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So, I bought an airbrush and gravity-feed, dual-action airbrush one year ago today. Since then, it has mostly collected dust. I've used it and been happy with the results exactly two of the times I've used it - once when I was doing a blue to white fade effect on some Screamers, and the other time when I used it to lay down a Caliban Green basecoat on some DA. I really, really want to get better with it, since I do commissions and need to find a way to speed up my painting time. But, even for basecoating, using an airbrush slows me down a ton. A job that would take me 5 minutes with a brush (basecoating those DA, for example) ends up taking 15+ minutes when I try to do it with a brush. I have to be doing something wrong, since I always hear people gushing over how much airbrushing speeds up stuff like basecoats, but I honestly have no idea what's going wrong. And before you ask, I thin everything to the recommended consistency.

Aside from my speed issues, I'd also like to know how much I can expect to be able to do with an airbrush. Would it be realistic of me to expect to be able to basecoat more than just one are on a miniatures? For example, say I'm painting a HE spearman - would it be possible to use an airbrush to cleanly basecoat both the armor and the cloth, or would I have to choose just one?

Also, how feasible is it to highlight models with an airbrush? Doable? Only for big highlights? Impossible?

Sorry to be throwing out such noob questions, but I really need some answers.

Thanks!

(Edited topic name for grammar)

(Edited again to correct the type of brush I have - it's a gravity-feed, not a siphon)

~Tim?

Airbrushes can certainly speed up things a little, and give you a technically better result than brushing could ever achieve as far as paint film thickness and even coverage goes.

As I'm sure your aware there two main types of airbrush; Syphon (suction) and Gravity feeds. Having the Syphon one that you do, lends itself well to base coating, more so on large scales.
Typically a gravity brush would better suit our scale of work.
Its about the working pressure of the brush, gravity feeds let you go much lower and can go down to hairlines in experienced hands.
The high pressure that you will need for the syphon to work means you cant go too close to the model, or it will blow the paint around on the surface, (known as spidering)
They work really well with absorbent surfaces, T-shirt painters would go for syphon feed and still get smallish details.

They typically dont do 'clean' edges as you asked, not without masking. Which is an option, low tack poster putty stuff can be a good masking tool for use on models rather than tape; tape gets too fiddly for most jobs on a 28mm man.

They can speed up colour transition work vastly, this is a big strength that gets used well. While its plain to see for the world that you did not wet blend, an airbrush can do it with little to no skill or time involved. I'm not advocating one over the other, I feel that they give different visual effects and netiher is to be poo pooed

Check out some youtube videos, theres a few painters using airbrushes on them, Awesome Paint Job, and Buy Painted are two I can think of.

Edit;
They also economise on paint, crazily! Using a gravity feed airbrush you can genuinely base coat a whole figure on 1 maybe 2 drops of thinned paint. Probably a few figures. While with brushing I'd be lucky to get passed one without getting more paint... the brush itself holds that much and gets wasted hehe.

As a commission painter I'm 100% certain that you can make very good use of your airbrush. Even though its not a gravity feed, you can still do base coat sprays, or zenithal highlights easily. In any colours that a client might need.

Maybe doing a basecoat on 1 model can be done faster with a brush than the airbrush, but if you're painting a squad the airrush is sooo much faster. Why is it taking you so long to do basecoats with an airbrush? Do you run into problems like clogging, or splatter? Or are your coats not covering?

Airbrushing several basecoats on 1 model (like your HE spearmen) is difficult. You would have to mask the parts of the model you don't want to spray (if you have decent brush control you don't have to mask the entire model, just the edges).

Doing highlights is possible, but depends on the type of highlights you want and what airbrush you're using (nozzle diameter). You could look at zenithal techniques for instance. Edge highlighting is possible (more so on vehicles).

Beside basecoats, airbrushes are great for colour transitions as well (like on power weapons etc)

Watch videos by Buypainted on youtube. Very good demonstration of quick and dirty masking for basecoating different areas by airbrush (usually using blu-tack), and also just how to aim the thing to avoid spraying what you don't want to.

Hairysticks has it spot on.

I use an airbrush a lot for most of my models. It will and can not ever completely replace the good old brush though.

As for your concerns regarding speed, i tend to basecoat at least 10 'man sized' models at the same time. From there I can highlight those 10 to a level where I am happy. I am not a commission painting (frankly I'm not good enough), but at this stage the model is ready for brush work, line highlights and those extra details as the models will have been given that lovely gradual highlight airbrushes are so amazing for.

Your point on using it to paint armour and then cloth is very valid, I personally don't. I would paint the cloth with the airbrush so I could then highlight with it too, and then use a normal brush for metallics. But that's just me.

HairySticks is wise. Listen to his counsel.

As with any tool there's a period of practice that needs to take place before you get to a point where it can replace another tool that you're actually good at using. Don't expect too much right away. If you don't use it, though, you will never get better at it.

What do you think is slowly you down with the airbrush? Just the prep?

Something I've figured out to speed the process up is keep the hose connected to the compressor and close by, as well as thinner, cleaner, etc. And depending on the model of the airbrush and how often you are looking to/do use the airbrush, it might be useful to invest in a quick release system.

I've been using the airbrush for scale modelling for over 5 years and just recently started to take Interest in warhammer. The airbrush in my opinion is the ultimate overall tool you can use for painting anything. Dependant on the brush and practice, you can base coat large vehicles to as fine a detail as skin tone highlighting. The key is to not be afraid to use it, and practice practice practice. With anything, as you become more proficient, your turn around times will become lower.

If you're a wizard with the manual brush, you'll really appreciate how much extra you can achieve with the airbrush with minimal effort. As stated above, highlighting and fading colors is its strong point. To get the most out of your airbrush, I would suggest large batch painting, then, you can finish them all of with your paint brush. Just a few nights ago, I base coated and highlighted over 60 space marines for a friend in just about an hour, including a few cleaning sessions Inbetween.

Another bonus to the airbrush is the texture of the paint. If you ever use GW's black spray on a model and compare it to a model you primed with your airbrush - you'll notice that there is no detail loss on the model, whereas the spray can will eat up details if you're not careful.

Again, all I can suggest is practice as much as you can with it, and you'll most likely find you become faster at painting than with your manual brush skills.

Eclipse

Excellent suggestions in this thread.

I have several airbrushes and have been using them about two years. While I do a decent job and have learned a few tricks or two, clearly I have a lot more to learn in reaching the potential of any airbrush.

Here are few things I have learned;
* practice, practice, practice
* watch as many videos as you can (buypainted, awesomepaintbrush.com, airbrush tutor, etc.)
* Clean your needle.
* Clean it again.
* Real airbrush medium is worth every single cent
* when thinning craft paint - don't if you don't have to, if you do use real airbrush medium and a paint strainer from an art store.
* paint you minis in batches if you can - I try to queue up my work.
* use quick disconnects on compressor hose and your airbrush(s).
* a bit of drying retarder can help a bit to keep your tip dry, if you are not able to wipe paint off it in long sessions
* Clean your needle (yes again.
* Never disassemble your tiny parts over carpet or a trash can near your workstation
* try various paints, thinners, mediums and other additives to find which ones work best for you.

best of luck, and have fun!