The Ship Model Forum

hi all, just brought an air brush .need a little bit of starter info please. what is the best paint brand to use? what is the best mixing ratio to start with? last but not least best thinner to use?, p.s i normally use Humbrol and Tamyia paints.

I use Tamiya acrylics with my airbrush and use the Tamiya thinner. I tend to thin about 2:1 paint to thinner.

HTH

John

This is my litrary version of the diagram in the user manual for Tamiya's Spray Work Airbrush with Compressor: The paint should drop off the stir stick in drops, not in strings (too thick) and the paint should not be stuck on the stir stick without dripping (too thin, in which case, not sure to do rectify).

_________________
De quoi s'agit-il?

Paint choice depends on your preference, personally I can't get on with acrylics and find them far less flexible than enamel, also the range and accuracy of colours in enamel is far better. However particularly when airbrushing, enamels do give off fumes so if you use them make sure the room is well ventilated. Basically its a question of experimenting and seeing what results you get. I would consider using old kits to try things out on, or even buy some cheap kits for a practice, it's much better than making your mistakes (there will be) on a model you have spent many hours on.

With enamel paint I use a 1:1 mix of paint to thinner, you should be ok with decent quality white spirit, I use this with WEM and humbrol paints and it seems fine, make sure it is white spirit though and not one of those substitutes. Air source is important, if you are using cans this is ok for a while but gets expensive, also you have less control as the air pressure varies a lot and starts to fade away once the can is about half full. However compressors are expensive and cans are ok.

Tips in general, make sure you have the air pressure set right before working, too much and you will get a flood of paint, too little will cause the paint to dry before it reaches the surface and will cause the paint to dry in the needle of the brush and clog it up. Give the model a brush over with an empty paint reservoir before painting to get rid of any dust, also do this between coats and leave the model under something that will keep the dust off whilst it is drying. Especially with cans you get a surge of air once you press the trigger, which means more paint comes out, so start off the model and then work over it, keeping the brush at an even distance all the time. Don't try and do all your coats at once, try and use thin coats of paint, almost like dust. Once finished clean the airbrush by spraying away the unused paint, run some clean white spirit through it then try and get some airbrush cleaner which comes in spray cans, this is strong stuff and shifts most of the paint. With enamels I prefer to break the airbrush down after each use and soak the metal parts in clean white spirit for a couple of hours to make sure it is thoroughly clean, acrylic may need less rigorous cleaning but I'm not sure.

I've probably missed out loads of other things but be patient, you will make mistakes at first, but soon you will be amazed at how good a job you can do. Oh and one last tip, don't look down the tip and press the trigger to see if it is blocked, you get paint in your face.

Mike

The thing to remember about Acrylics is that they tend to clog your airbrush rapidly. They are far easier to clean, but do clog rapidly. Also make sure you thin the acryls well. I use about 70% paint 30% rubbing alchol for mine. You will need more passes but it seems to work better for me.

Ric

What is your advise when applying primer using Airbrush?
Is there additional mixture when applying Primer?



thanks,
Kin M.
(CVN76)

I don't bother airbrushing primer, try the car primers in aerosol, I use one formulated for plastiic and it works fine, just hold it a bit further away or you can get a flood of paint.

Mike

thanks for the advise....


Kin M.
(CVN76)

I use Badger Crescendo, Model no. 175-7 since years.

http://www.rexart.com/media/bad175_lg.gif


Tried many stuff, also:

Revell - well, good for beginners
Hansa - good for exp. users

The Badger is surpreme and the different models are not so expensive. I am very happy with it.
Most important is you get spare parts for it in every good retail shop or on the web. It comes with three different needles even for the finest work.

The most important is the compressor unit. Get a good one with a airtank and water filter (spelling?) and one not too loud. The water filter gets out the water particles otherwise you may have some dots in the fresh paint here and there.

Very important is to keep the tools clean afterwards. It is difficult to clean when you have the paint dried up!
I played with Ultrausound cleaners just for the airbrush, but it is not worse.

For paint I recommend Acrylic water paint only. (Don´t get the Revell paints, too expensive and not possible to thin with water).

I recommend these kind of paints, every in a good retail shop or ebay:
http://i16.ebayimg.com/01/i/03/7f/cc/f6_1_b.JPG

Hansa color is also very good:
http://i11.ebayimg.com/02/i/03/7e/ed/89_1_b.JPG

or like mentioned above the Aero color sets.

The paint is waterproof after it dried, of course.

Have fun