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Do you prefer using Airspray to paint or a paint brush?

It's not an either or thing... you use an airbrush for shading and gradients, paintbrush for fine detail work.

 Horst wrote:
It's not an either or thing... you use an airbrush for shading and gradients, paintbrush for fine detail work.

Well it is a thing if no one uses airspray because they don't like it.

I'm a wrench man myself but I do love the hammer as well.
Like said earlier, they're different tools with different jobs. Sure, you can probably muddle through a mangled job with just one or the other but they're best used for their own purpose.

It's very rare nowadays that I don't use both on every model I touch.

..... now i feel like the only one who uses a damn brush for every thing...

 Stormatious wrote:

 Horst wrote:
It's not an either or thing... you use an airbrush for shading and gradients, paintbrush for fine detail work.

Well it is a thing if no one uses airspray because they don't like it.

That's your choice and your opinion. Going back to the wrench vs. hammer comparison. You can use a big wrench to pound nails, with enough practice maybe even pretty well. Doesn't mean carpenters should get rid of the trusty claw hammer.
Different tools, different job, different results. You like pounding nails with a wrench that's cool, don't say nobody like hammers though.

PourSpelur wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:

 Horst wrote:
It's not an either or thing... you use an airbrush for shading and gradients, paintbrush for fine detail work.

Well it is a thing if no one uses airspray because they don't like it.

That's your choice and your opinion. Going back to the wrench vs. hammer comparison. You can use a big wrench to pound nails, with enough practice maybe even pretty well. Doesn't mean carpenters should get rid of the trusty claw hammer.
Different tools, different job, different results. You like pounding nails with a wrench that's cool, don't say nobody like hammers though.

Ok i will invest in air-spray once i have finished what i have already almost finished with brushes.

It's a really neat tool.
Is it "skill in a box"? Nope.
Will.you be good at it right off the get-go? Probably not.
If you spend some time on it can it be a nice addition to your painting toolbox? Absolutely
Good luck!

Ok but i mean i see alot of people painting whole minis with brush only except mabey priming, so thought might be more different opinions

I'm a brush man myself.

Had an airbrush for a couple of years before giving up. Initially it went well even with a cheapo chinese airbrush. Then I started having problems and was never able to resolve them. Spent more time cleaning the brush than painting with it and still unable to get a smooth coat down without either speckling or pooling. Hundreds of hours watching YouTube tutorials/tips and multiple airbrushes including the Iwata Neo which generally gets very good reviews and still didn't improve.

One almighty exercise in frustration. I had to give it up for the sake of my sanity.

Rattle can primer, but then it's hairy brush for me.

Or, going back to the wrench versus hammer comparison, for me the airbrush is the wrench and the hairy brush is the hammer. YMMV.

 Horst wrote:
It's not an either or thing... you use an airbrush for shading and gradients, paintbrush for fine detail work.

I shade and gradient with a hairy brush, as do many others.


I own an airbrush, and can use it, but the amount of prep work means I usually don't.

Rattle-can for undercoat,
Airbrush for basecoats (masking for multi),
Airbrush again for stripes, etc,
Range of hair brushes for nearly everything else.

I do this for all sizes apart from really small.

rattlecan for primer/basecoat, brush for everyting else.
AB aint precise enugh to do a complete model so it aint any point in me to have it.

 Skinnereal wrote:
Rattle-can for undercoat,
Airbrush for basecoats (masking for multi),
Airbrush again for stripes, etc,
Range of hair brushes for nearly everything else.

I do this for all sizes apart from really small.

Oh i just realized i misspelt Airbrush ahahahaha Thanks heaps also.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Reavsie wrote:
I'm a brush man myself.

Had an airbrush for a couple of years before giving up. Initially it went well even with a cheapo chinese airbrush. Then I started having problems and was never able to resolve them. Spent more time cleaning the brush than painting with it and still unable to get a smooth coat down without either speckling or pooling. Hundreds of hours watching YouTube tutorials/tips and multiple airbrushes including the Iwata Neo which generally gets very good reviews and still didn't improve.

One almighty exercise in frustration. I had to give it up for the sake of my sanity.

Rattle can primer, but then it's hairy brush for me.

Or, going back to the wrench versus hammer comparison, for me the airbrush is the wrench and the hairy brush is the hammer. YMMV.

Thanks man this helps heaps. And thanks for the fun over my mis spelling ahaha. Interesting thoughts also, wonder why was a problem for you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

 Horst wrote:
It's not an either or thing... you use an airbrush for shading and gradients, paintbrush for fine detail work.

I shade and gradient with a hairy brush, as do many others.


I own an airbrush, and can use it, but the amount of prep work means I usually don't.

Thank you.

You should try both really. But people who say you can't get nice gradients, can't get smooth blends, can't pre shade, or pre highlight etc, without using an airbrush. You definitely can. There are multiple daemon magnus on Instagram which have been beautifully painted purely using hairy brush for example.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
You should try both really. But people who say you can't get nice gradients, can't get smooth blends, can't pre shade, or pre highlight etc, without using an airbrush. You definitely can. There are multiple daemon magnus on Instagram which have been beautifully painted purely using hairy brush for example.

Yeah, i guess it would be good for the future if i paint more tanks id only want to use the spray to prime and base it because of the large flat surfaces, but i guess i can just base it with spray can for that, which now i think about i should have done instead of hand painting back base of 7 tanks.

 Stormatious wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
You should try both really. But people who say you can't get nice gradients, can't get smooth blends, can't pre shade, or pre highlight etc, without using an airbrush. You definitely can. There are multiple daemon magnus on Instagram which have been beautifully painted purely using hairy brush for example.

Yeah, i guess it would be good for the future if i paint more tanks id only want to use the spray to prime and base it because of the large flat surfaces, but i guess i can just base it with spray can for that, which now i think about i should have done instead of hand painting back base of 7 tanks.

Oh yeah for lots of large models I'd say airbrush would be a godsend.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
You should try both really. But people who say you can't get nice gradients, can't get smooth blends, can't pre shade, or pre highlight etc, without using an airbrush. You definitely can. There are multiple daemon magnus on Instagram which have been beautifully painted purely using hairy brush for example.

Yeah, i guess it would be good for the future if i paint more tanks id only want to use the spray to prime and base it because of the large flat surfaces, but i guess i can just base it with spray can for that, which now i think about i should have done instead of hand painting back base of 7 tanks.

Oh yeah for lots of large models I'd say airbrush would be a godsend.

Yeah well too late now and im not stripping same army for a 3rd time ahaha, plus there my first painted models ever so i guess cool to keep them as is in that aspect.

It's a mixed process for me at this point, I can't go back to basecoating with a brush, it's too time consuming and the results aren't as smooth. An airbursh also feeds my laziness!

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
It's a mixed process for me at this point, I can't go back to basecoating with a brush, it's too time consuming and the results aren't as smooth. An airbursh also feeds my laziness!

So basically you mainly use it for basecoating?

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

 Horst wrote:
It's not an either or thing... you use an airbrush for shading and gradients, paintbrush for fine detail work.

I shade and gradient with a hairy brush, as do many others.


I own an airbrush, and can use it, but the amount of prep work means I usually don't.

This right here. For the amount of time and effort one spends mixing paint, prepping, cleaning, unclogVing, spraying, cleaning again, etc. I don't use it anymore.
I have a really nice gun and compressor. But I can't be bothered to use it because I can do the same thing with a brush. I find it doesn't save any time, although it good for getting a smooth gradient on a flat plate if you can't do it with a brush.

Airbrushed are an overrated gimmick.

 Stormatious wrote:

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
It's a mixed process for me at this point, I can't go back to basecoating with a brush, it's too time consuming and the results aren't as smooth. An airbursh also feeds my laziness!

So basically you mainly use it for basecoating?

No, I use it for basecoating, but I also use it for highlighting, priming etc.

 Ghool wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

 Horst wrote:
It's not an either or thing... you use an airbrush for shading and gradients, paintbrush for fine detail work.

I shade and gradient with a hairy brush, as do many others.


I own an airbrush, and can use it, but the amount of prep work means I usually don't.

This right here. For the amount of time and effort one spends mixing paint, prepping, cleaning, unclogVing, spraying, cleaning again, etc. I don't use it anymore.
I have a really nice gun and compressor. But I can't be bothered to use it because I can do the same thing with a brush. I find it doesn't save any time, although it good for getting a smooth gradient on a flat plate if you can't do it with a brush.

Airbrushed are an overrated gimmick.

How long do you spend mixing paint, prepping, cleaning, unclogging, etc? Because it takes me a solid minute to put water into the cup, put paints in from dropper bottles, mix it, spray it, then spray a bit of cleaning solution through it. No clogs, no problems. Every few months it needs a full breakdown to clean everything, but that's not a daily thing at all.

And queen_annes_revenge, I know you can do these things with a regular brush, but its a lot harder to do. Airbrushing lets anyone do it though without any real skill. I'm not a very good artist, I kind of suck. But the airbrush makes it look like I'm better than I actually am, so I like it.

Honestly, i think its better to just spray for priming and base coating that's it, so ill just use a spray can, highlights can be done nicely with a brush i mean i don't know.

It's also a matter of time and efficiency. For example, I could spend 5 minutes basecoating an infantry model a particular blue color by hand (or like an hour+ if it's a tank).

Or I could airbrush the colors on in a fraction of the time (seconds for infantry, maybe a few minutes for a tank).

There's no reason to either-or it. The airbrush is a tool, just like the brush. How you use it is up to you.

I use my airbrush for priming, block-basecoating an initial color, and then tidying up my blends after I do everything else with a brush.

Airbrushes aren't over rated. You can definitely use them for certain things. I used to use them for 2 colour transitions before I learnt to hand blend using glazes and layers etc. One caveat I'd definitely add is that I will always get mine out when I'm making scale vehicles. They are a must for pre shade panel lining, and allow you to create fading when you need a realistic finish on a heli or tank as part of your weathering.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 DV8 wrote:
It's also a matter of time and efficiency. For example, I could spend 5 minutes basecoating an infantry model a particular blue color by hand (or like an hour+ if it's a tank).

Or I could airbrush the colors on in a fraction of the time (seconds for infantry, maybe a few minutes for a tank).

There's no reason to either-or it. The airbrush is a tool, just like the brush. How you use it is up to you.

I use my airbrush for priming, block-basecoating an initial color, and then tidying up my blends after I do everything else with a brush.

This is where you have differences with army painting vs painting to competition standard. I will generally basecoat areas individually. So time is not really what stops me airbrushing, being as I'm going to be spending a month painting a single model anyway. It's more that I use my airbrush for specific techniques, so if they aren't required for that model I won't bother.

 Ghool wrote:
This right here. For the amount of time and effort one spends mixing paint, prepping, cleaning, unclogVing, spraying, cleaning again, etc. I don't use it anymore.
I have a really nice gun and compressor. But I can't be bothered to use it because I can do the same thing with a brush. I find it doesn't save any time, although it good for getting a smooth gradient on a flat plate if you can't do it with a brush.

Airbrushed are an overrated gimmick.

This is a really outlandish thing to say. If you're spending that much time prepping, unclogging, and cleaning, you're doing it wrong, and essentially coming to the conclusion that "cars are an overrated gimmick" because you're trying to drive with your feet.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
This is where you have differences with army painting vs painting to competition standard. I will generally basecoat areas individually. So time is not really what stops me airbrushing, being as I'm going to be spending a month painting a single model anyway. It's more that I use my airbrush for specific techniques, so if they aren't required for that model I won't bother.

I'm pretty much the same way. I hand paint every show piece I do, but armies? Yea the airbrush is seeing much more work there.

My problem is I love playing games...which means new armies far more often than I would like... :/

 Ouze wrote:

 Ghool wrote:
This right here. For the amount of time and effort one spends mixing paint, prepping, cleaning, unclogVing, spraying, cleaning again, etc. I don't use it anymore.
I have a really nice gun and compressor. But I can't be bothered to use it because I can do the same thing with a brush. I find it doesn't save any time, although it good for getting a smooth gradient on a flat plate if you can't do it with a brush.

Airbrushed are an overrated gimmick.

This is a really outlandish thing to say. If you're spending that much time prepping, unclogging, and cleaning, you're doing it wrong, and essentially coming to the conclusion that "cars are an overrated gimmick" because you're trying to drive with your feet.

Well he says he can do the same thing with a brush, and also you get different looks, one might like the look of something.