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When I first got my airbrush I thought it'd make things easier, but honestly I regret this massive purchase a couple months later. It takes twice as long to set up painting, it's far more iffy on how thinned down paints need to be (every brand and colour seems to be different). I need to basically block off an afternoon to airbrush. I can paint whenever I want, however long I want.

Is there as big of a difficulty curve for most people for Airbrush? Do I just need to keep running at the wall till I scale it?

It gets easier. You learn the right consistency of paint to spray easily, you learn how to clean your brush effectively, and so on.

I can't deny that, if you have to set everything up from scratch each session, then that is a massive ball-ache. I used to do that and it really was a huge disincentive towards doing any painting. It helps enormously if you have a painting desk set up permanently that you can just leave everything set up on - that made a big difference for me.

Yeah, my booth is set up where I play DND every two weeks or so, so its JUST enough time to justify "oh, I can get a few sessions out of it".

I have an area I could set it up elsewhere, but it'll take some reworking.

I reckon airbrushes are very specific tools, good for certain jobs and certain armies, for other jobs and other armies they just slow things down.

In terms of speed painting, the airbrush doesn’t speed me up at all, fastest thing is rattle can basecoat then start blocking in details with a hair brush. The airbrush just takes too long to prep the models, prep the brush, prep the paint, clean the brush out. You’re right in that you have to block out a few hours to make it worthwhile, whereas hairy brushing you can do half an hour here, an hour there, 15 minutes over there, and gradually make progress. Airbrushing, not so much.

The airbrush is more useful when I want to paint to a moderately but not insanely high standard in a reasonable but not fast time.

When I lived with my parents it was easy for me to have a dedicated setup for my airbrush and since moving to a flat in London I've not used my airbrush once and sinking money into a compressor over here is tough. Factor in the place I'm renting would get covered in paint dust it's rather demotivating.

the same learning curve that there is to hairbrushes is there for AB, just in a different way. for brushes there is how to paint, for AB it is how to thin, use the correct nozzle and clean. (and you will be doing ALOT more of cleaning)
and if you dont use a booth with ventilation you are going to have paint dust all over the table/desk you sit at and over large parts of the room you are in. using an AB is a huge investment(cash and room space) and for a hobby painter, it aint worth it IMO.

AB is a handy tool yes, but it is not the all miracle solution for quicker or better paintjobs on miniatures as many are let to belive by youtube. does it exeed in painting vehicles, walkers and general big models? yes, but that is where its use stops.
i have been painting on and off since 14, i have a pro AB and a cheap AB, i have used them on large display models and RC models with big success. on 28mm-8mm infantry models it sees no use cuz the hair brush is the only way to paint sutch small things.

Tyranid Horde wrote:When I lived with my parents it was easy for me to have a dedicated setup for my airbrush and since moving to a flat in London I've not used my airbrush once and sinking money into a compressor over here is tough. Factor in the place I'm renting would get covered in paint dust it's rather demotivating.

I would imagine your neighbours wouldn't be happy, either.

You get an ASBO, and you get an ASBO, and you get an...

An airbrush is like any tool. You can't just pick it up and use it and automatically be amazing. You need to learn how to use it, and then once you've learnt you need to keep greasing that groove. A lot of apprentices in the kustom car painting world spent hours learning rat tails and other basic air brush techniques before they are ever let loose on a design for a car/bike. Point is, you need to practice.

I've had my airbrush for a few years and I still consider myself an amateur, and only really use it for larger things like pre shades and weathering on vehicles (this is mainly out of laziness when it comes to prep.)

Set up, cleaning and de prep is going to take time. Unless you set up a dedicated station there's nothing you can really do other than learn to deal with it. I wouldn't waste your time regretting your purchase, just put some time into learning how to use it, and if it turns out to not be useful for your army or whatever, then maybe start a slow burn project that you could work on sporadically in the background like a vehicle, a large monster, a bust, even a scale model.. Youll find larger models more forgiving, and you may even find you come to love it

 Excommunicatus wrote:

Tyranid Horde wrote:When I lived with my parents it was easy for me to have a dedicated setup for my airbrush and since moving to a flat in London I've not used my airbrush once and sinking money into a compressor over here is tough. Factor in the place I'm renting would get covered in paint dust it's rather demotivating.

I would imagine your neighbours wouldn't be happy, either.

You get an ASBO, and you get an ASBO, and you get an...

My airbrush compressor is really not that noisy, and I don't even have one with a tank at the moment. I can use it in the room next-door to my son and not wake him up.

I don't find everything getting covered in paint much of a problem either. I spray into a cardboard box and that seems to contain everything OK.

Airbrushing only saves time via economies of scale. Basecoating 30 figures? Airbrush is a godsend. Doing a color fade/transition of 30 models? Fantastic. Doing three models at a time? Don't bother, unless you're doing something special like a zenithal highlight or intricate color transitions - the stuff airbrushes are really good at.

I'd suggest setting up a dedicated "hobby" area.

Using my airbrush takes maybe 1-2 minutes more than using any other hobby tools, since I just need to turn on the compressor and airbrush hood, spray, then run some cleaner through it after.

stupid question, but have you tried specific airbrush paints? I've mostly used Vallejo Model Air, and there's little thinning required, just use them straight out of the bottle. Doesn't particularly help with any of the rest of it, and yeah, I do find that I tend to take about 45min-an hour minimum when I start using mine, but I still find it great for priming and basecoating.

Ive tried all sorts. Citadel air, p3 thinned, Army Painter thinned, and even Vallejo. Its all been here or there.

 John Prins wrote:
Doing three models at a time? Don't bother

This is pretty much the reason I have never used, nor am ever likely to use an airbrush.
The investment of both time and money is just not worth it for me. I'm not a meta chaser and these days only buy new models to collect, so it's few at a time and often wildly different schemes that are mostly accomplished with dry-brushes and washes.
With the advent of Contrast paints, if I even do a whole army again (unlikely), I'll turn to those over the investment of an airbrush.

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Galef, his second point was the important one to focus on. If you want to do something like a power sword, getting the color transitions to look right are extremely difficult without an airbrush. If you want to to zenithal highlighting on a model's basecoat, it's much easier with an airbrush. If you want to do shading on a large vehicle, it's much easier with an airbrush.

I don't paint in bulk very often (not since I finished painting my brick of 80 Guardsmen earlier this year), but for single models I always airbrush, just because it's more convenient than using a regular brush for basecoating work. using the new Contrast paints as an example... I primed my blood angels captain in black, then a base coat of vallejo gunmetal, and a zenithal highlight layer of silver, then I'm using the Blood Angels Red contrast color for a nice metallic red color. I could probably have done that without an airbrush, but I was finished with the basecoating steps after like 30 minutes, including drying time for the paints.

I disagree with using an airbrush for a power sword colour transition. Hairy brush all the way for that. The other things you mention, yes, for sure.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I disagree with using an airbrush for a power sword colour transition. Hairy brush all the way for that. The other things you mention, yes, for sure.

I truly, truly suck at blending and transitions with a hairy brush. I agree it CAN look better... just not when I do it. granted, i should probably practice to get better at that skill...

Fair enough. I think I'd find it too small an area to try and do with an airbrush.. I like to get 3 contrasting reflections in power swords to push the effect.

Yea, if the blade is large enough I can get a result I like with an airbrush, like I was happy with my librarian https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/290144-.html?m=2 I did a few years ago, but on smaller blades it looks much worse.

Should probably just bite the bullet and practice blending with a brush, but I've not done marines much lately, mostly Guard and Knights, so it hasn't been needed.

I can symphasize with OP.
My current set up does not allow me to have a dedicated airbrush space sadly. Having to put away is an absolute ball ache and is really a bit of a de-motivation..

I think I'd have a go at it every day and experiment if I could just plug it into the compressor and if the paint area ready to go.
Alas currently I will only use it for something specific I plan for on a project. Originally practiced only on plastic bottle bottoms/cut offs to get the feel of it and practice fades/blends & colour combinations. I really like what it bring to the table and think its an invaluable tool. I'm amazed by how good the fades you can do, and ho good the colourshift paints from greenstuff world look for example.. I don't think the brush application of those will ever yield the same result.

However I still would rather get stuck in and wet blend a lot of miniatures because I don't have enough skills and experience with using an airbrush on infantry. I've seen some tutorials of people painting infantry and im like "nope, not even going to try that". That's only because lack of practice and experiance which I'm just not going to get if I have to plan using the set up like 4 days in advance..Once My living situation changes this will hopefuly be a thing of the past. Dedicated hobby room here I come baby

The point complaint is one I see often and I'm really not sure what to say as I've never had paint problems myself. Any problems I've had were due to the gear itself. E.g. Incorrect, pressure, crappy airbrush, no lube on the needle.
May I ask what sort of set up are you using?

And have you looked at some flow improver, Needle juice/Lube?

There's a very specific airbrush technique for power swords where you mask off half the blade along the length and do a white~blue~black transition and a black~blue~white on the other half, very easy to do with an airbrush and very difficult by hand. There's other hand-painted effects that are very difficult with an airbrush, it all depends on the look you're going for.

An airbrush being "worth" it depends on how much you use it, and how much you utilize it. My compressor sits on my painting desk in a dedicated spot just off to the side and the airbrush itself is hung from my painting lamp, it's always within arms reach at any given moment. All my paints and cleaning supplies are also close at hand, so it's extremely easy for me to load in some paint, spray a few things, then clean it out and move on to brush work, even for a single model and certainly if I'm doing more than a single model.

It came with a lot of learning curves though, and I ruined more than a couple cheapy airbrushes before I learned proper care. Issues with splattering and clogging are much more rare nowadays, but still happen and are still annoying, the difference is experience and knowing if it's better to just work around them, stop for a quick cleaning, or stop completely and do a full strip-down of the airbrush and start afresh. It's also VERY frustrating to spend 20 minutes cleaning out a clog, loading up a fresh pot and then still have issues when you just want to be actually painting, it can really feel like a chore, but you get used to it and better at it. Unfortunately, there's no shortcut to that experience. Youtube videos help a lot, but really you just need to push through and spend the time doing it.

Anything you do to lower the barrier to practicing will help you actually use the airbrush more, so make a dedicated space for it that's convenient to use, if you can.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I would also recommend, get BOTH an airbrush thinner AND a flow improver to thin your paints with, I use Vallejo brand for both in about a 50/50 of thinner/flow improver mix. The flow improver is a game changer and helps keep even supposedly "airbrush ready" paints from clogging and tip-drying

I have to put my airbrush away after use, it doesn’t really add much to the time, the time is taken up cleaning it out properly. Once it’s clean I just wrap the air hose around the compressor, hook the airbrush in to the handle and shove the whole thing in a cupboard, 1 minute at most.

An airbrush is the F1 car of miniature painting.

It's a maintenance hog.

You will spend much longer prepping, mixing, cleaning and maintaining then you ever will painting.

That said, if you are doing a LOT of models at once, and want to batch undercoat/zenithal highlight, it will save a lot of time.

For one model at a time - go with the old chewed stick.

I currently don't have much time available for painting, so I paint my guys one at a time. And I still use my airbrush on them.
The last one I did had a cloak (a runepriest), which is typically the kind of feature I prefer to do with an AB. I also laid down the blends on the beard at the same time. I think it took me ~25 mins for the three colors I used on the cloak + the 2 on the beard, including set-up and cleaning time (didn't need to mask anything).
You can consider that it's a lot of time for only two parts of a model, or that it's actually okay since it involves some blending. If I were doing multiple models at the same time, it would have take a lot less time/model too.

I any case I enjoy the process of airbrushing, it gives me nice results (much better than what I'm able to do with a hairy brush), and it really doesn't require especially long painting sessions. So it's here to stay as a tool I use on most minis, even if I'm not batch painting at all. And I wouldn't paint any decent sized vehicle with an AB.

 Horst wrote:
Galef, his second point was the important one to focus on. If you want to do something like a power sword, getting the color transitions to look right are extremely difficult without an airbrush. If you want to to zenithal highlighting on a model's basecoat, it's much easier with an airbrush. If you want to do shading on a large vehicle, it's much easier with an airbrush.

I don't paint in bulk very often (not since I finished painting my brick of 80 Guardsmen earlier this year), but for single models I always airbrush, just because it's more convenient than using a regular brush for basecoating work. using the new Contrast paints as an example... I primed my blood angels captain in black, then a base coat of vallejo gunmetal, and a zenithal highlight layer of silver, then I'm using the Blood Angels Red contrast color for a nice metallic red color. I could probably have done that without an airbrush, but I was finished with the basecoating steps after like 30 minutes, including drying time for the paints.

Part of my point is that I already know how to do these effects quickly. For example:
The affects on those blades took me less than 30 minutes using wet blending.
I don't think I could achieve that with an airbrush as quickly until spending HOURS of practice time + the investment of the airbrush itself and the setup time each painting session.
An airbrush is also very soft and I personally like a bit of a hard edge in the "reflections" of the blades, but that's personal preference

If air brushes work for you and others, that's great. I was just pointing out that for some, like me, they are indeed a waste of time and money.

-

Relative proficiency between airbrushing and painting with a brush is quite important.
I personally bough an airbrush a couple month after I started painting, and so developed both skillsets at the same time. So for things like a power sword, I can blend it with an airbrush a lot faster and a lot better than with a normal brush.
Someone who has been using a paint brush for a lot longer than an airbrush might be in the opposite position. And for that person, the learning process of airbrushing will probably be paved by long hours spent producing results far inferior to what they can do with a normal brush. That makes it very tedious to learn, and hard to see the pay-off.

fresus wrote:
Someone who has been using a paint brush for a lot longer than an airbrush might be in the opposite position. And for that person, the learning process of airbrushing will probably be paved by long hours spent producing results far inferior to what they can do with a normal brush. That makes it very tedious to learn, and hard to see the pay-off.

Exactly my point, well put.

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 Galef wrote:
The affects on those blades took me less than 30 minutes using wet blending.
I don't think I could achieve that with an airbrush as quickly until spending HOURS of practice time + the investment of the airbrush itself and the setup time each painting session.
An airbrush is also very soft and I personally like a bit of a hard edge in the "reflections" of the blades, but that's personal preference
-

Power swords aren't too hard by brush. This was my first attempt at the effect with a brush:



It turned out pretty well IMO. No wet blending involved, just thinned down paints layer after layer. Tedious but not hard. No need to airbrush, though it can be more easily done with one.

OTOH, my airbrush made this blend trivially easy:



Note that this didn't involve tons of practice, this was my first large area blend I ever attempted. Up to here, mostly I used the airbrush for basecoating, zenithal and underpainting. Certainly possible to replicate via a brush, but would take 10x the time (or more).

Some tips for you

1- go 50/50 airbrush paint to Vallejo flow improver
2- remove the nozzle cap that protects the needle tip
3- keep toothbrush and thinner handy to clean tip regularly
4- keep big container of water handy. When done just dunk the airbrush in there and swoosh it around then spray it out until the water has cleared out all the paint.
5 do the same step on many models at once to minimize cleaning airbrush and changing colors. Have a process

Blending like the Wave Serpent is the most advanced I do with my airbrush.
Work out the colours beforehand, and just go for it.