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I played some warhammer in the 80s' when I was much younger and as a group we tried to paint using the old oil-based Testors paint in the small glass bottles with predictable and horrible results. This past summer I picked up a 5 man squad and the bare minimum of paints to kill some time. My first attempts, and there were many, were frustrating in my pursuit of a smooth finish, fine details, and the elusive edge highlighting. Thanks to Simple Green, I dont have a dusty box of failure but some figures that I am proud of which is the end goal for most of us. Fast forward to now and I have over 100 figures and 10 pieces of armor but Ive only painted about 25 figures out of the bunch.

After watching quite a few videos and reading many threads on this forum among others, there seemed to be some patterns of tecniques to produce some great results. I wanted to improve my painting further and realized that it would come with time but only if I was using the correct tools. I was hesitant to spend more on an airbrush but I was hitting a wall with brush-work. As the saying goes, when you cant get out, go deeper so I finally caved in and bought an airbrush. I know that there are lots of people out there that are in the stages as myself so I thought I would post my experiences from a complete noob perspective. I get a bit wordy but I hope it will help someone.

Like any other hobby or interest, there are 1001 opinions of how to do a single task or about which product is bettter and why. Of course, many of these contradict and seem devoid of any logic. I purchased a new flat screen TV last year and by the time I was done readign about it and listening to others, I was ready to go beserk. The same can be said of airbrushes, compressors, and perhaps paint. I opted for an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS airbrush as nobody had anything bad to say, parts were easily available, and this particular model has a .35 mm tip which is better (apprarently) for smaller detail work/lines. Its also dual action meaning the air and paint are controlled with push down and pull back motion enabling better control of what is going where.

I ordered my airbrush as a kit from TCP Global off of ebay but they also have a website. Strangely enough, the price on ebay was cheaper than the same kit on their own site. I live in Canada where the price of everthing seems to increase magically as soon as you cross the border. Fortunately, I live beside this border and I often ship my packages to a US address of companies who offer this service. The price is about $4 per item and the savings on shipping far outweigh the rubber-glove treatment one expects at the border.

So I order the airbrush along with a generic TCP Global compressor, the TC20T which has some of the recommended features such as tank (helps lengthen the life of the compressor), moisture trap, auto shut-off, and a 2 year warranty. Some people say this compressor is crappy yet others really like it. Consider the price and value with the features included and a 2 year warranty, its not bad. I also order a brush cleaning pot, some paint, stir sticks, etc as part of the kit. The box arrives and I go pick it up, bring it home, and start going through it. Its well packed but there is a problem.....they sent everything but the airbrush itself. The box shows no signs of tampering and even the packing list include shows the brush picked at the warehouse and packed. I immediately phone (long distance) and state my case, expecting a fight. The rep agrees to send the brush without a hassle. Although there is no compensation for my time or an apology, I consider myself lucky that they believe me. A new brush is sent and I finally have it in hand.

Now that I have everything, I had to find a place to work. I usually set up shop in front of the computer but Im concerned about ventilation, overspray, and the ever-present deadline of the wife arriving home and complaining about a mess and/or access to the computer. We live in a condo so there are no other spare rooms for the hobby so I go to the one place where a man still has some privacy to decode Ovaltine messages etc, the spare bathroom.

It actually works quite well. There is good lighting, a ventilation fan, and it all vanishes from sight with a pull of the shower curtain.



Its my first time even holding an airbrush and Im surprised that its a bit heavier than I expected. The build quality is very nice and the trigger mechanism is very smooth with a long pull for paint shooting and a short press for air. I have quite a bit of exerience with pressurized air as I have played paintball (another money sucking hobby) for over 20 years so the learning curve while working with a compressor is not as steep. The instructions that came with the compressor are terrible and are printed in a tiny font. There is no indication of what the output pressure is set at or even how to set it in the booklet. Thankfully the dial of the regulator has some arrows on it so I figure it out eventually. The output was at full pressure, appx 60 psi which is not suitable for what Im doing. I recommend that if you buy a compressor, dial the regulator all the way to zero before you turn it on and learn how to adjust it from there. Overall, I find the compressor shuts off as designed, the regulator can dial the pressure down to about 5 psi, and its fairly quiet. I would compare it to an aqaurium pump but just a bit louder. The tank and auto shut off are nice as its not constantly running and apparenlty will lengthen its lifespan.

Rather than jump right in shooting paint at the expensive grey plastic, I choose to practice first on some plastic food containers that have been washed and primed with some Armory brand grey primer from a can. To save time, I tend to prime stuff wel in advance so there is some other items in the background. The plactic box seems like a good substitute for a rhino with the edges and some recesses.



Im a big fan of the work that the artist on buypainted.com does and he has a technique that I have seen others use as well. Pre-shading the model before the base color seems to be the way to go vs trying to shade afterwards. The blending looks a bit smoother. Originally, I was going to thin down my GW and Reaper paint to help with costs but opted against it in the long run. I bought 5 or 6 Vallejo model air in the desired colors but I thought I would practice with the Createx brand stuff that came with my kit. I used opaque (non-see through) black on the recesses and white on the edges. I found the airbrush very very easy to control for air flow and paint placement but as they mention in their videos, accuracy is not that important. I was shooting at about 15psi from appx 2 - inches away. Another thing I noticed was that it is better to set your pressure when air is flowing through the brush as it will drop appx 5 psi when you first push down the air flow lever. Setting it while air is flowing is a more accurate way of knowing your output pressure.


I was surprised at how quickly the paint dried and how smooth it was so I squirted some regular Windex into the cup and sprayed out the last of the white and black and tossed in some of the transparent blue that came with the kit. I upped the pressure to about 20-25 psi and increased the distance to about 6-7 inches moving back and forth more quickly for a fine coat. The pre-shade worked as I had seen before showing through. Then hit only the top flat area with 1:1 mix of white and blue. The pressure and distance, along with back and forth application seemed to be a good match as base coat was perfect as I had no spidering, pools of running paint, or orange peel roughness.

Considering I have never even held an airbrush, the overall result was far superior to what I could hope to achieve with a brush with my current skill level. With an elapsed time of appx 15 minutes, it was by far quicker as well.

I will continue to practice and will update as I have time but so far so good. Next time, I will wear some sort of glove and I expect future obstacles will be how different brands of paint perform under the same pressures etc.



Update Feb 13th

This past weekend I had some time so I wanted to actually try putting paint on a model. I started out on a razorback and my intention was to only put down some pre-shading of black in the recesses and white on the edges but the speed of how quick this thing works is amazing. One thing led to another and I ended up doing quite a bit of highlighting.

Im still using the Createx paint that came with my kit and some Vallejo Sombre Grey and Wolf grey game color paint. Ive been thinning the Vallejo using straight Windex and I have not had any issues with clogging yet. Ive learned a bit more about which pressure does what for the compressor as well. Most of the time, Im running at about 20psi but on some spots, I dialed it down to 10 psi which seems effective for getting in very close for small areas.

Ive got a long way to go on the razorback including fine detail on the gun, crew, some interior, decals etc but Ive achieved the look I want on the hull. Still debating about doing any weathering or battle damage as it seems like a crime to mar the smooth finish.

Updates as I have time.

If I had an airbrush I'd be a happy bunny.

Good luck with your painting. Any colour scheme ideas?

Nice to see you've taken the plunge into airbrushing. Look forward to seeing some models painted and not tuberware

Updats on bottom of first post.

Congrats on the leap to airbrushing, I too am an airbrushing noob. My question to you, or anyone else for that matter, is that I seem to get alot of "pulsing" when using my airbrush. Is that common for a "bottom shelf" airbrush, or is there a setting that I should adjust? I'm running about 20-25 psi with a compressor that has a built in tank, I don't brush while the tank is filling (I thought that was the problem at first). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

i honestly think that rhino has turned out great. especially as you say you're a beginner?! this makes me want one even more. did you wash the tank prior to spraying it? or is that just multiple layers built up? it's blended really well

sub-zero wrote:Congrats on the leap to airbrushing, I too am an airbrushing noob. My question to you, or anyone else for that matter, is that I seem to get alot of "pulsing" when using my airbrush. Is that common for a "bottom shelf" airbrush, or is there a setting that I should adjust? I'm running about 20-25 psi with a compressor that has a built in tank, I don't brush while the tank is filling (I thought that was the problem at first). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

There is a drop in pressure when I hit the air by about 5psi but it remains at the new level without any sort of pulse.

Maybe the paint you are using is not mixed quite well enough where some in the cup is bit thicker than others and there isa burst when you hit a thinner pocket ? I would try it with straight air or tap water to see if still pulses. If it doesnt, the paint may be the reason. If it does pulse, I would take apart the brush and inspect any o-rings and then re-assemble ensuring everything is a little more than finger tight.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

baoh wrote:i honestly think that rhino has turned out great. especially as you say you're a beginner?! this makes me want one even more. did you wash the tank prior to spraying it? or is that just multiple layers built up? it's blended really well

It started with grey primer and I shaded solid black on all parts I thought should be dark but the base coat covered it too much. I then just started going ligher and lighter towards the top on the vertical surfaces and lighter to darker from the edge of the top torwards the center of the tank on the horizontal. I used the same cup and just added some more white as I went.