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I currently own an airbrush but I only really use it for priming and base coating large, flat surfaces. I find the whole process awfully finicky and messy and I try to avoid it in favour of old fashioned brushwork whenever possible.

I'm concerned that my dependence on regular brushes is holding me back, should I be developing my airbrush skills? I want to someday be able to paint with the best of them (look at the showcase subforum).

I think airbrushes are the most valuable tool to produce decent tabletop standard quickly, because you can achieve decent looking blends much quicker than with glazing. It's also a time/pain saver on big surfaces like vehicles.

For display/competition quality, I'm under the impression that many people actually don't use the airbrush, except for a quick preshading. At the very least, it's not required.

Nope.

If you like the airbrushed style of painting, sure, spend some time improving your airbrush abilities to achieve that. But it's absolutely not necessary for improving in general.

My favourite wargaming models tend to rely more heavily on brushwork than airbrush work. I do also paint a bunch of historic vehicles (WW2 planes being my favourite) and for those the airbrush work takes more of an emphasis because there it's critical to be laying down smooth coats on very large areas. It's less like painting a portrait and more like painting a car, so airbrush is critical. That said I've seen some cool aircraft painted with hairy brushes too, so to each their own.

What!! No dude stick to brushes mate, I have rarely if ever used an AB for painting and use coloured primer for my base coats, everything else I always do with brushes! and people seem to like it (hence why some pay me to paint them cool models) I think it looks much better and some effects you can do with brushes are astounding.

Excellent, I see all the great stuff people like Buypainted do and figure the only way to achieve a truly spectacular result is with airbrushing. I'm glad regular brushes are the way to go.

It's a tool.

Yes, you should practice with it. Yes, you should learn where and what things it will help you do, and what things it won't.

No, you shouldn't view it as mandatory. There will be things that airbrushing is pointless for, or more trouble than it's worth (people forget that cleaning the damn thing can take more time than you spend painting with it).

For priming (basecoating to a lesser extent) and varnishing though, I can't see why you wouldn't use it.

I ove mine. Whle some people have said cleaning it will take longer then usinging it, its kinda true. Painting a riptide with one is way less laborous then not.
Priming is great. I had the problem of loose stuff just floating about, and sticking to models when primer but not anymore. I can do cool tricks like candycoating and transperant paints.
Its just a tool, not the be all end all.

I think using it to basecoat difficult colors is probably the best use for it, that and priming. I personally despise the heavily airbrushed look that some people do (den of imaginations). I find it to look flat and boring, with zenithal lighting coming from every direction for no reason.

Mostly just comes down to personal preference.

Airbrushes are great for priming, basecoating, and subtle color transitions. Anything else and it's all about masking, masking, and more masking. Small detail is almost always easier to achieve with a brush.

Use an airbrush for what it's good for, use brushes for what brushes are good for.

I do both but I disagree with masking being quite that necessary (except on military markings and insignias where masking is perfecto!)as long as you have practiced long enough to create a solid expectation of where its landing when freehanding. Basecoating and large areas are obviously easier being larger but getting into the depths and angles can create some fantastic drama.
Here is a vehicle without the brush trim added yet, the detailed washes on metals have not been added yet either so we can see the airbrush work in a more stand alone environment.
This is where Im at a good discussion point Before I attempt the brush work im not so great and potentially mess up by highlighting the corners with yellow in an airbrush instead of highlighting with a brush. However since I have practiced enough with the airbrush I can ride the edges with more confidence.
Just ask your self this; have you given the airbush the same practice time as a paintbrush?

To be fair, that's a tank you're painting, and you're doing a 'battle worn and filthy' tank to boot. That's pretty much ideal airbrush territory.

No, you don't need masking to produce that paintjob on that subject...but for anything cleaner, yeah, probably most people do.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
I currently own an airbrush but I only really use it for priming and base coating large, flat surfaces. I find the whole process awfully finicky and messy and I try to avoid it in favour of old fashioned brushwork whenever possible.

I'm concerned that my dependence on regular brushes is holding me back, should I be developing my airbrush skills? I want to someday be able to paint with the best of them (look at the showcase subforum).

Hi. I recommend Angel Giraldez's two how to paint books. He is the staff painter for Corvus Belli and he shows how to get good results with airbrush and regular brush combo, without a huge time investment. IMHO, book 2 has more useful examples than book 1, though he goes into more methodology in book 1.

Think about where you are in your painting skills, and where you want to go. Do you want to enter Crystal Brush/P3 Painting Competition/Golden Deamon? Then yeah, you'll have to work on your airbrush skills, but that level requires both awesome brush and airbrush skills.

Are you happy with your painting now? If so, then don't worry about it. Understand that those award winning paint jobs are the result of 100's of hours of painting.

Is an airbrush required today? No, not really. I think more than anything it's a fad right now, with a lot of people thinking it's going to make them a better painter. An airbrush is a tool, and it requires different skills and abilities then a traditional brush. There is nothing an airbrush can do that a regular brush can't. Airbrushes are like a short cut for certain effects- effects that would take a lot longer to achieve with a regular brush (like fades or blending). You can still do those with a brush, but it takes certain skills/knowledge and a lot longer to achieve the same effect.

90% of my airbrush use is for priming, base coating, and larger models (way bigger then a Space Marine, like dreadnought size and above). I've used it to make some of those fancy power sword or distressed heated metal effects, but after set up, mixing the paint, masking the model off, spray a color, mix a new color, spray a layer, clean the brush, mix a color, spray again... it takes about four times the amount of time it would have taken if I had just used a brush.

Airbrushing is all the rage right now due to the zenithal lighting and OSL lighting techniques. Airbrushing makes this fairly easy if you know what you are doing. But you can achieve the same affect with a brush- it'll just take a lot longer.

TLDR; An airbrush is a tool, and requires different skills, knowledge, and practice to use properly. A brush can do anything an airbrush can do. If you are happy with your painting skills, then don't worry about it.

 Tamwulf wrote:
Think about where you are in your painting skills, and where you want to go. Do you want to enter Crystal Brush/P3 Painting Competition/Golden Deamon? Then yeah, you'll have to work on your airbrush skills, but that level requires both awesome brush and airbrush skills.

Honestly I don't think people who paint for those competitions rely heavily on airbrushing unless it's a vehicle. There's a limit to the amount of control you have when airbrushing a 28mm scale infantry regardless of how much skill you might have, and that limit is below the standard required to do well in high level competition. At that point you're looking more at glazing and blending, many figure painters use oils rather than acrylics to achieve airbrush-like blends without the fine detail limitation that an airbrush has.