Hand painting Vs Airbrushing

When do you guys airbrush? When do you hand paint? I am starting to notice there are more and more airbrush uses out there. I am wondering as to the benefits, weaknesses of an Air brush. In an effort to see if it is worth the investment.

I used my newly acquired airbrush to get the second coat and farther (the ones after priming, though many people use them for that too). Good use of layering can be done with fine coats of paint from an airbrush and I was able to get a good blending and layering effect that looks awesome on the models.

With practice, you can definitely do smaller details, but I'm going to turn to hand painting for most details.

I'll get some pics up here soon (tm) of what I've done so far with the AB. And mind you, I'm basically a Noob ABer.

Why versus?

They compliment each other. Simply airbrush is more suited for one type of work, hand work for another, thats it.

THey are both tools and im glad that airbrush is becoming accepted as one of prime ones.

You definetly need hand work to finish detail work. You probably want to use airbrush for any vehicles, and one colored surfaces, like segmented armor of a warriors or a battle plate of a space marine, you probably will paint Wyches with hands.

Airbrush also cover all priming of model and can be used to do pre-shading. You cant do that with handbrush.

I love my airbrush I'm not very skilled with it but its great for a gradual colour transition, my vehicles go from dark blue at the bottom to lighter blue then to white on the tips and pointy bits. Reavers are white at the front and fade to blue, only possible with the airbrush, and mine was only like 100 bucks off ebay that included everything compressor hose brush etc. Cant do the fine detail and highlight work without a paint brush and a very steady hand however. I'd post pics of my army on here if I could figure out how to

Azdrubael wrote:

Why versus?

They compliment each other. Simply airbrush is more suited for one type of work, hand work for another, thats it.

THey are both tools and im glad that airbrush is becoming accepted as one of prime ones.

You definetly need hand work to finish detail work. You probably want to use airbrush for any vehicles, and one colored surfaces, like segmented armor of a warriors or a battle plate of a space marine, you probably will paint Wyches with hands.

Airbrush also cover all priming of model and can be used to do pre-shading. You cant do that with handbrush.

Versus as in it is better to use an airbrush to do A instead of a hand brush. Bis is better to use hand brush. ETC. Not as in which is better, or which is the way to go completely. I know next to nothing about airbrushes and their uses. I have been hand brushing of couple of years now. I an trying to find what techniques are easier with an Air brush, and debating getting one before I start painting my Dark Eldar.

I find that my airbrush tends to need a lot of setup and clogs easily. The hassle doesn't seem worth it unfortunatly.

Phototoxin wrote:

I find that my airbrush tends to need a lot of setup and clogs easily. The hassle doesn't seem worth it unfortunatly.

There are probably multiple reasons for this.

A. You don't thin your paint enough, or properly creating clogs
B. You don't clean your airbrush well enough at the end of each use creating blockages
C. You have a low grade airbrush that has ill manufactured parts which can also create clogs
D. You don't have a proper compressor or proper air filtration on your compressor which can trap water in the airlines or not provide enough PSI to properly operate the Brush.

I have 3 airbrushes, takes a few mins of setup. I use premixed Vallejo acrylic airbrush paint. No prep there and no clogging. I Properly clean all my brushes out after use with airbrush cleaner which cleans and lubricates the internal mechanisms preventing clogs or blockages and also allowing for quick set-up the next time.