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So I own an Expo AB603 airbrush and compressor. It's not the greatest thing in the world- it's a basic jar-feed dual-action piece.

Recently, I made a huge mistake- attempting to airbrush glass paint. The stuff clogged up the damned thing and I'm still not sure if it's properly cleaned yet.

In case you're wondering why I attempted to airbrush with glass paint, let me explain. I have an Evangelion Unit 01 model kit which I've put together into the required sub-assemblies and is ready to be painted. I'm planning to give it a sort of candy metallic finish, like the old Soul of Chogokin figure. Having read up, I discovered that to do this effect, you first basecoat your model with a shiny silver (Tamiya Chrome Silver or Plastikote Chrome both work). Then, you airbrush a layer of clear paint (in the desired colour) over the top. Unfortunately, Tamiya doesn't do clear purple, so I bought some purple glass paint (thinking it was essentially the same stuff) to use instead. I then took some plastic spoons and basecoated them with 2 different silvers- Tamiya Chrome Silver and Plastikote Chrome.

It didn't work very well- upon trying to pour it into the jar for my airbrush it ran down the side of its pot, making it very difficult to get into the airbrush at all. It was also the wrong colour, so I mixed in a bit of Tamiya Clear Red to change the tint a little, before adding thinner. Upon attempting to spray it, it was a disaster- the Tamiya Chrome Silver was blasted away completely, and whilst the Plastikote Chrome was undamaged, the mixture did not lend itself very well to actually adhering to the spoon- it dripped and ran off the spoon, pooling in the recesses instead of forming a proper layer. I tried making the mixture a little less thin, but to no avail. As a result, my airbrush required a bath in brush cleaner overnight, even then required a lot of work to remove the purple sludge that had clogged it.

I then tried a different method- mixing Tamiya Clear Red with GW Guiliman Blue. That didn't work either, and once again refused to properly adhere to the spoon (although it seems to have taken less of a toll on my airbrush). So my airbrush is once again disassembled and soaking in brush cleaner in a vain attempt to purge the latest failed mixture and the remnants of that damnable glass paint from it.

I'm gonna be honest, I'm beginning to wonder if I should get a better airbrush. The compressor is fine, but the airbrush is pretty craptacular. I'm thinking I need to get a gravity feed airbrush, as I've heard they're much better than jar feeds.

Now as for the paint itself...what do? I'm thinking the Guilliman Blue fouled up the second attempt; would mixing Tamiya Clear Red and Clear Blue work? Are there any good brands that do a clear purple that can be airbrushed?

Thanks.

Rule of Thumb: Don't mix Tamiya Paints with non-Tamiya paints.

The solvent used for Tamiya is different than that used for most hobby paints. When you mix it with a regular water based paint - it can gum up.

For effects paints - you have a lot of options. One of the easiest would be to look at something like Testor's Candy Grape. They have it as an acrylic or an enamel.

The process will vary depending on the paint in question. Some candy paints go over a black base, some over a metallic. You can get different final effects by applying over different colors (and practicing on spoons is a great way to figure out which one).

I tend to prefer Alclad II though, as they have the finest pigments of any paints on the market. They are also the most temperamental. Candy Violet might be just what you are after.

Thanks. Taken a look at the Alclad 2 paints, they look pretty awesome- their chrome paint actually looks like chrome!

I'll be sure to give them a shot.

Regarding the airbrush, would I be better off with a gravity feed? I'm considering replacing my current one with an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS.

Be warned with the alclad;

You really need a gravity feed brush; cleanup from a siphon feed is a pain, and you need to use laquer (cellulose) thinner to clean up. Highly noxious, do not use without adequate ventilation and a decent filter (suitable for car spraying) mask.

Second, to get that chrome finish, you need a well prepared surface with a good black gloss (enamel) basecoat on it.

Very true.

Though to be fair, if you want good results from any gloss paint - you need to spend much more time on surface prep than flats. Any residual mold lines or defects will pop out at you once you get a gloss coat down on a figure.

Swanny's did an excellent write up on using them a while back:

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Alclad.html

Regarding the gravity feed...yes, and no. When I am doing a modern/futuristic city - I use my siphon feed brushes. Gravity cups generally don't hold enough (you can get big cups...but then they get in the way of seeing what you are painting). I also always spray my primers (including my gloss black for ALCAD II) with a siphon feed. Each one keeps the siphon with the bottle and I just cap off the pickup tube. Costs a bit more - but it lets me switch from common bulk paints without any issues of mixing or running out half way through priming an army.

For the individual layers on regular models - gravity feed is quite handy...though a bottom siphon cup (as seen in the ALCLAD videos on their website) works almost as well and clean up isn't hard (more wasted paint for the pickup tube though).

And of course - proper safety and all that. Good ventilation is very important compared to...pretty much any other paint you might consider using. Even more so than oils and enamels - the solids content of lacquers is down around 15% (compared to 50% for acrylics and 80% for oils...). MEK makes up a large portion of that other 85% - we used to call MEK Methyl Ethyl Death (bit overly dramatic...but MEK is a very powerful organic solvent).

 Sean_OBrien wrote:
Very true.

Though to be fair, if you want good results from any gloss paint - you need to spend much more time on surface prep than flats. Any residual mold lines or defects will pop out at you once you get a gloss coat down on a figure.

Swanny's did an excellent write up on using them a while back:

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Alclad.html

Regarding the gravity feed...yes, and no. When I am doing a modern/futuristic city - I use my siphon feed brushes. Gravity cups generally don't hold enough (you can get big cups...but then they get in the way of seeing what you are painting). I also always spray my primers (including my gloss black for ALCAD II) with a siphon feed. Each one keeps the siphon with the bottle and I just cap off the pickup tube. Costs a bit more - but it lets me switch from common bulk paints without any issues of mixing or running out half way through priming an army.

For the individual layers on regular models - gravity feed is quite handy...though a bottom siphon cup (as seen in the ALCLAD videos on their website) works almost as well and clean up isn't hard (more wasted paint for the pickup tube though).

And of course - proper safety and all that. Good ventilation is very important compared to...pretty much any other paint you might consider using. Even more so than oils and enamels - the solids content of lacquers is down around 15% (compared to 50% for acrylics and 80% for oils...). MEK makes up a large portion of that other 85% - we used to call MEK Methyl Ethyl Death (bit overly dramatic...but MEK is a very powerful organic solvent).

Quoted for truth again. MEK is nasty (and makes a quite passable plastic cement in a pinch).