/Simple Green. Add a bit to the paint well, close the top and shake it around a bit. Then let a good amount spray through the brush into the airbrush cleaning bottle. I dump the remainder into the bottle, then repeat another time or two to get all the paint out. This looks to be a quick and easy way to clean the airbrush in between switching colors without having to find a sink for a good thorough cleaning. I'm wondering if this can even be good enough at the end of each session, and disassemble and total cleaning can be done only after a few usages. Something else to try out in the future.

Once my new Vallejo paints arrive in the mail (hopefully tomorrow or Saturday) I'll be able to try some highlighting. I want to do a mixture of a a straight basecoat over the first one, as well some Zenithal Lighting techniques. I found a great Dakka article by MajorTom11 that explains this technique, as well as TONS of great airbrushing tips that I'm incorporating into my own airbrush work. Here's a link to the Dakka article: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Zenithal_Airbrushing%2C_OSL_and_Snow_and_Ice_Tutorial%2C_subject_-_Grey_Knight

Thanks for the post!

I love my airbrush. If you can, get some airbrush medium for thinning. It is worth every single penny.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/golden-airbrush-mediums/

Without going into the chemistry of it, there is a reason some liquids work better than others (it has to do with the how the molecules and pigments of paint interact with the medium).

Here is a ranking based on my experience;
From worst to best:
water
91% alcohol
99% alcohol
windex
drying retarder
airbrush medium.

You can get the airbrush medium at most high end art stores...again, try it...worth every single penny.

thanks again for the post!

Congrats on getting a airbrush you will really love to use it once you get practice on the AB and thinning paints. For thinning paints I just use straight windex and never had a problem.
As for cleaning as long you run cleaner through it between colors and water till its clear your good for acrylics. Other type of paints like Tamiya or other alcohol base paints and varnishes you really want to clean it good.
Hope this helps out and good luck and have fun.

Excellent idea for a blog. Very insightful, thank you.

LilLoser

@davethepak

I've seen airbrush medium around before, but wasn't quite sure exactly how it worked. I'll have to see if Hobby Lobby has some next time I'm in there. Sounds like a good item to use one of their handy 40% off coupons on.

I think I'll try straight alcohol this time instead of diluting it with water. I took an airbrush class at Adepticon this past spring taught by Mathieu Fontaine and he suggested the straight alcohol as well. Considering I have two bottles of it sitting around already, I might as well get some use out of it.