BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Miniatures and Terrain => Hobby Tips and Tricks => Topic started by: LordNth on 05 January 2012, 21:40:55
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I picked up a cheap air brush gun (a little starter Badger). I have never airbrushed before.
What do I need to know? What do I need to do? I've read a little from modeling magazines, but that's about it. Any advice, tips or links would be very helpful.
Anything I need to know before I give this a try? What can I do before going out and investing in a more expensive rig?
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Hmmm, its hard to know where to start. I don't know of any good resources off hand but I will try to think of some. I noticed on Youtube that there are a number of videos about airbrushing for beginners. You might want to try watching a few of those. This won't help a lot but here's something by Badger http://badgerairbrush.com/PDF/airbrush101printfinal.pdf
What model did you get, and how do you plan to supply the air? Do you have a compressor that has a regulator?
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bought a Badger beginner set with a can of air. Spent $20 at Michea'ls Figured I'd give it a try as I'm not ready for an air compressor, yet. I'd want one that I can use for home repairs. As someone said "Even if you don't airbrush, everyone needs a nail gun." And I know the moment I get in the house with a compressor, the wife will want a nail gun and guess who will have all the trim to replace.
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Tell her that you will need to order special airgun pins from....IronWind Metals...yeah, thats it!
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Be careful with canned air, I'm told it runs out at the most inopportune time. Just read the instruction (it did come with instruction?) and experiment of stuff you don't care about.
A nice little primer: http://starshipmodeler.com/basics/tm_airbrush101.htm
And a homemade spray booth that I'm going to start building in a couple of weeks...
http://starshipmodeler.com/tech/pa_booth.htm
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Those links are helpful. I saw just thinking last night, I'd better not airbrush in my usual spot unless I cover anything I don't want to cover in fine paint mist. Yes I'm looking at you monitor and keyboard.
Will a good airbrush have much overspray? From watching a few guys in my youth I don't recall much paint getting anywhere. Put then they were not new at it. #P
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from my brief experience, i learned a few things that may help....
you MUST run water through it every time you change colors.
you MUST run water through it when you are done. in other words, your ideal set up will be near a sink.
your pigments have to be specially formulated to flow through the airbrush.
learn how to use masking tape or a liquid mask.
use a spray booth.
i think i would definitely look into a compressor. besides, nail guns are AWESOME!!!!! you don't have to pound multiple times to nail two fingers together....
beware of "too much, too quickly".
keep in mind that my experience comes from several commercial art classes i took back in high school. i gave up on this method because it took way too much of my time and effort...and this was on 2-D illustration board, not models.
you are exploring territory i have yet to even consider. i am very skeptical about the pigment quality, since the paint has to be runny to begin with. you are my guinea pig, my friend. let me see how this works out. perhaps you will make me see the light?
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I've been reading about your distaste for airbrushing for years. The spitting is the main reason I've taken so long to look into it. It's also the reason I threw away 3 cans of Armory White primer. The spitting was terrible.
What's been making me think about the airbrush is my new collection of 15mm armor and Mecha. Techniques I read about in Amazing Modeller Magazine #26 ( I bought it for the dragon on the cover (http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1680&bih=850&tbm=isch&tbnid=ojG8jecQOzbDmM:&imgrefurl=http://www.mycomicshop.com/search%3FTID%3D169271&docid=7kua2oba4I4TxM&imgurl=http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/iss/600w/927/169271/9078611_1.jpg&w=600&h=805&ei=P3MIT8jrD4WlgweDxsirCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1390&vpy=124&dur=1503&hovh=260&hovw=194&tx=97&ty=168&sig=116012269221430695917&page=1&tbnh=149&tbnw=110&start=0&ndsp=39&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0) ) have painting a model with water paint :o and then airbrushing over it after it dries to give a very interesting effect that I can't wait to try. 8)
How thin do you have to make the paint? Somewhere between a wash and the thicker stuff right out of the pot?
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I've read and been told somewhere around 2% milk for consistency. Though I'm sure certain paints work better with different ratios.
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I've done a bit of airbrushing on minis. For a booth, just a cardboard box works fine. For consistency, you're going to want it fairly thin. just a little thicker then your usual wash should be good. One thing that you are going to want to do though, is practice drawing lines with it, A sheet of printer paper works good, that way you learn to adjust the nozzle and the thickness of the spray. A pity you don't have a compressor yet though, because I can promise you, you're going to go through several cans of air before you get to the point of any real detail work. Still. i hope you enjoy it.
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Ive used myairbrushes on and off for longer than I would like to admit, though I started out using a Badger 200 to paint my WWII aircraft models. I started out using mostly oil base paint. They coat and dry wel, but I switched toacrylics so I could avoid the vapors and using so much cleaning solvent. For the acrylic paints, I'd agree that milk is about the consistency that most experienced modelers recommend. For a beginner, I might not try it quite that thin as it will run pretty easily if you get greedy. Try to work in light, even passes until you get the coverage you want. if the mini looks really wet and you think it needs more paint, just pause and let it dry for a few moments before you add more. That will help minimize runny paint or overly heavy coats that fill up your panel lines, A good practicing tool is to spray onto the side of a milk jug. It's non-porous, so it will teach you to use lighter, even passes to prevent running. Using paper to practice is fine, but the plastic jug is less forgiving and will teach you more.
I have used the GW paints and I think they work pretty well. Straining them helps remove some of the clumping but they behave pretty well and dry fast. I mostly also use Vallejo Model Air. They have very fine pigment and are ready to use right from the bottle. They dont dry that fast so you have to watch out for runs though. In my experience, I dont find that Vallejo is very durable so be careful handling the minis until you dullcote them. I have also used Tamiya and it sprays well, though it has a bit more solvent in it. It dries and coats well, but since it is a hotter mix, it also has a little more vapors to it. As I mentioned in another post, I have experimented with straining some of the cheap Americana craft paint and it did pretty well in my first test.
Keep some Q tips handy as you can use them to GENTLY wipe off any paint that starts to accumulate on the spray tip. This is paint that drys a bit and clumps up at the tip. Once it builds up enough, it will blow off and splatter small clumps of paint onto your target. So the Q tip will help avoid that.
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That answers lots of questions! Thanks for the advice, links and what videos to search for. I haven't had a chance to hook up the can of air yet, but I'm excited.
Another question.
What about Inks? I have some old Target/Heartbreaker inks that I have used like printable colored Dip. Would you put these into the airbrush? It cleans with water like arclyics do but I want to know for sure.
If it goes well with the practice I'll be taking one of my 50% Michaels coupon to look for a compress regulator set up :)
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I'm not sure about the inks, I have never tried to spray them. The thinner the liquid, the smoother it will spray. But I'm not sure it would have enough pigment to coat or adhere to anything. For what purpose are you considering the use of an ink vs a paint? INks are washes are usually meant to differently settle into the crevices so I am not sure using an airbrush for these would be better than a brush.
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LordNth. Give me a call tonight if you want. We can discuss the finer details of doing Airbrushing on the cheap and how not to kill yourself with atomized paint. I did a bunch of research and still do and may be able to answer quite a few of your questions. I can even answer your ink questions. The last two Battlestars were done with Ink mixtures. :)
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I love and hate my airbrushes, they should all come with mesh screens to filter pain (they don't) so shooting anything but vallejo airbrush paint can be frustrating, also gotta clean immediately as they crud up instantly, I practice alot on plastech mini's to get the spray pattern, pressure, techniques, etc just right. When it works right its awesome, good for terrain too
J
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Thanks for advice. I saw a compressor at the model shop. $80 bucks made it half the price of anyone else, but after reading the PM and the info here, I'd like to go with something with a tank.
If I have questions I'll be sure to ask as I find these forums some of the friendliest and the most adapt to give good advice. O0
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something with a tank would be good. Still, I get along alright with my compressor (a very cheap Aztek with testors markings on it, whole airbrush kit cost me less then $50) It would be no good for someone doing airbrush artwork, but for minis it gets on fine.
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I am thinking about getting an airbrush soon as well. Found this guy on youtube that was very informative. He may have some stuff to help you in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw9qdL_r5xQ&feature=plcp&context=C3f8e51dUDOEgsToPDskIG4pg711P8y0CyurJwFK1S