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I have a few issues and I'm just going to list them. I'm looking for any helpful or useful tips and tricks to get what im needing help with here.

My Airbrush is the infinity from steinbeck etc.

- What psi should I be looking to use for this, I notice every time I go in close to do any kind of detail lines it spiders.
- How fine should I expect the airbrush to paint. I seem to get speckles of paint outside of the area I'm trying to paint as well as on the edges of where I'm painting preventing me from getting decent smooth edges.
- How fine should the finish be? I'm wanting to do something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OokPZK56_ro#t=182 but without the ability to really see it up close I'm at a loss for what I'm actually looking for.

I can try and grab some pictures tomorrow if they are needed to show what kind of results I am getting on my end. I had gotten use to getting fairly smooth results on my old airbrush before upgrading to this, and I feel like its a little temperamental with its results
and I'm not sure what to do to control it and get the result I am wanting, whether cleaning is the issue (even though its brand new) whether I need to restrict the trigger to prevent over pressing or what. At this point I think it cold be a multitude of things.


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Feel like I need to get this resolved one way or another before it becomes a persisting problem as theres lots of details I would like to do with my airbrush, power weapons, cloaks, pre-shading, highlights etc.

Your problems seem to be all confined in the paint thinning/ pressure area. When your up close and getting spidering the paint is to thin OR you are running too much pressure, adjusting one of the two should sort your issue.

Think of it this way, if the paint is thin you need less pressure and if its thicker you will need more, pressure and viscosity go hand in hand. You can compensate a problem in one area by a change to the other.
The closer you get to the surface the more force is hitting the wet paint and therefore more likely to cause spidering. Even perfectly thinned paint thats doing great filling in an area at a bit of distance will spider when your closer if using too high a pressure. All you need to do is drop your pressure when your in close.

Try leaving your mix as it is and back the pressure right down and have a play about on a spare model or flat panel (preferably something non absorbent and smooth like plastic or something laminated ) and see how it behaves. You will be able to have the airbrush only a few mm from the surface and lay down nice fine lines with tiny amounts of paint coming out and no spidering (unless you stay in one place and lay down too much paint) Dont worry about numbers on the pressure gauge, just find the sweet spot for your needle, viscosity and distance.
I usually have mine sitting about 15-20 psi and drop it to sub 10 psi or even 5 for up close, other times I might raise the pressure if blocking areas or bascoating/priming to nearer 40psi.
Also another area to look at is your control, by that I mean are you keeping the brush moving and not sitting still while flowing paint as that will make spidering much more likely to occur.
Your last point about the splattering could be the paint too thick or lumps in it that cause a blockage then fly out in a blob going all over the show and making a mess, if you think your paint could have lumps in the bottle try a battery stirrer or siphon it through a bit cut from tights to catch the lumps.
Another possible cause could be a bent needle tip or misaligned needle/ fluid tip making the brush spray to the side and collecting paint on the edge of the crown cap then when enough builds up it will be flying out onto your surface in random splats.

Hope that gives you places to start problem solving, I dont think you have any serious issues just a bit of trial and error to figure out optimum settings with your new airbrush.

good luck
Jeff

Thanks for the feedback!
I seriously hope it isn't a bad needle, ALREADY, its literally come out its box this afternoon so I would be pretty distraught if that was the case.

I will have to try the various fixes you mentioned and hope something works. It's reassuring to know that theres a good chance its not faulty or something and I can work to get the result that I want, now if only I had someone that could show me >w<


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Okay, I have found that around 15 psi is nice, and gives a fairly good smooth laying of paint, but this is what im talking about in regards to being unable to get detailed lines.

As you can see on this bit alone I've messed with both consistency and air flow and im still getting really speckly lines, while I have been able to get some small lines im sure i should be able to get them much finer.

Mmmmmm it looks like the paint is too thick and the spray pattern is outta whack, strip your brush and clean it as dirt is the main reason for poor spray patterns.
Try dropping below 15 psi as your still getting plenty of spriderlegs also the airbrush needs to be moving all the time and air flowing then you ease back or a little paint and shut off the paint when you finish the stroke then com back for another pass and build up your color.

Hit youtube and search for airbrush techniques and learn about dagger/rat tail strokes and watch the practice drills. That one technique is the most basic and important one to master and once you get that down to an exact thickness line starting where you want and finishing where you want and hitting the exact same spot repeatadly you could paint just about anything the rest is knowing the little silly tricks to get you there.

Detail painting needs 'over-thinned' paint. I like to use Acrylic inks rather than paints for detail work.

Psi is kinda variable on paint viscosity.

Its hard to give you a number that will work... but as you go thinner, you need to lower the psi to avoid the spidering - you need to be really close to get a thin line, so you need the air to not push the paint around.
Don't stay in one place too long, move around the piece and be patient to let layers dry before going back over them.

Make sure the moisture trap is good, as 1 drop of moisture in the airline = a paint run.

Your paint you want to be 'milky' that is when you swirl it around the cup it leaves a thin film along the walls as it runs back down, like milk does. Not too thick, but visible.
(I always find the thin it to skimmed milk consistency a bit misleading without that extra info about what exactly your looking at)

For me 8-15 psi dependign on how thin i make the paint is about where I'm at using a 0.2mm H&S Evolution CR plus (so comparable to the infinity)

edit; also the finish from airbrush work is often a bit chalky, its common practise to do a 'intercoat clear' ... just a quick light varnish to even it up. protect your work and level out any odd shines youve made spraying at different angles.

If your airbrush is dirty (and I'm assuming it is) then you're going to have trouble.

A dirty airbrush will cause no end of trouble. It's the one thing that nobody learns properly at the beginning and the problems associated with a dirty airbrush cause beginners to give up before they really get going.

Once you're sure it's clean, listen to what everybody else has said. Thin well, (I prefer to use airbrush medium to thinner) and turn down the pressure. Experiment! Practice! Nothing is perfect the first time out.

Yeah I found a guide of someone cleaning the infinity so I'm going to give that a go, I really hope it improves it! Though from the beginning I was having similar problems I'm going to assume that was down to the psi as I was using the default the compressor was running at I think, which was probably about 25-30 area.

That and I think I needed to thin my paint more. I'm coming from using a bigger needle size so I think that caught me off guard.

Thanks for the advice, hopefully things will start picking up from here. I'm so paranoid about the keeping the needle pristine and stuff xD It'l be nice when I get a better understanding of things.

I'll deff look up those videos though.