"Vehicle Painting/Airbrushing - F.A.Q started." Topic

In responce to several emails and posts, i've started a F.A.Q on my blog to answer some of the questions frequently asked (funnily enough)!

Most of my tips and techniques are shared across various posts and forums so rather than go and gather them all i thoughjt i'd start again, so ask away.

Hopefully will just focus on armour/vehicle painting for now.

neil"at"troop-of-shewe.co.uk

oops…

troopofshewe.blogspot.com

Thanks a lot Neil. That's very useful. :^)

Thanks Neil. BTW, what airbrush do you use?

I have two identical Harder & Steenbeck Airbrushes (decided to get a backup) that I've never gotten on with. I wonder if it is me or the air brushes!

Iwata HP-C Plus ( i think), i recently changed from a 0.3 to 0.2 nozzle, to be honest i haven't noticed any difference. Although i do like the dual action aspect and gravity cup. I do find some days it just doesn't work out so i put down and come back another day, bit like painting i suppose.
Am trying micro brushing techniques at the moment with mixed results, in an effort to quickly paint the 400 odd 28mm inca i "need" for the next demo

Do you use a compressor?

Micro brushing techniques?, never heard of that. Is it like painting with brushes smaller than 000?, that wouldn't be quick at all :^P

Another question, which paints do you usually use?, Tamiya, Gunze, Vallejo Air?, other?.

Thank you.

Yep, some silver Iwata jobby, i think designed for the nail brigade. [ airbrushes.com] When i was looking into it i was advised to just bite the bullet and go for a proper one with air regulation. As i paint several vehicles at once it tends to stay running for quiet a while

BTW I'm not an airbrush expert by any means, still learning.

Yep, definitely better to use an air compressor. My H&S air brushes came with crappy little compressors. They didn't do the job so I bought a larger air compressor (from China, like everything else these days).

How long did it take you to get up and running with the airbrush? Was there a lot of mucking around or did you get it going pretty quickly?

Like everyone, i think i had all the bits for about 8 mths before i gained the courage to use it! Its easier now i have it set up in a shed, it was a pain in the ar*e doing it in the kitchen. I think it was the cleaning that put me off, now i'm down to minutes. What i find usefull is a couple of old kits that get practised on, i.e getting the pressure and consistancy right.

How do you store your airbrush? My brother tried storing it in water but it got a residue on the metal.Then he tried thinner but didn't work either.Do you just blow it out and store it dry or what?

I'm experimneting with various diferent paints, Tamiya, Model Air and Vallejo Air. Tamiya is by far the easiest to work with, the other two have better colours but are very thin, this means a several sweep approach that can can be tricky on the smaller scale german camo.

Ref storage, i clean through as normal, each clean i pull the needle as well. Start with ditching the paint left in the cup, fill the cup with water dilute reside and ditch x 2. Hopefully i then have no paint bits in the cup i then use airbrush cleaner dilute and ditch, when confident no stray bits, blow through. As a final touch i spray some of the foaming airbrush cleaner in a can. Dissassemble and clean. On resassembly again some cleaner then half a cup blown through of water. As i can leave set up in the shed and its used frequently i usually leave some cleaner in the cup put the lid on and store upright in a holder. Its rarely put away dry, but woudljust miss the last step if i did.

Thank you very much again Neil. I'm looking at your models now (great inspiration BTW), do you prime them before applying the camo?, what prime do you use?. I prime the vehicles with the Tamiya grey spray but I'm not too happy with the results, it gives them a funny texture on some places.

primed with standard car primer, then tamiya black. There are issues with different resins so ensure they're scrubbed. I've been advised to clean with lighter fluid, i now have some so will be trying it out with a batch of AGN T34's this weekend.

There have been several posts on humidity and the like, but in general quick shallow passes produce a better result than one or two heavy ones. I'v ehad furring occur with sprays but its usuall either crap primer ( never again) or the end of the can, or not mixd enough.

Neil

How do you post questions on your blog?

In your blog about the achilles you say you paint the basic tones then cover with Klear as a solid coat for further washes, then pin washes in the recesses.

I'd like to know more about why you apply the Klear, what effect it has and why its fundamentlal to the process?

Thanks for the link. I like your work. Your information is most useful and greatly appreciated.