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The biggest part of modeling that's always bugged me is the base coating-I have one color of primer and it's black and I want this damn tank to be red, but even with my biggest brush that red takes 2 hours, so the other day at michaels I grabbed a 20$ air brush thinking "this will be great for turning my paint into spray paint."

So now I'm sitting here with a miniature that cost twice as much as this airbrush, having practiced on scrap paper, with super thinned paint, and I can't help but wonder if I'm going to absolutely kill this model by doing this.

Also, if this'll work ok, which to be honest it probably will, can I also use this for stencils? Seems like I could get some nice homemade decals with a hobby knife and a piece of paper over a big flat part of my model.

Am I worried about nothing? Or should I not try to use this?

You are worried over nothing...

And yes, stensils work fine... I would put down a think coat of gloss varnish first though and then maybe use some non permanent spray adhesive on the stencil so it stays put.

Ok good. Get red, tank!

 granander wrote:
You are worried over nothing...

And yes, stensils work fine... I would put down a think coat of gloss varnish first though and then maybe use some non permanent spray adhesive on the stencil so it stays put.

Beat me to it.

You can also use stencils like this without needing an airbrush.

You put down a gloss cover, for something for the stencils to stick to (I use the sticky portion of Post-it Notes to make stencils).

Then, with the stencil in place, you lightly stipple a white dry-brush in the area where the stencil covers (or, if you are doing a shape over a white, or light background, use the color you intend to eventually use).

This provides a basic, crisp shape over which you can paint the final shape with a paint brush.

The slightly coarse paint from the dry-brush will hold the pigment in place, and keep the crisp shape of the stencil.

True, it isn't as clean as an airbrushed stencil, but you can get much smaller shapes than is typically possible with an airbrush.

Also... For those using an airbrush.

Look into "Frisking" material. It comes as a flexible "plastic-like film" on a backing, and you just cut out your stencil shape, and then peel the plastic backing off, and apply it over the area to be airbrushed. The frisking is made of a resist material that naturally repels most media.

And the "stretchy" nature of it means that you can get stencils over compound curves.

Frisking also comes in a liquid, which can be easily peeled off after it has been applied (you take a sharpened pencil eraser and push at the corner of the dried liquid frisk, and then it peels off sort of like a facial-mask).

The liquid frisking can also be silk-screened onto objects, but I doubt many miniature painters are using silkscreens to do patterns.

MB