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Not sure which one to use. I will be using Vallejo model air primers and a few of their model/game air colors. As well as some other airbrush paints (can't remember who makes them). Any suggestions/testimonials? Thank you.

Vallejo's airbrush line does not need thinning at all. Seriously leave it straight and you are golden. The thinners you are looking at are for non thinned paint and you should keep some on your desk when you use a brush I keep 2 bottles just because I am lazy and keep one in my airbrush kit and one on my painting desk.

OK, so no flow improver either? I am only using airbrush paints in the airbrush. And I might wash the models using nuln oil with the airbrush. Do I need to thin that?

I've had good luck with their Airbrush Thinner, but I use it primarily for making non-airbrush specific paints sprayable. Depending on your task and the peculiarities of your airbrush, the VMA paints won't necessarily need further thinning, but may occasionally benefit. When spraying the Vallejo PU primer, for example, I can spray it neat from the .35mm nozzle of my siphon-feed brush, but find that adding a bit of thinner helps with smoothness and significantly decreases tip-dry (my main issue spraying it neat).

A pre-mixed wash isn't likely to need any further thinning - it already contains a surfactant and has a watery consistency.

With an Iwata 0.35mm or Paasche 0.38mm needle, I have never needed to thin the VMA paints or Vallejo's polyeurethane acrylic resin primer. And that's at 15psi.

With VMA and the 0.25mm Paasche needle, I only get infrequent clogs, though the 0.20mm is a whole other thing. There, I usually set my regulator at 25psi, and use a MAC to reduce it down at the airbrush, so that I can open it up quickly to clear if it does get jammed.

When I do thin, I like the Vallejo thinner better than Liquitex Flo-Aid or Medium. Mostly, I like the dispenser dropper on the larger bottle The Flo-Aid comes in a concentrate, and is mixed into an eyedropper bottle, so it's not always exactly the same consistency; also, it has a tendency on me to dispense more than I intend. That's not a problem when I'm putting it into a palette disc, but it's a problem when I'm not sure how much I put into a gravity cup, or if I put too much (and then have to add more paint >.<.

Airbrushing is simple. Put as much thinner in as it takes to spray your paint smoothly.

Try to spray with no thinner, then add thinner until it sprays through the full travel of the trigger. This should give you all the information you need to spray your paint.

If you want to make it easy on yourself, use the thinner of the brand of paint you are using.

if you want to save money here is a recipe that you can make a huge volume of thinner with for a small investment rendering the price per milliliter much cheaper:

http://www.thescalereview.com/2014/06/18/model-school-learn-to-make-your-own-homebrew-acrylic-thinner/

Tyronus Fruitridge Powers wrote:
Airbrushing is simple. Put as much thinner in as it takes to spray your paint smoothly.

Try to spray with no thinner, then add thinner until it sprays through the full travel of the trigger. This should give you all the information you need to spray your paint.

I think it's unwise to dumb it down that much.

At least, one must consider that any paint will need to be less viscous as the needle is finer and aperture is smaller; and, paint must be thinner as air pressure is reduced. At it's simplest level, someone who uses an airbrush for anything other than just blasting a solid color onto a miniature should understand that you need different viscosity for different tasks.

If you want to paint hit small spots (for example, OSL), you need to use thinner paints and less pressure, because you want more control, and you want low opacity without graininess in the gradients (airbrush dots). If you want to basecoat or prime a model, you want to use thicker paint, and more pressure -- doing a dozen coats to go from black primer to red armor is not productive, because you'll get too much paint in the crevices.

If you want to paint really fine lines, you have to lower the pressure dramatically, literally have the needle just above the target, and have very thin paint. Try doing that with the same bottle of thinned paint you're basecoating with, and it turns into a paint splatter mess.

I use Tamiya X20A. It's what the pro's use. It's what you should use if you want to be a pro.

Whether or not you have to thin VMA paint must come down to your airbrush. If I don't thin it, it will constantly be clogging and I also find it's not consistent from one colour to the next. My Fiery Orange I can *almost* spray neat, it takes just a bit of thinner but not much. I can and have sprayed it unthinned, but it clogs all the time, gets tip dry and is splatters more (instead of a smooth transition you get lots of little dots).

Other VMA paints I actually thin quite a lot, my Duck Egg Green won't even go through the brush unthinned.

I've only tried Humbrol Thinner, Water, Isopropyl Alcohol, Vallejo AB cleaner and Vallejo AB thinner and various mixes of them. My favourite thus far is the Vallejo AB thinner, though I would like to try Liquitex thinner as well as a lot of people recommend that. Though it depends on what you're spraying, Tamiya and Gunze acrylics are alcohol based... I have successfully used water and vallejo AB cleaner to spray them, but an alcohol mix works a bit better.

 Vigilant wrote:
I use Tamiya X20A. It's what the pro's use. It's what you should use if you want to be a pro.

It's good for thinning Tamiya paints, but I don't use for anything other than that.

Also, lots of pros use lots of different things; there is no "best" thinner.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Whether or not you have to thin VMA paint must come down to your airbrush. If I don't thin it, it will constantly be clogging and I also find it's not consistent from one colour to the next. My Fiery Orange I can *almost* spray neat, it takes just a bit of thinner but not much. I can and have sprayed it unthinned, but it clogs all the time, gets tip dry and is splatters more (instead of a smooth transition you get lots of little dots).

Other VMA paints I actually thin quite a lot, my Duck Egg Green won't even go through the brush unthinned.

Airbrush, needle size and pressure all play a factor. For instance my Iwata with a 0.35mm needle can use much thicker paint than my Paasche 0.38mm. Also, if I put 1/3oz water in both airbrushes, the Iwata will empty out much faster. It just has a higher (maximum) paint flow. Second, at 30psi there will be fewer clogs than at 15psi.

Yeah, I'm just running a cheap chinese airbrush with a 0.3mm needle. At no pressure does unthinned VMA paint come out well, it might spray for a few passes before clogging and will be splotchy and not smooth.

I don't have any specific ratio, my typical thinning technique is as follows...

1. Pick the pressure I want to spray at (depending on whether I'm doing fine detail, base coating, filtering, etc).

2. I usually just put a few drops of thinner in my brush then start putting paint in, mix it with an old brush to get an idea of consistency.

3. spray it on test surface, add more paint or thinner as necessary.

4. Test again, once I'm reasonably close rather than trying to adjust viscosity I just fine tune the pressure to get a nice spray pattern.

So I usually end up spraying at a few PSI away from what I originally intended, but it's easier than trying to fine tune the viscosity to spray at a specific PSI.

Once it's thinned, VMA paint sprays nicely. Gives a nice finish. Though my favourite paint to spray is Gunze/Tamiya paints. Once you get the hang of it they're like spraying in easy-mode, they go on so smooth and blend really well.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 Vigilant wrote:
I use Tamiya X20A. It's what the pro's use. It's what you should use if you want to be a pro.

It's good for thinning Tamiya paints, but I don't use for anything other than that.

Also, lots of pros use lots of different things; there is no "best" thinner.

No. This is the best. If you use it, you will win a golden daemon.

 Vigilant wrote:
No. This is the best. If you use it, you will win a golden daemon.

I know you're new around here, but there is no need to troll.

Leave it at the door, please.

Especially when people might actually take the advice seriously because they have no idea what thinner to use

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 Vigilant wrote:
No. This is the best. If you use it, you will win a golden daemon.

I know you're new around here, but there is no need to troll.

Leave it at the door, please.

I wasn't trolling, it was a joke. Also, I really do think it's the best.

I know you're think you're old around here, but there is no need to condescend.

Leave it at the door please.

I'm using the Vallejo AB thinner. So, the thinner the paint is the lower the PSI I can use on the brush? How will I know if my PSI is too high or too low? I've used an airbrush before with bad results. But I was using GW paints that weren't thinned enough. Now I'm gonna try it right, only VMA paints.

By the way, I'm only using the AB to prime and base coat my models. I have an Eldar army I need to prime white and base coat red, a Tau army I need to prime black and base coat maroon (Farsight), a Necron army I need to prime black and base coat boltgun metal (VMA has a color for this), an IG army I need to prime black and base medium grey, and a SM army I need to prime black and base dark blue metalic (also a VMA). And I think I'm just never gonna paint the orks, might base coat them green and leave it at that.

I figure I can knock out the priming and base coating in a day for each army. Maybe the Tau and Elday in the same day cause they aren't that big.

 Davespil wrote:
I'm using the Vallejo AB thinner. So, the thinner the paint is the lower the PSI I can use on the brush? How will I know if my PSI is too high or too low? I've used an airbrush before with bad results. But I was using GW paints that weren't thinned enough. Now I'm gonna try it right, only VMA paints.

By the way, I'm only using the AB to prime and base coat my models. I have an Eldar army I need to prime white and base coat red, a Tau army I need to prime black and base coat maroon (Farsight), a Necron army I need to prime black and base coat boltgun metal (VMA has a color for this), an IG army I need to prime black and base medium grey, and a SM army I need to prime black and base dark blue metalic (also a VMA). And I think I'm just never gonna paint the orks, might base coat them green and leave it at that.

I figure I can knock out the priming and base coating in a day for each army. Maybe the Tau and Elday in the same day cause they aren't that big.

A better way to look at it is, how low PSI do you need to have the level of control that you want? If you wish to paint small areas, you need to put the airbrush closer to the model, and to do that successfully, you need lower psi. And that means that you need your paint thinner. But thinner paint means less coverage/more coats for opacity.

If by basecoating, you mean you want to make your whole model blue, you ideally want do it in relatively fewer coats, because less paint will pool in crevices and your initial working surface for paintbrush work will be better. Plus, it will take less time, and that is always good, right? If you're just colorizing an entire model, with Vallejo model or game air, I would suggest 17psi on a 0.35/0.38 mm needle at a distance of a few inches.

If you want to basecoat larger bits (like heads, tabbards, shoulders, etc. I would suggest gradually reducing pressure and slowly painting closer to the model. I use a MAC adapter, which is a little quick connect with a knob that can reduce airflow in order to refine it. Grex makes awesome ones, for almost every airbrush.

You will know if PSI is too high, trust me it will feel like you're pushing paint around on the model, instead of having aerosolized droplets sprayed on. If it's too low, your airbrush will seem to stop working a lot, requiring you to clean off the tip and blast some higher pressure air through to clear it. Although this is normal, it will be more frequent at lower air pressure, with thicker paint, and with smaller needles.

All I want to do with the airbrush is prime the model then apply a base coat to the whole model. Since my armies are largely one color I figure the airbrush is the best way to do this quickly, evenly, and smoothly. I will do all the washing and details by brush. Although, I was thinking of applying the wash by airbrush to the whole model after I apply the base coat, then cleaning it up with a brush. I will be doing this as an assembly line and will spare detail for expediency.

So the process I was thinking of was this:
1. Prime with airbrush
2. Base coat whole model with airbrush
3. Paint details
4. Apply wash to whole model with airbrush
5. Dry(ish) brush the model again
6. Highlight

Is this an effective way to do it? I suck at painting and I'm not trying to get good, just have decently painted armies. I have a LOT of models to paint. 6 very large armies, though I doubt the orks will ever see paint and I think that I may only every base coat the IG cause I have like 250 guardsmen.

Thank you.

The guy who owns Badger Airbrush Co. says your viscosity gauge should be 2% milk (semi-skimmed in UK), irregardless of the paint you're using.

Unfortunately it just takes a bit of practice to get the right viscosity. I've read the "milk like consistency" so many times, but it's mostly meaningless unless you've sprayed with milk before to know what milk-like consistency is... and frankly I've tested it and my paint spraying consistency is heaps different to milk consistency anyway. I don't know why people keep using it as an example

The better way is just to start quite thin and slowly thicken it and see the result. Have a piece of plastic to spray on and see what the pattern is like and add more thinner or paint accordingly.

There were a few websites that had images of what you should be getting and how to diagnose too thick/thin paint. If I can find them I'll link them, otherwise just do some googling and see if you can figure it out.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Unfortunately it just takes a bit of practice to get the right viscosity. I've read the "milk like consistency" so many times, but it's mostly meaningless unless you've sprayed with milk before to know what milk-like consistency is... and frankly I've tested it and my paint spraying consistency is heaps different to milk consistency anyway. I don't know why people keep using it as an example

The better way is just to start quite thin and slowly thicken it and see the result. Have a piece of plastic to spray on and see what the pattern is like and add more thinner or paint accordingly.

There were a few websites that had images of what you should be getting and how to diagnose too thick/thin paint. If I can find them I'll link them, otherwise just do some googling and see if you can figure it out.

Thank you. I aslo have 2% milk at home I could compare it to.

Now about washing with an airbrush. I thought I could thin the was a bit and turn up the PSI of the AB a bit and thus force most of the wash into the creases. Then just do a quick cleanup of the model with another base coat then possibly highlight. Just looking for the quickest and easiest way to paint a large amount of models in an assembly-line like fasion. Any thoughts?

I have some experience spraying washes, these guys were done by spraying a devlan mud (army painter strong tone) over a bone coloured base.



Buuuut, it's really tricky to do. It's really hard to tell how much wash you've put on, if you need more, if you need less, where it pools as you spray is not typically where it pools in the end. One tricksy thing is you spray from one side, it doesn't look like the wash is doing much... then you turn the model over and see the wash has pooled on the other side of the model and you have a great big puddle.

The way I've been doing it, don't use a terribly high pressure because it just blows it around the model, use a low pressure and spray from a long distance, just letting it collect on the model. Once you're happy with the amount of wash, just blow air out of the brush with no paint to shift the wash around the model.

It is fast and it can produce better results than brushing on a wash but it is hard, because you can't really tell how it's going to come out until after you've finished. The first and 2nd batch came out great, the 3rd batch came out awful and the 4th batch was great again. I discovered the 3rd batch was a problem with the underlying coats of paint though, they weren't smooth enough (was a hot day when I sprayed the basecoats), if I'f hit it with a satin or gloss varnish before the wash they probably would have come out good as well.

I'm not sure I can really recommend it over hairy brush washing, it's actually not much faster (vs using a 1cm wide flat brush) and while being able to blow around the wash does create a smoother finish, it's much harder to control than just shifting the wash with a brush.

 Davespil wrote:
Thank you. I aslo have 2% milk at home I could compare it to.

Now about washing with an airbrush. I thought I could thin the was a bit and turn up the PSI of the AB a bit and thus force most of the wash into the creases. Then just do a quick cleanup of the model with another base coat then possibly highlight. Just looking for the quickest and easiest way to paint a large amount of models in an assembly-line like fasion. Any thoughts?

If all you want is to prime the whole model, then basecoat the whole model with one color, and you don't care about major skill improvements, I highly suggest that you simply use Vallejo Game Air or Vallejo Model Air colors, and Vallejo Polyurethane resin primers, and a 0.35mm or larger needle. You will not need to thin anything, and the result will be acceptable. Sure, you CAN thin it, but from what you describe, you'll be happy with the result.

Set your compressor to 20psi and airbrush from about the same distance you'd use a rattle can (about 10 inches). It should clog very infrequently, and VMA paints are quite forgiving if you put too much onto the model.

Regarding washing with an airbrush: My suggestion is, don't. Yes, it's certainly possible. However, there is no benefit, even in speed, unless you're doing like, 100 models. Just take a large round brush (or even a large flat brush) and slop the wash onto your model. Or, get an Army Painter quick dip, and just dip all your models (which is by far the fastest way to wash). You won't get much more than that with an airbrush doing a wash anyhow.

Regarding assembly line painting: again, if you don't really care about skills improvement, and just want to get out acceptable playing models, I wouldn't even bother with drybrushing and highlighting.

1. Prime and basecoat with airbrush

2. Give each model a highlight with a lighter tone of the same color by hitting it from an angle, above, with the airbrush. It might take a TINY bit of practice, but it's easy. The model can stay stationary on your table, since you're just simulating a light source. Once you get the right spot, you can spray all of your models from that spot.

3. Use a paintbrush to add on one contrasting color, like a weapon and a shoulder pad.

4. Wash the whole model with a single wash and a big brush.

5. Paint the base a contrasting color.

6. Varnish with the airbrush.

You should be able to churn out, like, boxes of models every day. I played with a guy who painted $700 of Tau 2 days after he bought the models. He didn't even clean off flash or mould lines.

My biggest issue with this is that it seems a waste of such expensive models

Found that website about how to thin your paint...

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

Talys wrote:

You should be able to churn out, like, boxes of models every day. I played with a guy who painted $700 of Tau 2 days after he bought the models. He didn't even clean off flash or mould lines.

My biggest issue with this is that it seems a waste of such expensive models

Why, can he not use them in games anymore?