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ok dakka, I got a set of airbrushes and compressor as a birthday gift. 1 gravity feed, 1 with 2 types of bottle one has a tube in the center and one just glass bottle, and another gravity fed one. What's the easiest way to teach myself how to paint with this thing? I basecoated a daemon prince which actually turned out quite decent for a first try, but I was hoping to get good enough to not just use my brush for basecoating. I have looked at numerous tutorials, but those all assume I have a decent knowledge on how to airbrush. Not sure on my compressor and brushes since they are at home an I currently am at work.

Practice on a piece of paper
Work out how thin your paint needs to be in relation to how close you are in relation to how much pressure your compressor is set to - this is the tricky bit, like learning how to drive a manual.
Your paints should generally always be the thickness of skim milk
I would only use the gravity fed brushes, but YMMV
If you can undercoat with a can, you can undercoat with an airbrush
If you can undercoat with an airbrush, you can apply basic highlights
Practice practice practice
Get a good respirator and extraction fan or you will die
Watch YouTube videos, buypainted, ichiban, etc - they aren't guides per-se, but you will learn by watching
Always clean your airbrush when you are done
Learn how to take it apart
Holy Jesus be gentle with it
Practice some more
Use your undercoat to allow easier highlighting
Start masking for effect
???
Profit

I recently got a couple airbrushes as well. An iwata Ecplise and a iwata Neo. The eclipse is the gravity feed type and the neo is bottle.

Having tried both, I much prefer the gravity feed simply due to the amount of paint I typically lay down is fairly small. However the bottle fed one is good when you either have several models you're doing at once or a large model that you are covering. Even then I'd prefer the gravity feed as it's just easier to make sure you are using all the paint instead of always having a bit at the bottom of the jar.

The learning process for me was to practice on a paper towel. I tested various things like how wide a dispersal I was getting based on how far away I was from the paper towel. Also I played with various compressor settings to control how much airflow was coming through.

Once I was somewhat confident I then airbrushed a simple "test" model ( a rhino I had lying around). The paint itself looks good; I just need to work on various techniques. I'm planning to learn how to do lightning this weekend.

At this point I'd classify myself as "mildly competent" lol. It's obvious that this is going to take quite a bit of practice.

BTW, regarding the whole "skim milk" thing. I really hate that statement. It took awhile before I tracked down what it apparently means: when you swirl the paint around in the container it should leave a somewhat see through coating on the side as it flows back down. I'm not sure how that's different from whole milk but whatever.

clively wrote:
BTW, regarding the whole "skim milk" thing. I really hate that statement. It took awhile before I tracked down what it apparently means: when you swirl the paint around in the container it should leave a somewhat see through coating on the side as it flows back down. I'm not sure how that's different from whole milk but whatever.

Definitely open to interpretation I guess, the way I meant was that it should be marginally thicker than water - it should slide straight off the side of the cup without leaving a long trail - I'd say that VMA paints are a little thicker than normal milk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQE1yTwjaGY&feature=player_detailpage#t=570 like that

This guy also does a ton of really helpful basic tutorials

The best way to learn is to watch a lot of tutorials and then do a lot of practice. Start with basic airbrush care and usage which is very important, then look into techniques. Here are some good airbrush basics videos:

WGConsortium
- Getting Started Using an Airbrush (Airbrushing Intermediate Part 1)
- The Airbrush and Complete Overhaul (Airbrushing Intermediate Part 2)
- Airbrush Color Changes and Cleaning (Airbrushing Intermetiate Part 3)
- A Look At Cheap Airbrushes

Awesomepaintjob / Les Bursley
- Airbrush Rant

I'd highly recommend the following youtube channels if you're interested in tutorials to improve your skill with the airbrush:
- Buypainted - my favourite, enough so that I paid to subscribe to his videos on his own site, but he has heaps of good videos on youtube still.
- Awesomepaintjob / Les Bursley - Damn talented bloke.
- Wargamers Consortium - Bunch of guys (including Les iirc) with a great range of videos.