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Mistress of minis wrote:Thanks for the links fells

Greatcow, good examples of ebay stuff. That last kit actually has the same brush as the mid range one, but a better compressor and accesories- is that what you mean by digerry doos?

And I am glad to hear people are having success with the hobby compressors without noise issues. The ones Ive used have been less than impressive, so Im glad there are ones that actually work!

Aye more or less, from what I could tell from the pics, it seemed like it just came with more airbrushes and some starter paints but I see what you mean. Thank you again for your tips and clarification, I'll definitely be looking into snagging one of those kits for my tanks and baneblades in the future.

I could paint in my room with one of those if they worked.

If there is anyone who knows a really nice hobby compressor I am officially interested in that information now .

Mistress of minis wrote:Thanks for the links fells

Greatcow, good examples of ebay stuff. That last kit actually has the same brush as the mid range one, but a better compressor and accesories- is that what you mean by digerry doos?

And I am glad to hear people are having success with the hobby compressors without noise issues. The ones Ive used have been less than impressive, so Im glad there are ones that actually work!

Thank you for making this thread ( i wanted to try air brushing for a long time but always scared to )

Don't fear the reaper Luna .

Thanks, Mistress, great thread. I bought a Tamiya airbrush and compressor a few years back but never got enthused enough to use it. But with a Stompa nearing completion, you've enthused me to take another look at spraying.

Has anyone tried to airbrush with washes? Can you do that?

I have some generic blue pen-ink that actually says you can air-brush with it.

Only problem I can see with using a wash- is it will disperse and work more like a tint. unless you really hose it on if doesnt run into the crevices like most wash techniques do.

It does seem to work pretty well as a weathering technique, but I havent had time to experiment past that.

As long as it won't destroy an airbrush I promise to experiment with all sorts of washing madness.

Glad this thread didn't descend too far into madness

I picked up a little piston compressor with 3 litre tank a few weeks ago, 3 litres doesn't sound much but space really is at a premium for me! I got an Iwata revolution CR at the same time, after a bit of research. Painted all my old IG tanks very happily.

I picked up some Vajello air to start with, just to get an idea of how far to thin the normal Vajello model & game paints, then thinned my normal paints with neat screenwash for even better results. I've put foundations, metallics & washes through it with good effects though as Mistress says, washes need to be painted on or they look like a tint.

Exactly the information I was searching for. Where are the promised pics though?

I know a lot of this is revolving around tanks and what to use. Me personally, I'm with Mistress, I use my air compressor that I also use to air my tires and have all my pneumatic tools for. A quick release adapter and ample amount of male connectors and you'll be throwing down paint faster than you can say <insert short yet witty phrase>

Something I wanted to point out that I don't think has been touched on well enough in this thread:

AIRBRUSH CLEANING:

I'm not talking about when rotating colors, it would be monotonous and irritating if you attempted to clean out your gun between coats.

However, when all your models are finally coated in that nice green that you couldn't get even with a brush if you paid it, don't forget about the little guy that got you there.

Go now and invest in some pipe cleaners and simple green concentrate. I know a few of my fellow users are like, "WHAT THE !@#$%?" Yes simple green will clean off the oils in the gun, but you should be oiling it at least once every two uses. Here are some of the things that can happen if you don't keep it clean:

1) Paint starts spitting - this can ruin a perfectly good fade or weathering job.

2) Moisture build up - some moisture will be trapped by a moisture trap (get one, it will save your sanity). However, if paint or any other sort of grime has accumulated in your gun (and it will) moisture will build on said surface and at a certain point will blow through your gun, causing another type of spitting which fires a super diluted shot of paint. Again ruining hours of work.

3) Your gun breaks - Flat out kaput, something somewhere has gotten to the point of blocking air or paint flow, now a quick project has turned into a full on cleaning. YAY!

Now back on point. Different guns are put together differently, for example: My Iwata HP-CS on the outside is pretty quick to pull apart for a simple cleaning, but if you break out the instructions you can really get into the guts of the machine.

So break out your instructions and go to town, once it's completely taken apart then set everything to soak in your Tupperware container with the simple green. After a few hours (overnight is good) go to your kitchen sink and plug it up (dont want to lose vital parts) then carefully remove each part and give it a good scrub then place in a suitable place to dry where it won't get lost. Once everything is dry then follow the instructions and reassemble...making sure to oil all moving parts liberally.

This should keep your gun's action smooth and seamless. Also it should extend the life of your parts, which is always a money saver.

Edit - ALWAYS MATCH CLEANER TO MEDIUM!!!

If you try to clean acrylic with paint thinner or vice versa you're going to ruin your gun. You have been warned.

What sort of oil do you use and where do you put it?

You can use a lil paint for shading stuff, or alot for solid coloring just by moving your finger.

These are nice, but their downside is that you have to maintain the flow rate you want with your finger. With a single action, you can set it to a certain spray size and just leave it. In most cases, you're just adjusting the stop on the double action and leaving it anyway...

I haven't used a double action in a while, but I feel like the single is just more applicable to our hobby. It's simpler, cheaper, and more reliable, and the control of a double action is rarely needed in minis. Most often you're just spraying a custom color as a basecoat.

It's not that hard to adjust a single action, you just spin whatever dial it has as you go.

That said, airbrushes tend to "creep" on their pattern. If you take a single action, set the flow, and just start painting along, it's not going to spray (for example) a half inch pattern forever. Especially if you're stopping and starting a lot. Instead, they tend to need adjustment every few minutes just to keep them where you want them, as paint dries around the nozzle.

Much less of an issue with a double action, where you just spray what you want.

You can work around this, jsut air up the tank in the afternoons or something similar if you live in a congested area.

Gotta watch these things tho, because they tend to have sensors that run them automatically when they're low, and sometimes you'll run one up, forget about it, then it goes off on its own at 2:00am. Still, they're much, much nicer to use than the other options, so long as you have space. They also can run a venturi vacuum pump for your mold making work.

And, one last trick. If you want to paint in peace, and jsut cant run a compressor where you live, we can get an air tank.

Paintball players with SCUBA tanks can also probably look into using those. With a good enough regulator, I'd think a SCUBA tank could run things for a long, long time. Even one of the on gun fiber wrapped units would last a long while.

The rule of thumb for any paints you stick in the airbrush is consistency of milk.

I've heard that a lot, but never really understood it. I mean, isn't milk basically like water? I can't really eyeball that sort of thing. I do better with "1:1 thinner to paint." I can measure that.

However I'm wondering to what extend others use it when dealing with smaller models like troops.

In a very limited capacity, I guess. You're pretty much limited to basecoats, camo patterns, and some weathering. The thing is, no matter how fine the detail is, it's still going to be a sorta soft edged spray, so it's only applicable where you want soft edges. So, it's certainly possible to spray very fine weathering lines along panel lines, but you can't block out sharp edged stuff.

tallmantim wrote:What sort of oil do you use and where do you put it?

pneumatic tool oil, and you put it pretty much wherever you have metal on metal.

Hi

A great airbrush maintenance guide can be found here:

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=72016

Another very good resource for finding good airbrush equipment is Craigslist. You can find people selling airbrush equipment fairly cheap and in good condition. And another good thing is you can drive within a couple hours and see the items before purchasing them.

One thing to look for is a good studio compressor. These things retail for like $1200 but you can find them on craigslist and sometimes ebay for under $200 in good shape. They have small tanks so they are compact, but more importantly run off of what sounds like a Refrigerator compressor, very quiet, and very consistant on air flow.

One of the best things I use my airbrush for are squad badges and "hand painted" icons. You can make small stencils, place them on a shoulderpad or tank and just spray a fine mist on the stencil, remove the stencil and viola, you have a decent outline to follow to "hand paint" your icons on.

Nice tutorial. Earlier I thought about buying the GW airbrush, but after reading tutorials like this I gave up on the idea - so you guys have saved me the money

Anyone got any sample images of what you can do with airbrushes on minis, e.g. it would be nice to see before/after shots of the weathering effects (without any brushwork afterwards, so rather "in the making" shots). I've never used an airbrush - I only spray paint the undercoat.

Hey MoM, thanks for making this thread to highlight some of the differences. I recently got a Central Air Supply double action airbrush from HF for Christmas but have only used it once: To paint the base splotches on a baneblade for a DoK plasma storm scheme. I think i might break it out this weekend and start practicing with it some more. Also I do the terrain for my local club and I think I have been neglecting to use this awesome tool.

As far as cleanu goes or quick swapping of paint pots, is there some type of investment into being able to do this? I think that is the issue I have worried about the most when I did use my airbrush, was taking too long and hoping the paint would not dry and clog up parts. Is there a good acrylic paint cleaner anyne could recommend for clean up?

Nice tutorial. Earlier I thought about buying the GW airbrush, but after reading tutorials like this I gave up on the idea - so you guys have saved me the money

Very happy with my ebay airbrush - under US$30 delivered.

One of the things I really like about the dual action airbrush as opposed to what you can do with a single action is to spray an area, then blow it clean with air. This is also useful if you accidently spray a little too much in an area to get it to disperse.

And airbrushing really is a lot of fun!

Anyone got any sample images of what you can do with airbrushes on minis, e.g. it would be nice to see before/after shots of the weathering effects (without any brushwork afterwards, so rather "in the making" shots). I've never used an airbrush - I only spray paint the undercoat.

Not weathering, but here are some figures I have painted with the airbrush so far (only brushwork is a single wash)...

VermGho5t wrote:Hey MoM, thanks for making this thread to highlight some of the differences. I recently got a Central Air Supply double action airbrush from HF for Christmas but have only used it once: To paint the base splotches on a baneblade for a DoK plasma storm scheme. I think i might break it out this weekend and start practicing with it some more. Also I do the terrain for my local club and I think I have been neglecting to use this awesome tool.

As far as cleanu goes or quick swapping of paint pots, is there some type of investment into being able to do this? I think that is the issue I have worried about the most when I did use my airbrush, was taking too long and hoping the paint would not dry and clog up parts. Is there a good acrylic paint cleaner anyne could recommend for clean up?

If you Google 'airbrush cleaning' you'll get a variety of hits, including some pretty good vids on youtube.

Personally, I use recycled soda bottles (ie ones I empty while modeling/painting)for every modeling task I can. For cleaning my AB, I just cut a hole in the side of a 24 oz bottle, I have a lil spray bottle of window cleaner I spray in the cup and some qtips to wipe it out with. I just spray the wondow cleaner til it comes out clear of the paint. I have it down to about a minute or two for paint changes on my brush.

For terrain stuff, you might be using alot of the same color over a longer period of time- make sure to wipe the cup out everytime you empty it- this keeps the drying paint from building up into goop that can jam the nozzle.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

tallmantim wrote:

One of the things I really like about the dual action airbrush as opposed to what you can do with a single action is to spray an area, then blow it clean with air. This is also useful if you accidently spray a little too much in an area to get it to disperse.


Not weathering, but here are some figures I have painted with the airbrush so far (only brushwork is a single wash)...

Yep, I use mine as a little blower too- comes in handy for chasing ink/washes when they puddle up where you dont want them

And shading like the Swoopin hawk wings is a good use for an AB. Some of the larger Tyrnid armor plates would be too I imagine.

I'll try to get some update posts for this thread going, but Ive gotten obsessed with my Hellhound variant and squiggoths O.o

tallmantim wrote:

Not weathering, but here are some figures I have painted with the airbrush so far (only brushwork is a single wash)...

Wow, if this is your beginning go at this I think I need to start looking for a deal for a compressor to run an airbrush. Those hawks look like a GREAT place to start laying paint with a brush. If anyone has spied any deals on air compressors they could pm or link I'd love you all even more than I already do

Harbor Freight, craigslist, air tanks, there are many options.

Ebay sellers have brush/compressor kits too you could look at as well.

Scherdy wrote:

Wow, if this is your beginning go at this I think I need to start looking for a deal for a compressor to run an airbrush. Those hawks look like a GREAT place to start laying paint with a brush. If anyone has spied any deals on air compressors they could pm or link I'd love you all even more than I already do

The picture is very grainy above - it doesn't do justice to how nice the finish comes out from the airbrush - solid smooth surface with no brush strokes!

I was lucky that my father had a good compressor that he wasn't using.

This is a completed listing for the sort of one that I have:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Air-compressor-2-5HP-21L_W0QQitemZ320393865738QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Air_Tools?hash=item4a98f66a0a&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A13|66%3A4|39%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A200

It is noisy, but it only needs to run for a couple of minutes to fill the tank, then I shut the power off.

So, overall cost for a decent setup (similar to what I have) in Australian $$$:

Compressor $80 (second hand industrial - you need a hobby one if you can't be noisy at night)
Airbrush $30 (dual action and works a treat - a whole new airbrush costs less than some replacement parts for top quality brushes)
Water trap/
regulator $30
Hose $20
Couplings $15
Acrylic airbrush
thinner $12

So all up for less than AU$200 you could have a decent setup.

Entertaining airbrush use #107

Spraying a sleeping cat with air= hilarious.

Entertaining airbrush use #223

Watching the new transformers movie and watching the fully made up vixen in cut off shorts and high boots bend seductively over a motercycle doing airbrush work - whilst having neither a cap on the 'brush, nor paint.

I guess they didn't expect people to be actually looking at the airbrush in that scene!

tallmantim wrote:Entertaining airbrush use #223

Watching the new transformers movie and watching the fully made up vixen in cut off shorts and high boots bend seductively over a motercycle doing airbrush work - whilst having neither a cap on the 'brush, nor paint.

I guess they didn't expect people to be actually looking at the airbrush in that scene!

Airbrush? Motorcycle?

LOL

Glad you asked!

Here is a picture of Megan Fox airbrushing a motorcycle. Gotta love the technique!

That is what we call sarcasm...

Maybe she was just practicing her form? You know, dry run before putting in the paint...like uhh...the tobogganers imagining running the course before they climb in? I'm SURE that's it.

I just wanted to add my experiences to this thread…

My last experience with airbrushing was at high school back in 1995 or something. At about the same time I found out I couldn't draw or paint even a stick figure. No matter if my life depended on it. (Freehanding is out of the question for me. ^_^)

First I bought the Citadel Flamer-thingie. I only wanted to basecoat some of my orks and vehicles. Perhaps add some weathering by using masks and such.

Words cannot describe how much it sucked. Paint was a b*tch to begin with. I thinned the paint 50:50 with only water – as the manual tells you. That together with the huge amount of paint it puts out (I know, you can adjust that to a degree) gave you just slightly more control than you have with a spray can.

To add to my problems. One can of propellant was not enough. Once I got the hang of using the "flamer" I ran into problems with the propellant getting too cold to use. Luckily I bought two of them.


So I went to the computer and ponied up for a beginners airbrush from Paasche. The VL-2000 – a siphon feed dual-action airbrush ($100-ish here in Sweden). I also went over to my parents and "borrowed" my dads compressor. (Some generic 25 litre, noisy as hell compressor). ^_^

A week later the airbrush arrived and let me tell you, it's lightyears ahead of the flamer in both control and application of paint. Being able to control the pressure and spraypattern on the fly is just amazing in comparison. Coating hard to reach areas without overflowing the mini in paint is actually possible(sic).

The only thing I had problems with was the siphon feed. Since you have this rather big (4cc) bottle underneath the airbrush you cannot get as close as you want to what you're painting. Not a biggie since I was mostly basecoating orks & painting my CoD buildings, but for making small detail it was an annoyance.

One other thing about the siphon feed is that I had to mix up way more paint than I was using since the feed-tube doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the bottle. So I always ended up with quite a lot of paint sitting in the bottle / sputtering airbrush. So… I went for broke and bought me a Harder & Steinbeck Evolution Two In One that has a top feed. (Comes with a bigger needle and cup, in a pretty ugly case.)


To make a long story short. Going from the VL-2000 to the Evolution was like going from the flamer to the VL-2000. My advice is, don't cheap out, you'll regret it AND get broke replacing bad stuff with better stuff.


(As for now I've only been using Vallejo Model color and Citadel Foundation mixed with Liquitex Airbrush medium. As soon as I have money for a spray booth I'm going to try with alcohol and other solvent based thinners / paints as it takes quite long for the paints to dry up at the moment. But for now it's only water / medium and acrylics since I have to spray in the same apartment as my two cats.)

Links etc:
Paasche VL-2000 (eBay)
Evolution 2in1 (eBay)
Liquitex Airbrush medium (Liquitex)
Trying out the Evolution (Dropbox)
Manofactorum painted with VL-2000 and moderate drybrushing (Dropbox)

––

(That scene with Megan Fox is disturbing in a not so sexy way… >_<