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Title says it all really: I'm beginning a rather large airbrushing project (Reaver Titan), but I'm struggling to maintain a consistent quality with the paint. Is there a recommend ratio of paint/thinner to follow or any other tips in general?

Thanks

That question is like asking "how long is a piece of string". It depends what paints you are using to begin with, what airbrush you are using with what nozzle size, how close you are spraying and what effect you are trying to create.

I'm sure lots of people will come along with some advice, but my advice when you're just learning would be to start *very* thin, almost watery consistency and work your way up thicker and thicker until you get it right. It's easier doing it this way than starting too thick.

Here's a bit of trouble shooting on getting the right pressure/viscosity/spray distance.

http://blog.workbenchwarriors.com/2014/03/30/getting-started-with-airbrushing-part-2-2/

Personally my technique for thinning is to pick the pressure I want to spray at (based on what technique I'm trying to achieve) and then start thinning/thickening my paint until I'm in the ball park of where I need to be and then I fine tune the pressure to get it perfect.

I'd suggest, especially when you're learning, load up more paint than you'll need and practice on scraps and just keep fiddling around until you start getting the spray you like before you transition to spraying the actual model. Don't practice on absorbent stuff (paper, cardboard, etc) as it it's very different to painting on plastic or resin and so you need different consistency. I usually keep a few pieces of plasticard that I've previously primed near my spray booth to practice on.

It's a battle between having it too thin and creating pools and having it too thick and getting splatter or graininess. And then you have to tweak the pressure as well.

Even once you get half decent at it you have to spend a lot of time practising on scraps if you're using particular difficult techniques, spraying camo on my 15mm scale tanks I spray about 5 times as much paint on my test surfaces to make sure I'm getting a good cone than I do on the actual models Luckily the Reaver is nice and big so hopefully it won't be quite so tricky!

Also people will tell you "milk like consistency" which I find to be utterly useless because milk has a vastly different surface energy and frankly I've never sprayed milk to know what it sprays like anyway

I tend to water GW paint down a lot, but that is more due to it being old and thickened up some what.

I'd suggest trying around halfway between watery and paint consistency,

Watery - is put a dab on a vertical surface and it will run straight down
Halfway - initially sticks to the side but the majority will start to run off within a few seconds
Paint - sticks to the side with a very slow run off

I then spray at anywhere between 10-25 psi, usually 20 as that is my default and I'm lazy.

So, I am very new to this whole airbrush thing. In fact I dont even have the setup yet. Also forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but does anyone have advice for a fella just starting out with airbrush, also I heard something about a very fine tip airbrush? Thank you!

I've actually never tried Liquitex airbrush medium. I've always used the Vallejo one. I'll give Liquitex a go next time I'm at the art shop... it would be much cheaper than Vallejo.