<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "Some Questions On Airbrushing"]]>

<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "Some Questions On Airbrushing"]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/8.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net Some Questions On Airbrushing
Have a few q's hopefully someone can help clarify, or smack me on the head because I'm totally in the wrong ball park.

I just obliterted a metal ogre mini with paint getting a feel for how the brush works.

I have started with some space marines, I am doing primer black, then pre highlights of grey and white before base coloring them.

At first I just used GW paint and airbrush medium together, but found the paint would go on super wet and pool, no matter how far away i was. Quick google, Ive now added alcohol to the mixture.

Now with this figured out, I had very little issue getting a nice thin smooth primer coat down. Then I moved on to grey, which was relatively simple on a 45 degree and trying to pick up the areas i want highlighted.

I have 2 issues.

1 - I find the paint to start going liquidy again the longer I paint, is the alcohol just drying up? Is there anything I can do to prevent this? ( i just added more, but it did seem to throw the ratio i had off)

2 - How do I get it to paint a smaller area, I try getting closer but it just starts pooling again. ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6614705.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6614705.page GMT Some Questions On Airbrushing
Use Airbrush thinner. That is actually high viscosity pigment less paint that forms a cohesive layer of paint with the paint, best if you use the same brand thinner as paint. GW paints do work with Vallejo Thinner. Alternatively you can use water to reduce the viscosity alone and live with bits of water reducing the paint cohesion - but at least it is not destroying it.

If paint pools, you are putting too much paint in a spot. Airbrushes do spit out an amount of paint that is either fixed or variable in the case of a double-action airbrush.
Regardless, you have to move the brush to match the amount of paint it puts out per time unit to avoid just sploshing the paint on a point. Otherwise you are doing something similar to resting a fountain pen or felt tip pen on a napkin and watching the spot grow.

If your brush is double action (air and paint split, paint gradual the more you pull back the trigger) try pulling less. If your airbrush comes with more than one set of nozzle and needle, consider your options. Less diameter means less throughput. Be very careful about not touching the needle tip, a bent needle has to be replaced.

Best testing is done on simple sheets of printer paper.

To get paint into a smaller area you need practice, a small needle/nozzle kit and in most cases masking tape or stencils. There is a limit to what you can do with an airbrush. I recommend that you practice laying down an even base coat without pooling paint on paper and see how fine you can get the spay to be.

A final tip. I use clear plastic camping shot glasses from the supermarket and plastic cheese skewers to prep paint for the brush. The idea is to get a milky consistency for the paint so that it sticks like a translucent coating to the side of the container but doesn't form thick layers.

Final tip - save yourself grief and money by watching this highly educational introduction video.

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6614889.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6614889.page GMT Some Questions On Airbrushing
As for doing the smaller area you will need to reduce your PSI which is easily done on your regulator or... even easier when you have one of these, it's the little black piece

http://www.amazon.com/Iwata-Medea-K-250-External-Valve/dp/B001V6VOZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394351204&sr=8-1&keywords=mac+valve

My airbrush came standard with one of these and I love it. No messing with my regulator, just turn the little knob and... you get the picture. I would stick with the IWATA valve because I have heard that some other brands just don't work.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6614924.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6614924.page GMT Re:Some Questions On Airbrushing
I figured out the smaller area issue, less pressure, thinner paint, closer with the gun.

HOWEVER
Without alcohol my mixture will not come out and not puddle, no matter how fast I move, how thick/thin, or what pressure I use.

I think its a humidity issue. With alcohol it works perfectly for me.

example of my basecoat shaded piece - not enough contrast to show up on my gakky phone camera, but it looks really good in person.

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6615945.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6615945.page GMT Some Questions On Airbrushing
You stated that you use GW paint. That is very thick paint that needs to be diluted to work properly even with regular brushes. It needs to be heavily diluted to work with an airbrush.

The reason alcohol makes the GW paint flow is because alcohol has a very low viscosity, just like water and lower than the medium. That means there is less alcohol needed to arrive at a viscosity that is sufficiently low for the airbursh. Medium is thicker than water, although not by much, but it needs more medium than water or alcohol to thin the GW paint for spraying.

Alcohol helps the paint go though the gun just like water would. It does evaporate of course, resulting in a faster drying time. It does however also destroy the chemical bonds in the paint and make the paint less adhesive and weaker.

Try using a ratio of 3, 4 or 5 parts medium for 1 part GW paiant. That should be the ticket.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6616278.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6616278.page GMT Some Questions On Airbrushing http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6616397.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6616397.page GMT Re:Some Questions On Airbrushing
Ive spent most of my weekend playing around with this.

It either goes on wet, and puddles, or tip drys and clogs my airbrush.

Is the window of right thickness so thin?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6620435.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6620435.page GMT Some Questions On Airbrushing
I can say without a doubt the best investment I made in my airbrushing career is airbrush paint, specifically the badger minitaire line. No mixing, no fuss, no muss. Just shake the dropper bottle and you are off. It literally doubled my airbrush productivity by eliminating the time it takes to mix.

Additionally, I did thin GW paint, and some colors the pigments just like to clog no matter what you do.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6620500.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6620500.page GMT Some Questions On Airbrushing

Stephanius wrote:If paint doesn't come out of your airbrush regardless of pressure, the paint is too thick. The paint is supposed to be very thin indeed. That is why people say skimmed milk as a likeness of the consistency of the paint.

One of these days I'm going to have to spray skim milk out of my AB to figure out what the hell that means

Rabidmofo wrote:Frustrated.

Ive spent most of my weekend playing around with this.

It either goes on wet, and puddles, or tip drys and clogs my airbrush.

Is the window of right thickness so thin?

If you're trying to do fine detail work, the window is very small for getting the correct PSI and viscosity. If you're doing detail work, you have to get close and have no options there.

A good indicator of the correct viscosity is whether the paint puddles or splatters. This website has some images that might help:

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

Have some spare plastic around to test on. You can NOT do that test on paper/cardboard, as it is more absorbent than plastic so spraying paper/cardboard is more forgiving on having paint too thin. Ideally you can just have some random plastic sheet around, prime it and paint it alongside your models so you can test exactly what will happen on the model itself. I made the mistake earlier of thinking "I can paint perfect lines on this piece of cardboard why can't I do the same on the model!" until I realised it was because the cardboard was absorbing excess paint which the model wasn't

If you're not doing fine detail work, it's a lot easier. As if you get slight splatter, you can just crank up the pressure until you don't get splatter and then move the airbrush further away from the model. But if you're dead set on doing some really fine detail work, that's not an option and instead you have to thin the paint. Too thin and you get the spider webbing.

The other thing you have to learn is just getting the right amount of pull on the trigger. You might have the correct consistency but are pulling back too hard on the trigger, which introduces too much paint and you then end up with spider webbing. If the paint is nice and thin for fine detail work, you want to pull back on the trigger just far enough that a tiny dot of paint starts to form after a few seconds, that way you don't get the big blob which leads to spider webbing. If you are doing fine detail work, you will have to clean the tip very often and do a big spray often to clear the nozzle. If you watch videos like BuyPainted when he's doing fine detail work, you'll notice he does it without the cap, cleans the tip with his fingers every few passes, and sprays on his table occasionally to ensure the paint is flowing properly.

When I'm doing fine detail work with the AB, I end up with more paint on my table than on the model as I'm constantly having to pull the trigger all the way back (while pointing at the table not the model!) to clear the nozzle and ensure the paint is flowing properly. You have to do it before it starts to clog badly, as once it's clogged it's very hard to clear sufficiently well to do fine detail work without pulling the whole AB apart.

I'm still just learning myself, so this is what I'm figuring out as I go... some god of airbrushing could come along and tell me everything I'm saying is BS, lol.

For thinners, I really like Humbrol acrylic thinner for GW paint. I use Vallejo thinner with Vallejo paint, but I find GW paint separates from Vallejo thinner. Humbrol thinner, however, is well suited to GW paint and won't separate from it. The thing you have to watch out with Humbrol thinner, it DOES have drying retarder in it already. So if you have a particularly thick paint and thin it done only with Humbrol thinner, you're effectively putting in a ton of drying retarder. I've had some models that took over an hour to dry after I sprayed them. So sometimes I use a mix of Humbrol thinner and water.

But that will help reduce tip dry as well. You could also try some drying retarder in whatever your current mix is to see if that helps.

EDIT: Made several edits, lol.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6620507.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6620507.page GMT Re:Some Questions On Airbrushing
It is -10 degrees Celsius here.

I've heard a lot of talk on different weather affecting things.

I feel like the alcohol vaporizes and leaves only paint AFTER its been shot,

Think is is correcting my issue. Is there any other product that would do this?]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6620824.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/583815/6620824.page GMT