by Devin » Tue Nov 08, 2005 9:04 am
I've found it's nearly impossible to 'tell' someone how to airbrush. The best way to go about it is experience. What works for me might not work for you.
For your needle tips 1, 3 and 5: those are sizes, but which is the heavy flow and which is low flow? That's something your manual will tell you. The 3, however should be medium, and the best all around. If you're doing up to 1/350th scale ships and 1/48th scale aircraft, you should be able to do most if not all of your painting with that. The fine tip will be for weathering and detailing, the heavy one for, well, heavy application.
Thinning: typical instructions say "to the consistency of 2% milk". For me I usually start out at 3 parts paint to 2 parts thinner and see how it shoots. If you're doing fine detail work at low PSI, then you make it thinner. Some colors spray better thinner than others. Again, this is where you have to practice.
Cleaning the gun: If you're using enamels, then you're probably thinning with mineral spirits? Use that to clean the gun.
Pressure: I usually run in the low 20psi range for spraying. Large surfaces, a bit higher, detail work, down to 10psi.
Those are general guidelines. Get an old model, some of the paint you want to use, and start spraying. I build all of my ships waterline, so the lower hull half becomes my test airbrush piece. The lower hull from my USS Farenholt build has literally over 30 coats of paint on it!
-Devin
I've found it's nearly impossible to 'tell' someone how to airbrush. The best way to go about it is experience. What works for me might not work for you.
For your needle tips 1, 3 and 5: those are sizes, but which is the heavy flow and which is low flow? That's something your manual will tell you. The 3, however should be medium, and the best all around. If you're doing up to 1/350th scale ships and 1/48th scale aircraft, you should be able to do most if not all of your painting with that. The fine tip will be for weathering and detailing, the heavy one for, well, heavy application.
Thinning: typical instructions say "to the consistency of 2% milk". For me I usually start out at 3 parts paint to 2 parts thinner and see how it shoots. If you're doing fine detail work at low PSI, then you make it thinner. Some colors spray better thinner than others. Again, this is where you have to practice.
Cleaning the gun: If you're using enamels, then you're probably thinning with mineral spirits? Use that to clean the gun.
Pressure: I usually run in the low 20psi range for spraying. Large surfaces, a bit higher, detail work, down to 10psi.
Those are general guidelines. Get an old model, some of the paint you want to use, and start spraying. I build all of my ships waterline, so the lower hull half becomes my test airbrush piece. The lower hull from my USS Farenholt build has literally over 30 coats of paint on it!
-Devin