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Hi=) I just bought meself a airbrush and stuff... now to the question, any1 got any good tips on how to mix citadel coulours to use em in a airbrush? Would love if any1 had a chart that compares the vallejo coulours to citadel

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart

As for mixing, you want it really thin to go through the airbrush, but each colour is different.

Get some airbrush thinner (or water) and mix it until it is a little thicker than a wash - or get some model/game air paint and look at the consistency of it, that is what you want to aim for.

U my good man are an saviour=) Tyvm and the chart is just YAAAAY

kb_lock wrote:
or get some model/game air paint and look at the consistency of it, that is what you want to aim for.

Vallejo's air lines are still way too thick for my airbrush. They're also not all that consistent, I have a couple that I can spray straight from the pot, but all the others require thinning quite a bit.

I start by picking the pressure I want to work at (which you have to learn from experience I think, it varies depending on what you're trying to do). Then start thickening and work your way up until the paint is spraying smoothly and not pooling. If you thicken it up to the point where you get spatter, you've gone too far and need to thin it back down.

Once you're close, you can fine tune your pressure and spray distance (because those are easier to fine tune than paint viscosity).

The finer detail you are trying to spray, the harder it is because you're spray distance becomes fixed by how fine you want to make the lines so you have to get the pressure and paint viscosity just right.

This article has some useful images....
http://blog.workbenchwarriors.com/2014/03/30/getting-started-with-airbrushing-part-2-2/

Yeah I should have added that, I am using a 0.35 mm nozzle.

Explaining how to thin paints over text is like explaining how to drive manual over text - tricky as hell.

The analogy of skim milk made a lot of sense to me, if you can get your paints to that thickness you will generally be fine. But as skink points out, that depends hugely on your distance and pressure.

Unfortunately, you are going to need to find out for yourself

I have a 0.35mm as well, but it depends on more than just nozzle size, I think it has more to do with the annular shape of the nozzle and needle. I have one brush with a very long nozzle and needle which seems to require much thinner paint even though both are 0.35mm.

I think it's almost impossible to describe the correct consistency, especially since it varies from airbrush to airbrush and it depends what you are trying to achieve (fine details require lower pressure and thinner paint than if you're simply trying to get good coverage).

Which is why I try and explain the process to finding the right consistency rather than trying to describe a specific viscosity

I've always hated the milk description. For one, it varies from country to country, maybe there's somewhere that has super thick milk, but the milk I have in my fridge is way too thin as a comparison for airbrushing paint For two, milk has a massively different surface energy, personally my measure of consistency is how well the paint flows off the hairy brush and down the side of the paint cup, but because milk has a different surface energy it doesn't behave the same way at the same viscosity so it's not really a useful reference.