Airbrushing

[PG_airmanspaz]

I have always wanted to do airbrushing since I was a kid because my father did it to his models. With the release of the colossals I finally have a reason to buy one. After reading Matte guide in NQ 42 I was left with a few questions. When he talks about blue window clean does he mean products like windex? Also what is the best way you have found to mix the paint? And what works best to strain the painting for you? I know these are basic questions but I have found out that asking basic questions makes my life much easier. Thanks for any help.

Spaz

[Ravenshadow]

Yeah, windex is fine. I use a 50/50 mix of distilled water and windex.

For mixing the paint I use a dose cup from cough syrup bottles. Its clear and about the right size, you can tell if you've got the right ratio of thinner to paint by dragging it up the wall of the dose cup. (I use a regular brush to mix the paint)

I don't strain my paint (the dose cup will let you see paint chunks so you can remove them before pouring it in)

[Solid_Smurf]

I always have a bottle of rubbing alcohol (90% is best) near by. Helps with a speedy clean up. Also a mixture of warm soapy water is nice to have around as well. These two will be your bread and butter when post painting clean up happens. Just shoot the warm soapy water through your brush to flush out as much as you can and when it sprays clear, shoot some alcohol through, finally shoot distilled water through to finish the sucker off. Pull the pin and wipe it down. These simple steps have kept my airbrush spraying smoothly.

I hear Windex is bad on the seals of a airbrush due to the ammonia, does anyone have any light on this?

[Kooza]

ammonia corrodes the brass of the airbrush and turns it into white powder pretty much. I use Green Works Glass and surface cleaner. its basically windex but without the ammonia. (obv any ammonia free cleaner works).

I like to thin my paint to the consistency of milk before I spray, and I use a 50/50 mix of the above cleaner and water to thin.

[Karnstein]

I DID use a DIY windex in the past (kept it for cleaning my gun), but I'm a convert after getting my hands of a copy of Mig Jimenez FAQ2 book. He preaches the same: Don't spend tons of dollars on models and then be a cheapskate and try to save a fiver on your acrylic mediums.

Nowadays I use acrylic airbrush medium for thinning. Let's say you're a khador player and build some extreme-versions of your favorite character jacks. Compared to the money you spend on those spare parts, the price a single bottle of airbrush is pretty irrelevant. A big 4oz bottle of liquitex acrylic airbrush medium costs ~8 bucks. A pot of p3 paint holds 1/2 oz, so with a 1:1 ratio you could thin 16 whole p3 paints and since you mostly stick to airbrushing the main colors, a single bottle should get you through a whole army.

Regarding the thinning process itself: I prefer to stick with real airbrush paints, except for a few custom colors I made mixing VMA and P3 paints. Those sit in dropper bottles and are pre-thinned. Except for those, I either thin colors directly in the cup of my airbrush or use a small medical plastic cup, which has a measuring bar on its wall with 1ml steps.

[GreenJello]

A big 4oz bottle of liquitex acrylic airbrush medium costs ~8 bucks.

I've been using Liquitex as well, but I'm starting to wonder if it isn't adding a bit of shine to the colors. I've noticed that the dried medium around the lip of the jar has a semi-gloss to it.

Except for those, I either thin colors directly in the cup of my airbrush or use a small medical plastic cup, which has a measuring bar on its wall with 1ml steps.

I've heard that you should avoid mixing directly in the cup, since you can have consistency problems. Instead I use stainless steel measuring spoons designed for cooking. The metal instead of plastic makes clean up easier, since I tend to dump to paint into the brush, and not get around to cleaning the spoon until after I'm done painting, resulting in dried paint on the spoon.

[Karnstein]

I've been using Liquitex as well, but I'm starting to wonder if it isn't adding a bit of shine to the colors. I've noticed that the dried medium around the lip of the jar has a semi-gloss to it.

I think it has, but it doesn't really bother me... I finish my models with a coat of matte varnish, which should get rid of any semi-glossiness.

I've heard that you should avoid mixing directly in the cup, since you can have consistency problems. Instead I use stainless steel measuring spoons designed for cooking. The metal instead of plastic makes clean up easier, since I tend to dump to paint into the brush, and not get around to cleaning the spoon until after I'm done painting, resulting in dried paint on the spoon.

My modus operandi looks like this:

1. I grab a dropper bottle, shake it well and then add some paint into the airbrush cup
2. If the paint looks too thick, I drop some AB medium into the cup
3. I press the nozzle of the gun into a piece of thick cloth and gently pull back the trigger. This creates a back-flow and mix up the paint+medium pretty well.
4. I swirl the paint around inside the cup and check how it flows. If I'm not satisfied, I repeat step 2+3
5. I start spraying

I would use separate cup if I were someone, who sticks with P3 or GW colors (and keep the original bottles, instead of transferring them into dropper bottles).

But with VMA colors? Not worth the bother and -as I already stated- I prefer VMA over other colors for airbrush usage, simply because I'm lazy and don't want to meticulously replicate the official color schemes provides by PP anyway.

Which is one of the few drawbacks of the VMA range: They cater to the scalemodel community, so you get zillion shades of green/grey/brown, but no colors like pink or purple and you won't find exact matches for the paints P3 sells.

I only use my measuring plastic cups when I decide to airbrush a non-VMA paint, that I don't use often enough to justify mixing up a whole pre-thinned dropper bottle, or create a new batch of custom colors to get my ratios right. For example: I mixed some custom basecoat colors for my LoE army using P3 frostbite together with 2 different VMA blues. The other (roughly a dozen) P3 colors I own are primary for good old fashioned brush usage.

[KavinCross]

Good thing to know about the ammonia. Good thing I didnt try it yet. Thank you.

I imagine a good window cleaner would be clear (minus the blue tint) and no ammonia. I used the nylon straining the other night. I think it helped prevent some of those minor paint flow problems I was getting.
If you can find Vallejo Black Polyurethane airbrush primer and don't mind a 24 hour plus drying time, I would recommend it. Very controllable. Weather outside be damned.

I also need to pick up one of those Iwata cleaning stations as well but was hoping to find one locally. I should just bite the bullet and get one online.

[GreenJello]

Good thing to know about the ammonia. Good thing I didnt try it yet. Thank you.

I often wonder how accurate it is. I read about tons of people using ammonia, and also lots warning against it. All the windex I've seen all say "Ammonia" or "Ammonia-D" and I have no idea which is which. Anyway, the Liquitex stuff seems pretty good.

If you can find Vallejo Black Polyurethane airbrush primer and don't mind a 24 hour plus drying time, I would recommend it. Very controllable. Weather outside be damned.

I haven't used the black yet, but I never have that problem with the white. Usually minutes, if that. OTOH, if I thin it with anything it takes a while, but it's NOT meant to be thinned.

I also need to pick up one of those Iwata cleaning stations as well but was hoping to find one locally. I should just bite the bullet and get one online.

They're great. Got one, only complaint is it doesn't quite fit my Badger, the air hose gets in the way. You can also just make something with a large bucket.