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I have a respirator because I use Windex to thin my paints and don't want to breathe in any more chemical then I have to. Rather be safe then cancer

 zammerak wrote:
I have a respirator because I use Windex to thin my paints and don't want to breathe in any more chemical then I have to. Rather be safe then cancer

very true very true.

Oh I forgot. You absolutely 100% want one of these.




Its like $20 and worth its weight in gold.

http://www.amazon.com/Iwata-Medea-NAC-201-Cleaning-Station/dp/B000VADIVC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398712982&sr=8-1&keywords=airbrush+cleaning+station

Agreed with above, you can get them at Harbor Freight for $7 or so.

I don't really see the need for an expensive as balls airbrush to be honest. I've been using an el-cheapo for months and not had any problems with it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HS35-Gravity-Dual-Action-Airbrush-/120794903892?pt=UK_ToysGames_ModelKits_ModelKits_JN&hash=item1c1feff554

A few other guys at the studio use the same model, and these guys are total airbrush wizards. To each their own I guess, but I feel safe in the knowedge that if(when) I do something stupid and drop my airbrush out of a window or something, I can replace it for next to nothing.

 darefsky wrote:
Oh I forgot. You absolutely 100% want one of these.




Its like $20 and worth its weight in gold.

http://www.amazon.com/Iwata-Medea-NAC-201-Cleaning-Station/dp/B000VADIVC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398712982&sr=8-1&keywords=airbrush+cleaning+station

yeah when I purchased the air brush I went on and got both of these, I'm in the south east and it's regularly over 80% humidity here and our shop compressor always fills up with water so this can't do anything but help. Along with the cleaning kit with all the brushes etc.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390812997472?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

and

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AIRBRUSH-MINI-AIR-FILTER-Moisture-Water-Trap-1-8-Fittings-Hose-Paint-Spray-Gun-/141267060894?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=UlQ8FKZEwt5INTDGYfVLWvsAqGs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

I was reading that the water trap at the tank is all good and well, but the air cools as it leaves the tank and continues to condense so most were recommending the in-line water trap... so I figured why not right at the brush...

Got all my stuff in today. I can't wait. I got to set the compressor up etc. I got to get a spacer for where the water catcher / pressure regulator screws on. When I tighten it down it's almost at a 50-60 degree angle from where it would sit strait up and down. So I think I can put a washer on and it will take up that space.

Other than that, it looks awesome. Got 25 different paints to start with so I should be able to knock out the ultra's with that. Picks incoming after I start.

One question though, I've been watching BuyPainted's tutorials etc and I like how he preshades the mini's before base coating them but the vallejo bases say they are opaque so I was wondering if it will show the shade and lightening through the opaque paint? I'll be doing some test on some plastics to see what pressure I need to set the airbrush at for the primer and paints etc.

Haven't used it yet but the airbrush is rather nice. everything fits together well and it seems to be well made.

thanks!

Opacity is dependant on the paint, but also the thickness of the paint. Even the highest coverage paints I have are fairly translucent when I apply them with the airbrush. To some extent this is particle density (think halftones) while it is also the actual thickness. You need a certain level of buildup to fully cover the underlying layers.

So, the short of it is...with practice, any sort of preshading you do will show through if you want it to. If not, it wont.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Opacity is dependant on the paint, but also the thickness of the paint. Even the highest coverage paints I have are fairly translucent when I apply them with the airbrush. To some extent this is particle density (think halftones) while it is also the actual thickness. You need a certain level of buildup to fully cover the underlying layers.

So, the short of it is...with practice, any sort of preshading you do will show through if you want it to. If not, it wont.

thanks!

Well it's about par for the damn course. I got everything set up today. Tried spraying some of the vallejo primer onto a plastic tub I had through the .5mm . Well it sprayed well for like 15 seconds. Then started splattering. So I was taking it apart to clean and check it out and see if I could figure out the problem and bam I drop the damn .5 nozzle and can't find it. I think it went down the flippen vent.

This is starting to be a very bad day.

I'm trying to figure out what the screw at the bottom of the paint bucket does. It said something like regulates airflow so maybe I got to fiddle with that thing.

Can anyone give me some pointers on how to set this crap up?

Start with water.

That will let you figure out the triggers. Spray on blotter paper (or something else that allows you to see where the water hits).

Move up to something with a bit of color like ink. Spray it out on paper. Right your name, do some gradients, figure out control.

Thin down some paint to almost water. Paint some cheap diecast cars - figure out how to hold the brush when doing odd shapes and get a feel for how much pressure is needed for your set up.

Slowly move up to thicker paints with more pressure. Learn to deal with tip dry, disassembling and cleaning the brush, different thinners and what not.

The fluid control nob is somewhat unique (most brushes do not have one). If you tighten it all the way down - it should allow air only. If you open it all the way up...it will fall out. Just before it falls out though, it opens up the bottom of the paint reservoir all the way. I don't have one on any of my own brushes and only had a chance to play with one...but that is where using the water comes in. You can figure out how much "paint" comes out at various positions without fear of clogging or wasting relatively more expensive paint.

What PSI are you running at, what is the temperature and humidity like, how much paint were you letting through at a time.

I can't imagine a 0.5 lasting such a short time no matter what you were doing.

Sucks about the nozzle mate, but it is all worth it, just hang in there.

Sean_OBrien wrote:Start with water.

That will let you figure out the triggers. Spray on blotter paper (or something else that allows you to see where the water hits).

Move up to something with a bit of color like ink. Spray it out on paper. Right your name, do some gradients, figure out control.

Thin down some paint to almost water. Paint some cheap diecast cars - figure out how to hold the brush when doing odd shapes and get a feel for how much pressure is needed for your set up.

Slowly move up to thicker paints with more pressure. Learn to deal with tip dry, disassembling and cleaning the brush, different thinners and what not.

The fluid control nob is somewhat unique (most brushes do not have one). If you tighten it all the way down - it should allow air only. If you open it all the way up...it will fall out. Just before it falls out though, it opens up the bottom of the paint reservoir all the way. I don't have one on any of my own brushes and only had a chance to play with one...but that is where using the water comes in. You can figure out how much "paint" comes out at various positions without fear of clogging or wasting relatively more expensive paint.

thanks for the advise. Yeah I don't know lol. This thing is sure enough crazy. I saw on some youtube vids and they were calling that screw an air controller... idk. I tried it again after a while with the .3 nozzle and had the screw only like 2 or 3 turns from full tight and it sprayed primer and the ultramarine's opaque blue well. Though it was really light then when I pulled back it really blasted it out there. I ended up taking the crown cap off and it did wonders for consistency.

When doing the primer and blue is it normal to have to go over the area multiple times to get coverage? I mean i could see the streaks where put the lines... so I had to go over the area multiple times and a couple places got too much paint. I was just hoping for good coverage with out having to go over the area so much. Though I cut the paints a little more with some make shift thinner so they were more runny by a little bit.

kb_lock wrote:What PSI are you running at, what is the temperature and humidity like, how much paint were you letting through at a time.

I can't imagine a 0.5 lasting such a short time no matter what you were doing.

Sucks about the nozzle mate, but it is all worth it, just hang in there.

I started off at 2o then worked up to 30. I think I might have the air valve on the air brush a little off or something. Yeah that nozzle getting gone really pissed me off lol.

I just really got to work on controlling this thing right and how to properly thin the paints. I really want to go pick up some liquitex airbrush medium so I can't actually "over thin" the paints. I was gonna try to paint the assault symbol on my plastic box after I primed it and base coated it in the ultra blue.. but the white just blew paint everywhere and I think it's because I over thinned it.

I am learning too, and basically found that you need to get the right ratio of power to distance to paint viscosity.

Each paint is completely different, and how you want to use it also depends greatly on how you will thin it.

Absolutely not an exact science, which was hard for me to wrap my head around, but you will get better quickly if you stick with it

30 psi (even 20 psi) is a lot of air. I normally don't get up that high unless I am dealing with textile or body paints.

For most model painting - I start at 10 PSI and move up from there. Usually before 15 PSI I have found my sweet spot, though sometimes I do need to take it a little higher (very rarely above 20). Others will disagree - and there certainly are benefits to higher pressure spraying...but there are also downsides as well. At low pressures though - you never really have to worry about paint being blown around and pooling in recesses, and it allows you to lay down very thin layers of paint with very little waste and overspray.

Normally I never try to get full coverage with a single pass. 2 or 3 passes is pretty normal for me, and if I am doing something like a solid color all over large surfaces I may do 5 or 10 separate coats to get a smooth solid color over it all (unless it is a building or some other terrain...but for those I normally will use my HVLP spray guns or a single action external mix brush).

Anyway - the issue with the streaks can be solved by properly overlapping your wet edges. When the paint goes down - it isn't even all the way across. The edges of the paint pattern will have less paint than the middle. When you paint back across - you will want to overlap the previous line of paint so that the two different edges roughly equal the amount of paint nearer the center. It is a bit like mowing a lawn. If you don't overlap each pass with the mower...you end up with a bunch of strips of uncut grass.

Part of the too much paint issue though is probably not having enough experience with the triggers for your brush control. You will also probably have issues with how high your pressure is blowing paint into recesses. It takes time to develop an understanding of how the different actions on the brush will impact your painting as well as how the different consistencies of paint will need to be dealt with. Not a lot of time.

Usually when I teach people - they get a handle of it over the course of a weekend...but still, you need to address things one step at a time to see each part of the process otherwise you get buried under all the different variables and you will not be able to identify what the source of the problem may be.

There was an article somewhere on the internets that showed pictures of spray patterns to help get you to a good consistency/pressure/distance... I can't for the life of me find it now. Anyone know what I'm talking about? That would be a great article to have on file for newbies, as it's far harder to explain how to get a good spray pattern than it is just to show them images and descriptions of what is wrong in each one. I know it really boosted my airbrushing from trial and error to actual understanding.


Anyway, I'd love to know what pressure I spray at, but my regulator gauge seems to be busted I spray most things 20-30 PSI, if I'm just laying down a primer or basecoat, 30-40 PSI... but then when my tank is empty with no air whatsoever, the gauge drops to 10 PSI rather than 0... so I'm not really sure what PSI I'm working at. I tend to not really look at the gauge anyway, but it would be nice to know, lol. I'm sure it's so heavily dependent on airbrush that it doesn't matter a lot anyway. I have a cheapo chinese airbrush and am running 0.35mm nozzle.

Yeah I think my problem is all of those mixed together along with not using the correct thing to thin with. I will try lowering the pressure on the tank the next time I use it. What I really want to be able to do is just to prime those models, the shade them correctly then lay a very clean even base coat. The rest will be handled with brushes. I just want the 60% of the BS that takes so long to be over with quickly lol

If you just want to basecoat models, that's really not that hard. The hard thing is when you need to do finer lines and things. If you just want to apply a lot of paint quickly, use it like a spray can, reasonably high pressure, slightly longer spray distance, adjust viscosity appropriately.

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

http://homepage.eircom.net/~safc/airbrush1.htm

I think most my problem not getting the good spray is revolving around the extra adjustability of that screw/nob on the bottom of the airbrush under the bowl... I don't think it's set up quite right. I got another cheaper brush coming in that is a siphon feed style but without all the whistles and it comes with a .3/.5/.8 nozzles so I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

There is some excellent advice in this thread, but I wanted to throw in what I have discovered to be the most important;

practice.

Watch tons of videos, do some tutorials (painting lines, dots, etc.) but most importantly....practice.

Airbrushing is indeed an art where skill takes time and experience in managing the brush, how to handle the model, working with pressure and paint, etc.

Also, see if there is someone in your area who you would consider "accomplished" at airbrushing...see if you can work with them to learn some of the minor tricks and methods.

best of luck and have fun!

davethepak wrote:
There is some excellent advice in this thread, but I wanted to throw in what I have discovered to be the most important;

practice.

Watch tons of videos, do some tutorials (painting lines, dots, etc.) but most importantly....practice.

Airbrushing is indeed an art where skill takes time and experience in managing the brush, how to handle the model, working with pressure and paint, etc.

Also, see if there is someone in your area who you would consider "accomplished" at airbrushing...see if you can work with them to learn some of the minor tricks and methods.

best of luck and have fun!

Thanks buddy, yeah I deff. need more practice. Though as for people around... I don't know a single person that does airbrushing. I know one guy that is a really good artist as in drawing etc but he said he wanted to learn to airbrush but hasn't ever gotten into it. So I'm on my own it seems but you are right, practice practice practice.

Horribly painted minis from ebay going dirt cheap, don't bother stripping them, just prime them again and go nuts - you will learn a stack

Also videos, buypainted on youtube has so many videos that show some brilliant methods, but doing and watching are different, so test it out on terrible miniatures first!

true, BuyPainted is the one that got me wanting to airbrush. The video where he paints the Ultramarines Rhino and the Ultramarines drop pod and I was hooked.

Yeah I'll try to find some cheaper mini's.

Btw how would you strip them anyway? I've been taking the paint off that box I've been practicing on with just automotive windex. Spray it on and leave it for a minute then just wipe the paint and primer away.

MitchellTyner wrote:
Btw how would you strip them anyway? I've been taking the paint off that box I've been practicing on with just automotive windex. Spray it on and leave it for a minute then just wipe the paint and primer away.

SImple Green / brake fluid. Let them soak, scrub with an old toothbrush. Rinse and repeat.

 ruprecht wrote:

MitchellTyner wrote:
Btw how would you strip them anyway? I've been taking the paint off that box I've been practicing on with just automotive windex. Spray it on and leave it for a minute then just wipe the paint and primer away.

SImple Green / brake fluid. Let them soak, scrub with an old toothbrush. Rinse and repeat.

okay I assume not to mix them, just one or the other correct lol

Either one or the other, yes And don't use the toothbrush again for teeth afterwards.

 ruprecht wrote:
Either one or the other, yes And don't use the toothbrush again for teeth afterwards.

lolol I was just making sure. Didn't want to throw the stuff together without thinking about it and causing a deadly smoke cloud in the house hahaha.

Post some progress photos when you can too

Oh I plan on it, you guys will definitely see my shoddy work lol

So it begins, finally got a little time so I'm gluing some up and getting ready to airbrush prime them. Sorry for bad picture, the GF seems to have stashed my camera somewhere lol.



Hopefully more to come soon.