Airbrush?

Sky Serpent wrote:

Welcome to the forum Noth and thanks for your input. Do you guys mix the paint in the airbrush's cup or mix it beforehand and pour it in?

Thanks!

Typically I mix mine before I put it in the airbrush. Basically, if you put in really thick paint that hasn't been thinned properly it can immediately cause clogs/problems. It is useful to have separate containers for your 'airbrush' colors. That way, if you find that your mix is a little to thick, you can pour the paint back out of your airbrush into your bottle/container, thin, shake then pour back into the airbrush. If you feel you've thinned your paint a little too much, you can dump back into your container, then add some more paint, mix, then give it another go. After you've gone through this process a few times, you will get a better feel for how thick your paint needs to be, and additionally you will spend less time messing with it while your working on a project because your paint will be pre-mixed. All this probably sounds like a hassle, but it will come pretty naturally after you've got a few colors mixed.

Another little tip while I am thinking about it... While you are airbrushing, occasionally visually check the needle on the tip of the airbrush and make sure there is no paint buildup. If there is a small buildup it can really effect how smooth your paint is coming out. If you do find a buildup, simply just take a cotton swab dunked in whatever thinner you are using for your paint and clean if off.

Pigments sound interesting, I haven't tried them before. Are there advantages over Acrylics and Enamels?

I typically use Vallejo Game Colors(Acrylic), Tamiya Color(Acrylic), or Testers Model Master(Enamel, for priming mainly!)

Noth wrote:

Pigments sound interesting, I haven't tried them before. Are there advantages over Acrylics and Enamels?

Yes, one big thing.
They don't have resin, so they give really thin layers and don't clog aribrush (ever) while 99.9% of colour guarantee that even white give good coverage.

As for disadvantages...
They can be messed up pretty easy during job (With yout fingers, literally. Hell, even another layer on still wet paint may give "interesting" results) and require layer of laquer after job.

I guess that best solution is to take water based paint (or compatible), dilute it and amplify by pigment. Or get pure "medium" and compose paint on your own.

I use this brand:



Best thing is you pay half of price of GW... for 80ml. Yep, over 13 times cheaper.

Interesting, I may have to pick some up. I have some 'medium' that I could try mixing it with. Perhaps it would work well to make "washes" as well. With that kind of price on them I'm thinking that I should pick some up to economically airbrush some terrain projects I have been putting off. Thanks for the info!

Actually if You don't use water based paint under/over them they are awesome.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f42/16/52/13/43/tank10.jpg
https://i.servimg.com/u/f42/16/52/13/43/tower_10.jpg

While pictures have really bad quality they did great job with preshading (I've started from grey primer, then painted white-brown-black and then covered with yellow) for spray paints on mine terrain project.

And they do work out as washes.

Would you advise that I actually purchase some cups for this purpose?

Would I need to matte varnish the model after airbrushing?

I guess that you want laquer minis. Even acrylic paint can be badly damaged when not protected.

I use a combination of the old Tamiya paint jars and some Vallejo squeeze/dropper bottle's. I know they sell little packs of the Vallejo type squeeze bottles. They are somewhat harder to pour into, but work well because you won't lose much paint squeezing them into your airbrush. The little paint jars are easier to pour back into, but you'll lose a little more when you pour out of them due to dribbles on the rim.

So long story short, its basically personal preference. Using old paint pots/bottles should work fine, although new clean ones are a little more convenient.

Regarding varnish the best I can do is "it depends"

Basically if you are painting something like a vehicle where you have to handle the actual model with your fingers on the open flat surfaces I would recommend spraying a varnish to stop the paint from getting damaged while you are painting the details. I usually use testers dull coat(matte varnish).

If you are painting something like infantry where you don't actually have to touch the model much with your fingers I usually skip the varnish between airbrushing and detail brush painting.

If you get a good 'primer' coat such as Testers Model Masters Grey Primer (enamel) I find that the later coats seem quite a bit more durable.

But would you varnish it when it is fully painted, ie finished?

In 99.9% cases when you finish painting and You are happy with it (cleaning laquered minis because You've changed conception of army... ).

Decals require application between two layers of varnish, but that's different story.

Well I've also now dabbled in an airbrush too, going for: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290572387658#ht_4010wt_1396 which will hopefully be sufficient for my modelling needs. Thanks for the advice in this thread, I used it to plump for a compressor with tank so hopefully I made a decent choice.

Having done a marine army, I really want to do justice to my dark eldar and I think airbrushing will give me a good headstart on doing so... Sadly I do have the artistic skills of a cluster of colour blind hedgehogs... in a bag... (and that's being generous to my skills ), but hopefully I can put everything together and get airbrushing after some practice (still have some unpainted marines I can experiment on! ).

I also grabbed some Vallejo Air paints as well which are supposed to be designed for airbrushing. Anyone had any experience with these?

I have used just a few Vallejo air paints. The nice thing is that I believe they are pre-thinned, so you don't need to worry so much about getting paint the right consistency. The bad thing is that they are pre-thinned, so you get much less paint for your money, especially because I think the model air paints actually cost a little more sometimes. Lastly I think the Model Air line of Vallejo has different colors than the GW/Vallejo Game color lines, so it might be slightly more difficult to match them up for your detail work if you are needing to.

Overall, they should work great. They are more expensive for what you get, but less 'hassle' with learning how to properly thin paint for the airbrush.

Yep, they are pre-thinned and from what people say they have some sort of additional chem that make them flow and stick better.

They have different, more "proper models" colour range too.
http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/pdf_web/MA_CC071_rev07.pdf
But if You would get familiar with mixing paints You can just stick with basic, "juicy" colours that fit "cartoonish" pallete of wargames.

Captain Mayhem wrote:

here you go sky serpent:

To start, you need a compressor that includes a tank. the tankless compressors have problems keeping a constant stream of air going

Not entirely true. a good compressor with a moisture trap will help to regulate the pulsing from a tankless piston compressor. (the moisture trap actually acts as a miniature tank of sorts) but it's all up to how much you are willing to spend... i'd go with high quality if you plan to learn how to use it for more then base coating and whatnot (and i have a GW gun, works fine fore laying a base coat, but that's it, it's not an airbrush, it's a spray can) and you can use a compressor with it as well (for those times you don't want to
break out the real brush to lay down a simple coat of yellow foundation:))

I know this might be a bit of a necro, but I'm also looking at an airbrush for painting my larger models (raiders+Ravenwings), and i stumbled unto this one on amazon.com - anyone know if this one seems like a good one for a beginner?

It looks pretty ok. Not sure about price since I don't buy in £ , but it is good, not only for beginner.

It's about 110EUR/150$, so its actually quite affordable for a guy like me - and if you say it's good, then its on my list of things i need to get

Sounds pretty reasonable price for 2 airbrushes and compressor with tank and "gubbinz".

Which one did you go for in the end Sky Serpant?