Looking for an Air Brush

Hello fellow painters

On the forums I've seen a lot of people working with an airbrush - with brilliant results might I add. This made me very curious about the topic as I figured it would be a great way to get smooth color transitions on my vehicles of which I painted none so far.

I have a few questions though:
1. What kind of airbrush would you use? I'm looking for a quality product that is still in an affordable price category and somehow I don't trust the GW hobby products.
2. I have close to no experience with airbrushing so far, could you give me any tips on how to learn it? Are there good tutorials around? If so, can you provide a link for them?
3.My painting log is here - do you think partly airbrushed vehicles would fit to that style? I'm planning to leave the surfaces black mostly and just put a turquoise transition to the edges which will then be highlighted with a brigher turquoise to make them stand out. Or - in case it would not fit - have you any ideas on how to improve my current paint scheme through using an airbrush?

I was especially inspired by this thread by Garfy
Garfy's p-log
and I'm aiming for a similar result on my raiders and ravagers. Those will be more in the style of the razorwing and not as bright as the ones by Garfy though.

Tell me what you think.

Cheers,

Dogmar

I'll start from back, mkay?

3) there are infinite uses of airbrush (I recently cleaned my laptop with it ) so I think it ALWAYS would come handy.
Even "base colour" can be pimped out easly:

For example this red... it is "shaded" with technique called "preshading", nothing more than 15 minutes (not counting drying time). It looks better than *just* red sprayed from can. Also, it speeds painting, combining advantages of sprays and brushes with few additional abilities.
So... yeah, it come handy.

2) No, not ready yet I first want discuss *tools* like empty coffee jars with metal rods.

Or uber-nerdy-dork cap with glasses.

I think I'm gonna wear it with my Nintendo Power Glove.
Anyway, I'm gonna make some basic tutorials.

1) You bet Your Mon-keigh Jerky GW sell crap.
They sell You spray cans in parts - proppelant, acrylic paint and valve, all packed in ugly flamer with accuracy of Super Soaker and price of REAL gun.
You want so called double action airbrushes.


You see, in GW (and single actions) You can only have two flows of paint - none or maximum. Double action allow You to control flow of paint - You can spray anything between "0 and max". This is vital.

I can answer numbers 1 and two:
1. I use a Testors Aztek. It is a little different then normal airbrushes in that you don't have a needle to adjust. There are screw in nozzles that have the different needles/spray patterns/etc that are extremely easy to change and clean. It can be used as a "single action"(think spray can) or a "dual action" (you are able to control the air/paint mixture by pulling back a lever as you spray. YOU MUST USE AND AIRBRUSH THAT HAS THIS TO GET THE EFFECTS THAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. Sorry for the BOLD type, but single action airbrushes are really cheap and useless for anything beyond basecoating only.

2. You Tube has the best tutorials. For everything airbrush-related. Seriously, I learned everything that I needed to know from there.

Hope this helps.

Ok that pre shaded tank looks really nice and smooth, I definitely want one now. A dual action of course... because just having a reloadable spray can would be damn useless. I just don't know where to get a proper one. the one you listed, Evil Space Elves, is in the US unfortunately which would cost me a fortune to ship over to Germany.

Do you have any specifics what I should search for on youtube or is "air brush tutorial" enough?

Additionally I didn't get any feedback on the topic of "is my idea in style" with my current army concept. For those who didn't notice, I provided links in the initial post.

Oh and for yet another question (yep, I'm annoying ): how long does it take to learn airbrushing - the basics that is. I'm a very fast learner and quite a good painter as you can see in my blog so I hope I have the right qualifications.

Edit: what paints go well with your regular airbrush? Are there special airbrush paints or can you take anything you like? Do they have to be thick / thin in order to work? Do you need multiple spray valves (had to look that word up...) to go for different effects (like different diameters, needles vs. flat ones etc)?
@ Local Ork: I like the idea of an air tank to make the compressor's mechanics less of an issue.

Airbrush starting kit Valejo Airbrush Kits , this paint is one of the best for Airbrushing and i also started to use it for my normal brush work.

Airbrush here is german Harder and Stenbeck Ultra , starting level , very good quality , completely unkillable.Just suited for new user.And lots of paints , metallics and else.
H&S is one of the top brand on Airbrush market.

Quote :

Oh and for yet another question (yep, I'm annoying ): how long does it take to learn airbrushing - the basics that is.

Its not that hard. You just need to learn how to thin paint enough but not too much , and how to do smooth thin layers. Blending effect with airbrushes created by just apllying more thin levels to already existing.

Its very natural learning process , you dont need very much besides just paining something.I just painted some CD boxes untill i was satisfied and painted my first raider. Result was great , even for first time. Its really easy.


Here is how you dont hold it.


Here is how you do hold it.


Problem one - either paint is too thick , or paint channel is blocked to much.


Too much pressure , or too much water/thinner agent.


Here is how it should look.


Basic excercise.Take a CD box and make a layer with miltiple thin layers.Better make crossing layers, it will appear more smooth.

Azdrubael, what kind of compressor You have? One with air tank or without (I actually bet one without it, judging by pictures)? I've found out that lack of air tank give worse results, since
a) You don't have pressure stabiliser
b) You work with "pump working" pressure rather than optimal pressure (ie it's lower due to fact that air tank allow You to store some pressure that is lost (efect of initial "cough" due to pressure stored in hose) without it).

Spoiler:

Also, I hold my airbrush in something between right and wrong way since it is more comfortable for me (thumb on trigger, point finger above noozle, rest around hose/screw). I guess it's more matter of preference and how You use it.

Yeah , without tank , but it stores some pressure until it stops pumping.
I.E. pumping then stoping , then i can spend it.

This thing Sparmax TC-501AS


Doesnt have reciever. But otherwise fully decked , automatically shut down .

Quote :

efect of initial "cough" due to pressure stored in hose

Mmm...no. Cant say i have something similiar. Pretty even painting. Long hose actually play role of a tank , if i understand it correct.
Maybe im just so used to start with moving airbrush when activate it that i consider it normal.

You mean if you start with tank you wont have big blob of paint if you stand airbrush still?

Thank you very much for the quick tutorial. The Valejo set does indeed look nice. The problem is that the set doesn't come with a compressor and I'm pretty sure that the compressor my family owns will be a bit too powerful - actually WAY to powerful, like blowing the whole airbrush up! Hence I need a compressor on top of that and then things start to get veeeery expensive. Is there no cheap alternative that does yet provide a similar quality?

Same thing with the Harder und Steenbeck stuff, great things, but you can't purchase from their website directly and from alternative retailers the brush alone, without compressor, colors or anything is 70EUR upwards.

@Azdrubael

You have better stuff than mine (it have something like little tank in moisture reductor) so it isn't THAT bad as in my case but without any sort of tank it's... tragic.

And no, I don't have big initial splodge of paint with tank, however I do have it without, so big that difference is noticeable.

I'm in a similar position to Dogmar and I was wondering what you guys use for protection? (insert appropriate joke) I was thinking about a respirator mask but wasn't sure if that was OTT? Will a dust mask do?

Also what should I ideally be using to clean at the end of a session, I've seen advice ranging from thinners to screenwash and I'm not sure which is the most appropriate or healthy, I'd prefer to keep it as cheap and convenient as possible but I realise like with most things airbrush that's not always possible. I know this last question to a lot of people is really basic but I've seen a lot of advice sites asking you to collect and dispose of the cleaning products properly, is the sink not the place to be getting rid of this stuff? Sorry if that's a really stupid comment

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, dust mask will do.

As for cleaning, look at jar I've made (in my first post). It allow me to spray inside without worrying about fumes filled witch alcohol (they stay inside).
I wanted to upload "how-to" after dealing with airtank tutorial, but I have pictures so I'll upload it today.

You obviously can buy that but I refuse to pay $20-something for thing that I've made from junk, in less than half hour.



Oh and mine's bigger