I am looking to pick myself up an airbrush and compressor kit and wondered what the things were that I would have to check/look out for.

Some of the things I was thinking were

I see some air brushes come with 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 mm needles - so one thing I was wondering is would I need these? And what way does it work? I'm guessing 0.2mm is good for very precise, fine detail and 0.5 is good for bigger jobs (chassis and the like).

Other things I'd like to know...
1. Oil compressor? Required or not?
2. What things to look out for in compressors.
3. Paints...acrylics, yes - but what are the best ones
4. Cleaning - type of cleaner (I presume water is fine if you use acrylics) and how often? I presume a quick clean between different paints is required
5. How do you gauge how much paint to put in? And if you don't use it all, how do you get it back into the pot (or do you just throw it away)
6. Do you have to water down the paints or are they ready to spray?
7. What kind of "sheen" is used? Especially thinking about putting decals on with the solution that "burns" them into the frame (can't remember the name)...I used Klear but I'm not that keen on it

Anything else I need to know about? Most modelling I'll be doing is 1:48 and 1:35. I might get a big bugger for Christmas - maybe a 1:24.

As for the air brush, I think I'd prefer gravity fed - but is that the best or is bottom fed better?

Thanks

I'll chime in until someone more experienced has a say; FYI I'm not very good at things compared to what I see here, but I try!

If you have the cash, I'd get an airbrush which came with a range of tips - simply because you'll need to use them at different times. Basically, it's handy.

If you're going to spend a fair amount of time airbrushing, I'd get a compressor. Doesn't need to be gas/oil - I've got a small electric one. You'll want one that can deliver a particular amount of air at a given pressure, but I don't actually know what a good number of cfm/psi is (I "borrowed" both my brushes and the compressor).

With paints, I stick with acrylics; you could use enamels on an airbrush (depending on the brush) but playing around with turps all day isn't my idea of fun. Also, you'll want to clean every time you finish a session; with the airbrush and acrylics, this mostly just consists connecting it to a tub that has water, and spraying the water through the nozzle until the water has no more colour. For dried-in stuff, the nibs usually have a plastic scraper or something, or if its really gummed up, you can take apart the nib itself.

Before spraying, you will need to water down the colours that come straight from the paintpots that you buy. Different paints have different consistencies, and in my experience you'll need to water them down to differing degrees; your mileage may vary. Be careful with metallics as well - the suspended particles can be a bit tricky sometimes, so you need to ensure it's well mixed before spraying.

The rest I make up as I go along. I usually use an enamel matte primer coat before spraying acrylics, just because depending on the plastics, an acrylic primer coat may or may not stick - matte enamel gives a much better surface, plus I can get it done much quicker than through a detail airbrush.
You'll want to be a bit more ordered with your spraying - because you have to separate and thin down the acrylic, it's nice if you can get all the bits of a set colour done in one go, where you can.

Obviously, practice on something before you apply, especially if you have a double action (varying ink flow and airflow) airbrush.

Thanks Gopher.

I was planning on getting one with variable needles - I just didn't know what range. The only one I've seen so far was with a 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 mm needles.

What about "dust particles"? Is it a big problem with acrylics? Do I need to do this in some sort of enclosed space or is on my sofa in front of the telly ok?

I spray in front of the TV sometimes when doing small stuff. The ideal situation would be in a spray booth but as I don't have one, that is not an option.

Am spraying Tamiya acrylics and using a vallejo air grey for a primer. I thin the acrylics with Tamiya X20 thinner

Re Airbrush and compressors:
I use a H&S Evolution and a basic electric compressor.

Here's a review somebody did.


Best site I've found for information is http://www.florymodels.co.uk/today/

His tutorials along with the forums are an invaluable source of information. Some of the content on there requires a subscription but it's worth it.
There's a number of video tutorials on air brushing.

Regarding needles, my understanding is that the "fine", "medium", etc. ratings is not so much related to the line it will spray, but more the thickness of media that will be going through it. So ink to water like thinned media, "fine". Acrylics and such, "medium", and so on.

I shoot a variety of acrylics, from cheapo "craft paint" types which I thin with water directly in the color cup, to Badger brand pre-thinned colors. Totally a matter of taste. The cheap stuff will indeed sometimes glop and clog up the tip (which is usually cleared by blasting full strength a few times). The pre-thinned acrylics for me tend to be more like inky candy. They rarely clog while wet. But if you let them set up for 3 to 5 minutes while doing something else... they get sticky and may "glue" the needle shut. Again, just soak in cleaner and blast.

Gauging the paint, totally by eye. with craft paint, I start by using an eyedropper to add one or two drops directly into my metal color cup on the airbrush. Then in goes a drop or two of paint. I use a wooden stir stick to mix it well. Then I add a drop or so of other colors until I get what I want. For every drop or two of paint, I stir and check color, and thickness. I drag the stir stick up the side of the color cup and see if it runs down with ease, sort of like milk. If not, drop or two of water, and repeat.

It's handy to have two color cups IMO, makes switching colors or returning to a unique shade a few minutes later much easier.

Cleaner... I work my paints from light to dark, so a full cleaning is not something I usually do when changing colors. If I want to make sure a color is nice and pure, I blast water through it from the glass jar instead of the color cup. After a session, or if I for some reason do want a full clean, I use Windex. Put some in the color cup and shoot it. Then some more, cover the needle and make it backflow (bubble in the cup), then dump the cup, and continue to the usual tear down/clean up.

I use a Paasche D500 compressor. It's oilless and tankless, and if you put the airbrush on a 6 foot hose direct from it, you will see and feel the "puffs" while the compressor is running. My fix is to run the Paasche into a 20 foot coiled plastic air hose from the home improvement store, which acts as a reserve tank, then into a regulator (an SMC full size 125 psi unit for a shop compressor) and then out a 6 foot hose into my airbrush. I do not use a moisture trap, but on long use sessions moisture most certainly builds up in the coiled air hose. But so far, little problem for the work I have been doing. I just drain the hose.

EDIT: Before the Paasche, I tried a mini "shop" compressor that would be used for filling a tire or basketball. It had a small tank, like 1.3 gallons. But it was LOUD. So loud that it was audible outside the house. No way I could sit in there for hours working without earplugs. So I switched to the little Paasche. It's so quiet it can run it 3 feet from me, no earplugs, and it's no bother.

BTW, my airbrush is a Badger Anthem 155, bottom fed.

Finally... get a respirator. I shoot indoors in a tiny work space, no windows. I use a 3M 6000 series with dual OV/P95 filters loaded. Even with acrylics, the P95s will show faint color after several months use. Even aside from particulate worries, the cleaner and Windex do smell loud while cleaning, though they subside quickly afterward IMO. There is zero odor that I smell coming through the OV/P95 filter stack. Not even cooking food!

wow...That really has put me off :-)

One thing I was thinking was this...how do you do the very small pieces or tricky pieces in models. I was looking at the very precise effort I had to go to with a brush to do the black surface on the wheels of my challenger


^That's still a WIP by the way!!

Are air brushes THAT precise that you can do that?

Not that precise in my hands, lol! I would have painted those parts separately, before assembly.

The locomotive I'm working on now is getting primed and painted in sub-assemblies to help with this very issue. Once the base coats are on, I think I can manage spraying the weathering on the fully assembled piece with a bit of masking.

EDIT: And I do hope what I wrote didn't put you off the idea. The airbrush was a major undertaking for me, both the investment and learning the processes for use, cleaning, and during the painting, too. There are times when I'm at the sink rinsing out the color cups that I wonder... "How did I get into this, again?"

But it's enjoyable for me, overall. I have my AM radio playing at my work bench, and a good light to work under. Mixing, thinning, and matching the colors is actually quite relaxing for me, once I got the routine worked out. Even tearing down the airbrush for a post-sesssion cleaning is not annoying to me.

Yeah, something like that you ought to have sprayed before gluing! Airbrushes generally aren't all that accurate unless you've been judiciously masking off stuff. I find that their strength is in doing decent camo schemes where one colour merges seamlessly into the other, or medium-large areas to be coated. Detail stuff, or parts which are surrounded by other bits still needs a good, fine brush. Ideally, you'd do small subassemblies of parts, spray them (except around the join), then join to the major assembly, so that you don't end up in the situation you're in right now.

I've got a much more relaxed approach compared to adlabs' more comprehensive attitude to airbrushing. I got a cheap compressor, second hand airbrush (technically it belonged to my brother), I airbrush things in the kitchen (it's usually too damn windy to do it outside), no respirator, use standard Tamiya/Humbrol acrylics, and thin with water. You find your own niche. The main thing is that you enjoy doing it, and get satisfaction when you find that results are a LOT better than doing camo/paint schemes with a brush. Since I pretty much do aircraft only, this approach works fine for me. Never done tanks.

Gopher - I'm not in any situation right now. The wheels are done and were done separate from the build.

I've judiciously went through my model building the separate bits that need built and painting ready to put on.

I was just asking how you would do such a thing with an air brush. I know you'd paint most parts off...I was trying to determine how accurate they were or whether I would still be using brushes.

I was a bit put off by the respirator - I'm not too keen on using one. Also I was trying to gauge from things I read how much "overspray" paint dust I might get over my room (my computer room is where I make my models)

Thanks - I'll think about it. I'm a bit scared about wasting £50-£100 on something I may not take to.

On the overspray paint... I can't say I've ever taken pains to protect the rear and sidewalls of my workbench area. And they are still (apparently!) nice and clean as the day I painted them. I do work with newspapers on the desk, but again, unless I shot paint right on the newspaper (or spill it from the bottle, oh yes!) the paper comes up clean, too.

But I know the paint particulate is there, even in micro traces. I used to paint without a respirator, and when the airbrush flow would go over some shapes and surfaces, I could feel the the airflow clearly blowing back on my face. Never did I see paint on myself afterward, but it with certainty was there, and I was breathing it.

And further on overspray, working 10 to 15 inches from my canvas or work, sometimes 6 hour days... Even my eyeglasses never have paint spots on them, at least not that I can notice.

So at least in my experience, it's not really a problem.

I choose a respirator just to be safe, though. Working on canvas paintings, I probably spend more time spraying (like I said, 6 hours, maybe 8 hours on a long session) than if I were just doing models. So it can't hurt.