airbrush paints help?

[geckoman1220]

So I bought a double action airbrush today, and I'm wondering what paint i should use. At Hobby Lobby they only have Createx Airbrush Colors. Has anyone ever used it? What I was thinking of doing, was buying the little jars of Testors enamel paint and use that. The only thing is enamel is so much harder to clean.

[ChillyB1]

So what kind of airbrush did you get? I've been following your posts and congratulate you on your acquisition. I found that getting an airbrush was the best thing I ever did.

Anyway, you can use those Testors (or any other brand) enamels, acrylics, and lacquers. First of all, take your safety seriously when working with paints and solvents. That said, I prefer lacquers, especially for bodies, but also use enamels regularly with good results. I thin both types of paint about 50/50 with lacquer thinner. You can also get paints in spray cans and decant them into a paint jar for use with your airbrush. Tamiya TS paints spray well straight from the can, but are unbelievably perfect shot from an airbrush. And you can get inexpensive spray cans of colors you use a lot of. For example, I get cheap flat black and gloss black then mix them for an excellent semi-gloss black.

Hope that helps a little. I'm sure you'll have plenty of questions as you start to work with your airbrush. You should do a lot of practicing with it to get the hang of the thing before you try painting a body.

Good luck.

[racer93]

I use createx paints, as they're generally much less expensive than tamiya paints. I use general colors, such as white, black, and flourescent colors and they work very well. Obviously, there are some applications that "require" a specific tamiya color. Otherwise, I use createx. Easy use, easy clean up, easy to strip!

Use them just like the zero paints guide (many, many light coats) and it will go on very smooth.

Daniel

[geckoman1220]

this is the air brush I got. It isn't the best airbrush, but I'm sure it will do. I bought it for $100.00

[MPWR]

It's a perfectly good airbrush. It will do everything you need it to, and you're not likely ever to 'outgrow' it. The only thing you need now is to learn to use it.

I strongly recommend getting some aqueous (waterbased) acrylic for learning to airbrush. Tamiya is terrific, but Createx might work OK too (although I would never recommend price point as a selection criteria for paint ). Clean up with Windex glass cleaner or similar.

Always always test spray. I like index cards for this. Always test spray.

Got a compressor and regulator? Changing the pressure will effect the airbrush's performance. I always paint with as much thinner (reducer, water, etc) as possible, and at the lowest pressure possible. Thin until just before the paint runs or puddles as you spray, and reduce the spray pressure to the lowest point that it will consistently atomize the paint. And to determine these things, you must test spray.

Body painting is an additional skill on top of airbrushing. It can definitely be learned and done, but it's best to become confident with your airbrush skills painting other things first.

Have fun, learn, and enjoy....

[Didymus]

Everything MWPR says is completely, totally, utterly right - including the points many novice painters ignore: thin the paint A LOT and use minimum pressure.

I also have an Paasche H-Series. It's just fine for painting car bodies.

If you stay with this hobby, you will eventually use Tamiya products. IMO, they offer the best quality paint and painting stuff on the market. And when you do, do what they recommend and use their thinnner for acrylic paint. It's not just hype; it sprays better, and, for small parts, it brushes better. I just wish it wasn't so damned expensive.

Ddms

[ChillyB1]

Originally Posted by Didymus

Everything MWPR says is completely, totally, utterly right - including the points many novice painters ignore: thin the paint A LOT and use minimum pressure.

I also have an Paasche H-Series. It's just fine for painting car bodies.

If you stay with this hobby, you will eventually use Tamiya products. IMO, they offer the best quality paint and painting stuff on the market. And when you do, do what they recommend and use their thinnner for acrylic paint. It's not just hype; it sprays better, and, for small parts, it brushes better. I just wish it wasn't so damned expensive.

Ddms

And everything Didymus says is completely, totally, utterly wrong!

Not really, but I want to point out that you'll get lots of airbrush-related tips, pointers, suggestions, et cetera that are often mutually exclusive or contradictory. Much of what you end up doing with your airbrush will depend on your experience and experimentation. I personally don't go for the lots-of-thinner/lowest-pressure rule of thumb. Maybe I should. I don't use acrylics so I cannot comment on them, but I use lacquers and enamels and get pretty good results. As I mentioned above, I thin them 50/50 with lacquer thinner; I don't know if MPWR or Didymus would call this a lot of thinner or if they would thin the paint even more. Also, I usually shoot at around 20 to 25 psi for body work; less pressure if I'm doing small parts, and a lot less if I'm shooting Alclad II chrome. In other words, I use different settings for different tasks.

And you are off to a good start with that airbrush. I also bought one of those Paasche VL sets this week at Hobby Lobby. I've been using a single-action, external-mix, siphon-feed Badger 350 for the last three years. The Badger was my first-ever airbrush and I bought it when I got back into modeling. But the difference this VL makes is really a night-and-day kind of thing. The Paasche is an astonishing improvement over the Badger. It took me a little getting used to the double-action mechanism, but the increased control over paint and air flow is remarkable. Moreover, the atomisation of paint in this internal-mix airbrush results in a vastly superior finish and the coverage over the surface of the body makes for very satisfying results.

Good luck with it and practice a lot before you try your hand at a good body.

[Didymus]

Originally Posted by ChillyB1

And everything Didymus says is completely, totally, utterly wrong!

You sure do have a way with words, Chillyb1!

I personally don't go for the lots-of-thinner/lowest-pressure rule of thumb. Maybe I should.

Yeah! Give it a try. You have nothing to lose except a little paint, a lotta lacquer thinner, and a bunch of those index cards. Let us know how it works out - even if it's a big success!

(The world wants to know: Do you use 3 x 5" cards, or do jumbo economy size cards have superior spray testing capabilities?

)

I've got something I use for testing instead of index cards, but you have be willing to go to a lot of trouble for not-very-much benefit. Some time ago, whilst getting bored and antsy at the car wash, I paid too much for one of those corrugated "hold-the-groceries" folding crate things. It's made of black corrugated plastic stuff, like corrugated cardboard, except it's polyfiberacrylicsomedamnthingoranother. I never used it for its intended purpose, so I finally cut it apart and now I use the pieces for spray tests. The surface isn't absorbent, so it stands up well to repeated applications of paint and thinner. I can use the same piece over and over. The black color is good because it shows up colors and coverage. And the pieces are big enough so I don't paint my hand or have to hold them with clamps or tweezers. I suppose this also belongs in the department.

Peace Love.

Ddms

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by Didymus

Everything MWPR says is completely, totally, utterly right

I must find this MWPR you speak of, and seek his knowledge.

Originally Posted by ChillyB1

Not really, but I want to point out that you'll get lots of airbrush-related tips, pointers, suggestions, et cetera that are often mutually exclusive or contradictory. Much of what you end up doing with your airbrush will depend on your experience and experimentation.

Sure, most of us learn to paint by experimentation. But I could have saved years and dozens of crappy paint jobs if someone had told me some pointers early on. One day I figured it out, and painting became easy and fun, instead of the tedious crapshoot it had always been before.

As I mentioned above, I thin them 50/50 with lacquer thinner; I don't know if MPWR or Didymus would call this a lot of thinner or if they would thin the paint even more. Also, I usually shoot at around 20 to 25 psi for body work; less pressure if I'm doing small parts, and a lot less if I'm shooting Alclad II chrome. In other words, I use different settings for different tasks.

Thinning by ratio is a rather imprecise and arbitrary method. Anyone who has ever used a bottle of Zero Paint probably realizes how inconsistent paint can be (not to say anything ill of Zero Paints, but the plastic bottles allow solvents to escape). Sometimes I use less than 50/50, and sometimes I use much more. But it's the paint and the specific conditions that determine that, not a set ratio.

Originally Posted by Didy

And when you do, do what they recommend and use their thinner for acrylic paint. It's not just hype; it sprays better, and, for small parts, it brushes better.

+1 on Tamiya, and +2 on matched thinner. Sure, often you can get paint to work thinning with other stuff, but more often than not paint works much better with the thinner it's designed to be used with. It's totally worth the pennies per session extra it might cost. Personally I'd always rather spend an extra 10 cents on good materials than strip a paint job that didn't go as well as it should.

Tamiya's acrylic thinner can be bought in large plastic bottles. It takes me a year or two to go through one, so I really don't worry about the cost. And you certainly don't have to use it for cleanup!

[klutz_100]

Before you sell your soul to Tamiya and their acrylic paints, you should also try Vallejo Air series if you can get them.

IMO they are better paints and the fact that they come in little plastic dropper bottles in fact makes them more economical than Tamiya jars.

The color range is not so wide as Tamiya so they won't meet all your needs but for some colors they are unbeatable. For example their Black/Negro is a zillion times better then X-18 (satin black) - one of the most commonly used colors in 1/24.

PS Don't confuse the Model Air series (for airbrush use) with the Model Color series (for brush painting). Bottles look very similar but paints are quite different.

[ChillyB1]

One more thing that should be emphasized, and about which you'll receive no ambiguous or contradictory suggestions: Keep your airbrush clean!!

[jmwallac]

Please tell me you used the 40% off coupon and saved yourself $40!!!

I just picked up the starter kit that is labeled as Paasche but is obviously a cheaper import (it's just to the left of the glass cases HL keeps the good ones in). For $13, it's pretty good. Mostly technique IMHO.

I purchased some of the Anita's acrylics for $0.57 when they were on sale. The colors are close to Tamiya, but they run like a bitch when you paint with them. The Tamiya are much more expensive, but they go on so smooth and I'm usually able to get it done with one or two coats tops. I've never tried the Tamiya thinner, but can say that 90% ISO works great.

I'd love to see a video of someone thinning paint, getting an idea for consistency and see how much coverage you get from one pass. I'm thinning the acrylic with mostly water and some windex. When I thinned with 90% ISO, I got horrible results. Any pointers?

[geckoman1220]

Originally Posted by jmwallac

Please tell me you used the 40% off coupon and saved yourself $40!!!

yes, saved me a bunch of money

[geckoman1220]

Originally Posted by jmwallac

Please tell me you used the 40% off coupon and saved yourself $40!!!

yes, saved me a bunch of money

[MPWR]

Originally Posted by jmwallac

I'm thinning the acrylic with mostly water and some windex. When I thinned with 90% ISO, I got horrible results. Any pointers?

90% isopropyl is too volatile to be a good acrylic thinner. It dries in the paint stream too quickly, and the paint reaches the surface being painted already partially dried. The paint goes on with a rough, bumpy texture, and often the nozzle spits paint blobs in the process.

Thinning Tamiya with isopropyl mixed with water is popular with military modelers (airplanes and tanks) who never have to paint gloss finishes. When using gloss colors, Tamiya's acrylic thinner is absolutely worth using. Gloss finishes (and paint performance) are dramatically improved with it.