Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey guys!

Just got my airbrush and had a go at priming a model- it seemed to spatter the paint a lot rather than a nice misty thin coat.

What's a good psi setting? Also it was vellajo grey surface primer- do I need to thin this? I have tamiya tx20a thinner.

I applied a model air coat without thinning at about 30 psi and it made the color transition really grainy, like it spattered a bit.

Any tips for a noob? Thanks

Congrats on getting your brush dude.

Splatter can be caused by a ton of reasons, generally with a broad undercoat with Vallejo primer I will do 20psi sit about 5-10cm off the model and slide the trigger back.

Make sure you push the air on, then slowly increase paint, then decrease paint, then air off - don't just go max paint, max air and hope for the best

Thinning the Vallejo primer isn't really necessary unless you are doing transition effects, and I have never used Tamiya thinner with it (might be fine, but I have no idea)

This for the ultramarines?

Splatter generally has a single root cause that can indeed be brought about by a number of different issues. Misalignment of the needle/nozzle or obstructions (dried paint, etc.) disrupting the airflow or insufficient air pressure for a given paint thickness can all cause splatter. In all of those cases, proper atomization is disrupted, causing the gun to spit larger globs of paint than intended.

An unrelated issue with similar results is starting the paint flow before the air, resulting in a large droplet of paint that gets pushed out all at once. If this was you issue, though, you'd have noticed an initial splat, followed by smooth spraying.

A number of people recommend spraying Vallejo primer neat. Personally, I've been thinning it a bit (using Vallejo airbrush thinner). I'm using a relatively fine needle/nozzle on a siphon-fed gun and the air pressure needed to push the thick paint led to almost immediate and quite significant tip-dry (paint drying on the exposed tip of the needle, resulting in a splatter-causing obstruction to the paint and airflow). A bit of thinner and dropping the pressure sorted out the issue. I now spray thinned primer at about 20PSI and thinned (very slightly for Model Air, much more for soft body artist/hobby acrylic) paints in the 10-15PSI range with minimal tip-dry and no splatter.

I've been trying to figure out a good thickness for my airbrush paints for awhile now, and after getting too little spray, or really nasty stopages foe a long time, I finally just tried thinning the paint (P3 red) with as much airbrush medium as I could fit in the bottle.

The results were staggering - I had flow that was WAY higher than I expected, and my application ended up quite runny.

I had to dial back the trigger significantly in order to get the spray to be controllable, but it ended up working out ok.

My question is, how thin is too thin?

30 psi seems a bit much for air paint. I use a light 10-15 psi depending on my distance and detail. Also what size is your needle? I wouldn't worry to much about blockage and moisture yet since you just got it.

To see if it is moisture spray cardboard or something else to see if the splatter disappears before you spray your model.

Different size needle needs different size spray, Also I do not water down vag model air it is a good thickness.

Try staying back a bit further and lowering the psi.

Too thin is dependent on how many coats you can do without giving up, or when the paint takes 2 weeks to dry or starts to suffer from the mixing.

I spay the Vallejo Primer at a brutal 60 psi with a 0.4 nozzle/needle with a double-action gravity feed airbrush. I don't use all the paint or air flow, so of course less pressure or nozzle size will work.

I found this gives me additional OOMPH useful for making sure that the primer atomizes properly and also to very efficiently clean and flush the airbrush.

To clean the brush when the cup is empty, I just spray it dry into the spray-out jar, wipe the cup with a tissue to get all that isn't in the bottom (I use a 5ml cup, maybe quarter full, to have enough room for my finger). That takes me under 10 seconds. Then I keep flushing down destilled water into the spray out jar until I see no leftover primer swept up in the paint cup and finally flush with cleaner. The whole thing takes less than 45 seconds and avoids clots or having to remove the needle even when priming a LOT of stuff (e.g. 100 Termies for a friend in one go).

Also, I recommend the following videos:

so ive been playing around a bit. I got some good results for about 10 minutes from 20 psi using french blue. then it started to weaken and I wasn't getting paint even with the trigger pulled right back. its starting to get reaelly frustrating. hmm

mine is 0.3mm needle.

I'm gonna soak the gun and its parts for a bit and then try again later.

It seems to spatter really badly as well, like spider web the paint and the spatter the paint is coming out darker in the blobs its really frustating.

spider web is ether you are thinning too much, or you are too close.

Im going to assume you have a compressor with a moister trap.

Tamya is for alcohol based paints isnt it? you might be gumming up the airbrush.

Yeah, if you're spraying for an extended period, tip dry will happen, pretty much no matter what as far as I can tell. I also notice buildup on the needle guard that can sometimes get to be a problem. A quick swab out with a q-tip usually fixes it.

You can also get lub for that.

You will need to give it a blast of full paint every now and then to delay tip dry, just spray a bit of paper and then keep going.

Spider web is too thin, too close, with too much pressure. Less pressure and pull back from the model a bit

Now my airbrush is broken!

I pulled the tip off with the screw thingy rhat came with the kit and now it won't go back on!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think this airbrush is faulty. I just bought an Iwata NEO from ebay at 65 bucks. Lets try this.

i am fairly certain that it doesn't screw in, just sits there. Does it not work when you put it back together?

Na air comes bubbling through the color cup

Is this the neo? Find a guide on how to put it back together, you have to be delicate but it isn't overly complicated

Mine has a screw-in, but I've heard of ones that just float.

Bubbles in the cup means you have a clog - probably in that tiny little nozzle, that's where mine always clogs.

Either the nozzle is screwed in, or it is floating and held in by another part that is screwed fast. You might have removed the outer part, focussed on cleaning the nozzle and dropped the part that holds it in place.

Check your airbrush's manual and you'll know for sure.

So a new one turned up. Finally. The other one was totally faulty. Heh.

Here's some sample pieces that I'm working on. Gonna end up doing some Ultras.

Thanks for the help guys, heaps of advice!

(legs have been washed and highlighted, the rest of the body hasn't. it's still work in progress lol)

That looks brilliant mate, what colours and process did you use?