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So I've just ordered an airbrush and compressor, nothing to special, but I've read up on it and seen some good reviews. It's an as186 which has a 3 litre tank for better air pressure and consistency. It comes with 2 airbrushes but I'll only really be using the bd-132.

Now, that's all I could afford on my budget so I can't change my tools I'm afraid, possibly upgrade the brush itself in 6 months after some practice.

The question is, what paints do people recommend and what recipes for thinning do you use? I'm looking into going all Vallejo. I've only ever used GW so it's a whole new kettle of fish!

I've looked into model air and game colour with appropriate thinners and flow aid, I have about 40quid to play with to gets self started with new paints, can anyone offer any advice? Or help with colour choices so I don't buy the wrong shades? I play iron warriors and flesh tearers, so any suggestions for basecoats and highlights for these would be great!

Also does anyone have a link to buy the johnsons gloss varnish I see in the vids on you tube? Johnsons klear I think...

Cheers!!

Liam

I prefer to use Vallejo paints as they come in dropper bottles. Additionally if you're low on budget they are cheaper in comparison with Citadel.
You want to get into Game Color (as Air Color is basically GC thinned a little bit) and invest in retarder (I'm using Vallejo now - it works ok).
You use Game Color paint thinned with water 1:1 and add about 3-4 drops of retarder per full airbrush (so usually 1-2 drops if you don't fill it full).
I recommend practicing a little bit on spare minis/sprue parts etc to see how the paint works.
Good luck - airbrush is a great tool!

You can buy vallejo air model which come pre thinned so saves you the hassle of getting the dilution accurate. although I often end up just diluting them as well.
For the varnish your best option is actually the Vallejo ones as well since they are acrylic and so work well on the airbrush.

I can't really recommend a color scheme for iron warriors but I can say you should check Les Bursley awesome paint job you tube channel for ideas how the airbrush can get you really good results.

Klear has been reformulated for sale in the UK. No idea if it's as viable for modelling as it was before. I stocked up before the change (which had been rumoured for some time). You can however pick it up in Morrisons, Tesco and a few other supermarkets. Wilkinson's too I think.

For most purposes (apart from canopy dipping) a normal gloss varnish will do the job. Klear is just very good flowing straight out of the bottle. A decent varnish with flow improver added should behave similarly.

Just buy some vallejo airbrush thinner and you'll be able to airbrush your citadel paints. You dont need flow aid or anything else, but buying some small empty dropper bottles from ebay is a good idea to mix them up in. Also some pipets are handy

Vallejo model air are excellent if you want to invest in airbrush only paints. If you want to spray metallics then get those in model air, thinned citadel metallics wont spray as well, if at all.

Dont know if you already have a cleaning kit and cleaner, but you'll need those too. Just a simple kit with the brushes for getting inside the airbrush will do and Vallejo's airbrush cleaner is excellent.

If you care about your lungs then a respirator is a must buy, even just for acrylics. If your going to be spraying varnish its absolutely essential.

Cheers for all the good advice! Does a scarf round the face with the windows open count as a respirator?? ;-)

So model air metallics it is for iron warriors, what's the metallic black like? And which is the darkest metal colour?

I read somewhere to dilute game colour with distilled water and flow aid?? What are the rough ratios for each range for thinning? And can foundation paints be sprayed? Do I mix in the gravity well or a med pot and pour in?

As for cleaning.. Knew I hadn't thought of something!! Cheers! I'll order the cleaner and brushes now :-)

Thx again everyone

CptCortez128 wrote:So model air metallics it is for iron warriors, what's the metallic black like? And which is the darkest metal colour?

Vallejo has something called "Metalic Medium" - basically pure metal paint - you can mix it with any color and it looks really good mixed with black.

CptCortez128 wrote:Cheers for all the good advice! Does a scarf round the face with the windows open count as a respirator?? ;-)

I read somewhere to dilute game colour with distilled water and flow aid?? What are the rough ratios for each range for thinning? And can foundation paints be sprayed? Do I mix in the gravity well or a med pot and pour in?

As for cleaning.. Knew I hadn't thought of something!! Cheers! I'll order the cleaner and brushes now :-)

Thx again everyone

The open window is a good thing but the scarf is no use at all, but they are your lungs

You can spray game colour and model colour like that but i think its just easier to buy airbrush thinner and have done with it.

I didnt buy a cleaning kit with mine at first, the next day i was ordering one fast lol.

Sounds like you have a similar budget set up to me, don't worry you should find its perfect for learning airbrushing minis.

I started off and still use a mix of Citadel Colour and Vallejo paints, all standard ranges no special ones. The two exceptions are that I have Vallejo AB primers in black and white.

On top of that I have a whole range of thinning agents and cleaners. Mostly I use vallejo acrylic AB thinner for finer stuff, sometimes Tamiya x20, distillednwater and quite often concentrated car windscreen fluid (mostly when using GW for base coats).

I have been looking for Klear in the UK for some time but have not found it in exactly the same formula that people quite often talk about. Not to worry Daler and Rowley (or any mainstream artist) products will do the same thing and are easily obtainable. Again they can be thinned to whatever property you want.

So in summary I would pick up a selection of thinners and play about with what paints you've got. Once you have a feel for airbrushing look at what you want to achieve and buy accordingly, particularly important for metallics where you will find that GW/Vallejo are leagues behind what you'll see fine scale modellers using.

Incidently I think Wayland/maelstrom do ModelAir kits, they may have one in your price range if you just want to spray and not worry about mixing etc.

I also recommend the Vallejo line. The Game and Model Color paints can be thinned to the right consistency with Airbrush Medium or thinner and the Model Air range can be used straight out of the bottle.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

Sounds like you ordered the same airbrush/compressor i recently bought, i have been using it with thinned citadel paints and it has be a fantastic purchase for the price, scab red for some reason gimme some problems but every other colour from citadels (now old) range thinned with tamiya x-20a has been great.

I think it is better to use valejo air paints instead of game color. It really depends on the airbrush nozzle size. Spraying metal colors is a lot easier with air.

That compressor will do just fine, I've got the 196 one (its just got twin pistons ontop of the same tank; it fills up faster and makes more noise.
The airbrushes, will probably also be fine for mini painting, I believe they are 'Finespray' brand (or atleast have the same model numbers - I've also seen the compress + 2 brush sets you speak of.. everythingairbrush.co.uk?)
They're great starter brushes, and if looked after will be all you need for a long time, the pricey brushes are usually better at something specific like detailing, for general purpose most brushes are reasonable.
Gravity fed brushes tend to be nicer in my experience aslwells as being slightly more paint efficient due to lower working pressure, the suction feed type ones are only really useful when you have a lot of colour changing in mind.

For paints I really like Liquitex Airbrush Medium, I suspect its quite similar to Valejo reducer/thinner, comes in 8oz bottles which would go quite far for mini's. I use this to thin GW colours occasionally with a drop or two of water/flow aid for the heavier paints.Not had a problem yet, being as you likely already have GW colours this might be suitable for a while. Just use a pippete (maybe one came with the airbrushes if you're lucky) to get paint out of the gw pots. Then replace with the valejo airbrush colours as you run out or funding allows perhaps?

It helps greatly to transfer GW paints into dropper bottles, which is what I do to all of them when I buy them.

I second the Liquitex Airbrush Medium. Wonderful stuff of magic that is. It makes the paint go on insanely smooth without spurting little specks of paint around the target area, which makes it ideal for doing fades and finer detail work.

As for paints, I use the regular GW, VGC, VMC, and Vallejo Model Air lines. If properly thinned any of those brands will work just fine.

Right... I'm struggling a bit... What psi should I be using for specific tasks? Basecoat at 35, highlights at 25??

I don't seem to be getting the nice smooth coats that everyone else seems to be getting in all the YouTube videos... The paints on these videos seem to dry instantly? But mine seem to stay wet and act like a wash?

Well... I thought this would be easy lol!! I've been using model air, but I've tried thinning them and using them neat but not getting the results I here/see in other places....

Cheers!

Liam

Sounds like your spraying too much paint and just need to work on better trigger control.

Im only an airbrush newbie tho so hopefully someone more experienced will be able to come and help.

Well you may have them thinned to much. Its the hard part of learning how to use the air brush. Getting that consistency correct is the key. Nothing is easy about air brushing. With every other art medium out there, you have feedback from the surface your painting. With airbrushes you don't have that feedback, since there is a space between you and the subject. Take it slow, and have fun with it.

Best to use model air un thinned until you get better at airbrushing too. Its pre thinned to be right most of the time so its one variable you can remove for the moment.

Cheers guys, it was just a bit of a shocker to find out that I'm a complete newb! I've been painting for 16 years and it's hard to swallow that I'm crap again!! Lol

I will update with some progress pictures when I can :-)

Thanks again!

Liam

CptCortez128 wrote:Cheers guys, it was just a bit of a shocker to find out that I'm a complete newb! I've been painting for 16 years and it's hard to swallow that I'm crap again!! Lol

I will update with some progress pictures when I can :-)

Thanks again!

Liam

It happens to everyone just don't despair. Also doing some of the basic exercises that come with the airbrush, although boring and tedious as well, will also help you gain control of the trigger.

If the paint it is acting as a wash it is too diluted and/or you are putting to much paint. Model air comes pre-thinned so there is no need to thin it further. If you fell you need Vallejo recommends 3 drops of paint for one of thinner. But to be honest only on layers you might feel the need for it, it should be more than good enough as it is for basecoats.
Pressure also changes according to the paint you are working with, if you feel the paint it is clogging raise if too much is coming out try to lower it a bit. Although at this stage it is probably your control that it's off.

I use Vallejo model air paints straight out of the bottle. I haven't had to thin them at all, even the metaliics. I occassionally used GW and game colors, but had to thin
them down considerably. Also lots of sputtering and splatters if not thinned properly. It is such a pleasure to spray the model air paints, you can do very fine to large areas with no problems. I use a Master .2mm airbrush
at around 15 to 18 PSIG. You can draw a line as thin as or thinner than a pencil with very little overspray. I think you are really going to like airbrushing, I now try to airbrush something in every project I do. Good luck and happy air brushing.

I tend to use Tamiya and GW paints for airbrushing. Both can be thinned with Tamiya's X-20A thinner (basically denatured alcohol). However, DON'T use any sort of alcohol based thinner with Vallejo's model and game colour ranges. It reacts with the resin in the paint and you end up with goo.

My own experience is that the Tamiya and GW paints flow and cover much better than the vallejos through an airbrush. I've recently tested the new base and layer paints through my airbrush, and they work very well.

Well, again, thanks! Means a lot when the hobby community takes time out to answer a question that gets brought up quite often!

I will try screwing the trigger down so I don't get to trigger happy and see if that helps.... Seems to me after reading what you've said I'm treating the airbrush like a spray can... Seems the airbrush is a gentler beast ;-)

Thanks again!

Liam