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Hi folks, I just purchased my first airbrush, a Badger Model 105, and I was wondering which paints people have had the best success with. I have a mix of GW, Privateer Press, and Army Painter paints for my brush work, but have no experience with airbrush paints. From some interwebs skimming, I see Vallejo and Tamiya coming up most frequently as the preferred mini airbrush paints. Is that the consensus here? Any other suggestions or advice?

Dedicated airbrush paints will smooth the learning curve a bit, but frankly, there's nothing stopping you investing in some proper airbrush thinner (Vallejo or Liquitex) and using what you already own, you'll just have to learn the correct ratios for the various paints through a bit more trial and error.

I'm sure someone from the People's Party For The Use Of Windex will be along shortly to claim its fine to use instead of thinner, but the proper stuff isn't that expensive, so why not use it?

I highly rate Vallejo model air, but for advice, whatever you buy, don't buy a lot of. Airbrushing is incredibly personal and depends on how you do things, you might have to buy a few different lines to see what works for you.

Back to the opinion stuff;

Vallejo model air is brilliant
Badger minitaire is pretty good
Anything else that requires mixing requires a lot of trial and error

I've recently started using the Vallejo black and white airbrush primers that you can use straight out of the bottle and I won't be going back to spray cans anytime soon.
I bought some of the Vallejo airbrush paints to experiment with too but I haven't really tried them out yet so I can't comment on those.

Those 3 covered it pretty well - Vallejo > Minitaire > others, and the polyurethane primers are great - though supposedly the new Badger Stynlrez is good too. I'll add vallejo varnishes to the list to go for - I use them in a cheapy old airbrush, but if you're fastidious about cleaning it should be fine in your main one. The main annoyance of non-airbrush paints is they don't always come in dropper bottles. You can airbrush perfectly fine with thinned GW paints, but getting them into your airbrush is a chore and wasteful. Youc an airbrush with Vallejos other ranges such as Game and Model Colour, but they require substantial thinning whereas thining is largely optional with Model Air. Wtill worth using though as they have a great range of colours.

One of the best things about Vallejo paints is they're frequently used by the better youtube painters so you can get exact paint guides for a lot of tutorials. Buypainted for example is heavily airbrush focused and uses predominantly VMA.

Can't speak to most of the Model Air range, having only used a handful, but I trust the company, generally. What I can say from direct experience is that their silver metallics, gloss varnish, PU primers, and airbrush thinner all work wonderfully. So long as you aren't looking to drybrush, the paints also serve admirably when applied by hand.

The thinner is probably my favorite bottle of the lot, though. I've used it on the primer, VGC, GW, AP, Golden... every time, it sprays beautifully. Minimal tip dry, no messing around with various mediums and their ratios, no settling out of the ingredients in a pre-made custom mix - just eyeball the right consistency and you're spraying. Keeps the rest of my paint collection relevant, regardless of the application method. Next time I buy paints, VMA will likely comprise the bulk of my order, with a backup bottle of the thinner tacked on for good measure.

Vallejo is the best line of paints I ever used.

Converted to VMA, very happy. I use them for wet blending with a brush too, and the Vallejo PU primers are sexytimes. Still use GW washes though.

Don't mix GW and Vallejo paints in the airbrush - I had to strip clean mine last time I tried that.

 ruprecht wrote:
Don't mix GW and Vallejo paints in the airbrush - I had to strip clean mine last time I tried that.

I have had no problem mixing any of the major paint ranges (Vallejo, GW, Reaper, P3, etc.) in an airbrush or otherwise. What happened with your experience?

Might have been one of the alcohol based Vallejos with...anyone's water based. That can get gummy. You run into the same issues if you try to mix Tamiya with regular water based acrylics.

It did indeed get gummy.

 ruprecht wrote:
It did indeed get gummy.

What were you trying to mix and what were you thinning it with?

I'm no expert with an airbrush, haven't been at it that long. But i use VGC, VMC, VMA, and Citadel paints. I thin the paint to the appropriate consistency with a mix of distilled water and flow aid (1/20) I read that somewhere when i started using an airbrush, works for me). I also use Vallejo thinners which obviously works well, but well I'm a cheapskate and that 1/20 ratio costs next to nothing and lasts an age. Good luck.

I use a LOT of different paint. Most of the time I just thin my hobby paints for the airbrush, but I also use airbrush paint because sometimes it's easier to just grab the bottle and go than having to thin down another paint. Still, I do recommend airbrush paints for beginners as it's one less thing to worry about when you're learning to airbrush. You know that if you're using airbrush paints and having a problem with your airbrush you can probably take the paint consistency out of the equation.

Still, airbrush paints aint cheap, so here are my two videos on thinning your hobby paints. The first uses Windex (which is fine), and the second uses Liquitex Airbrush Medium. They are essentially the same video using two different materials.

Also don’t forget Tamiya paints. They have to be thinned with alcohol, but they are a joy to work with. They are without fail the flattest paints I have ever worked with and they are absolute best for laying down base coats. Because the thinning medium is alcohol, getting translucent effects (like subtle pre-shading) is more difficult than with Vallejo Air but they definitely have their place in any airbrush color selection.

I prefer model air. Like the dropper bottle format since you can just squirt it into the cup instead of messily pouring it in.

A lot of traditional modellers swear by the gunze slangy range.

best advice I can give with airbrushing is technically you can use any paint you have but the key is thinning and pressure to give you the result you would like, everyone is different about how they like to paint but provided your not caring about how the pigment lies inside a finish and a direct panel match etc ( minis would fall in this scope lol ) the it come down to personal choice and 'feel' very much, have a look at youtube videos about consistency to give you an idea but also grab a bottle and a big patch of paper and experiment to see what feels right in your hand.
As a rule of thumb heavy (thicker) paints need more pressure and/or a larger needle than thinner ones to be nice and controllable up close to avoid spidering. get some semi skimmed milk ( half fat i think for US guys ???) and use a spoon to see its viscosity when dripping and that's roughly where you want to aim with your thinning before painting. A little plus or minus is no big deal so don't go mad trying to get it right, you can adjust your pressure to suit.
When your working with small fine details you should be looking for a low low pressure i.e 8-12 psi or even less if your paint still flows ( experimentation is the key here) and that milk like viscosity to your paint, basically your wanting to get comfy with the TIP of your needle REALLY close ( removing the needle guard gets you to a mm or 2 away but risks bending your tip with a mistake) to your surface and apply air and slowly SLOWLY pull back to flow the paint as you move to leave a nice fine line with no spidering or spatter as you move, if it spatters/spiders then your either too thin, running too much pressure or moving too slowly, its a juggling act and it comes down to personal preference and practice to come to where you feel comfy and achieve what you want to.
For me I like to spray at quite a high pressure with thicker paints and move fairly fast to compensate but it is very personal and really comes down to where you 'feel' most comfortable. As a beginner id recommend you you stick to the advice most would give and that would be semi skimmed milk constancy and low pressure. thin acrylics with any acrylic medium or water if you have nothing else, alcohol blends are better but get used to the basics first.

I hope it helps you and I wish you the very best of luck with your new toy, they can do AMAZING things if used right.

Jeff

GW paints work Pretty well...

MordorMiniatures wrote:
GW paints work Pretty well...

They're OK, but I find the Vallejo paints to work better with this tool.

Weirdly, I don't dilute my VMA when airbrushing - probably should do though, I'll try that next time I'm working on something - but I do when using a brush.

Vallejo are the most reputable and widely accepted, their polyurethane grey primer is my go to for all my priming. HOWEVER, getting the whole colour range can be quite pricy, especially if you have to now neglect all those citadel paints just lying around. I do not use vallejo for basing/layering. I am stingy. I use citadel paints with windex, works great (even too stingy to buy flow medium). You'll want to get it so its the consistency of milk, then it'll be perfect for airbrushing nice and powdery. Here's some of my Tau with Vallejo grey primer and citadel with windex.

You are in the US so buy Badger Miniataire paint. Goes straight from the bottle to the airbrush which will save you a lot of hassles with trying to find the right mix