Tacitus | 06 Apr 2017 9:24 a.m. PST |
Dear airbrush users, I have played with an airbrush once or twice (before the days of the interwebs), but quickly lost interest due to my insane inability to visualize what I was supposed to do with it. I mean, beyond spraying paint onto a car or tank model. What does an airbrush do for you? Does it completely replace standard brushes? Does it have any disadvantages? How hard would it be for you to give it up? The barrier to entry for an airbrush setup is relatively expensive, so any helpful advice is certainly appreciated. Thanks! |
Col Durnford | 06 Apr 2017 9:38 a.m. PST |
Cheap airbrush – Primer coat, seal figures after painting, occasionally used for first coat of paint if figure is mainly that color (like WWII British infantry). |
WarWizard | 06 Apr 2017 9:38 a.m. PST |
Good questions. I would also like to know how easy or difficult is it to change from one color to another. And how do you cleanup after use, so next color is not affected by last color you used. (Tacitus – hope you do not mind my adding my questions also). |
BCantwell | 06 Apr 2017 9:43 a.m. PST |
For me it has completely replaced rattle can spray paints for primer coats and finishing clear coats. This has allowed me to do these steps in my climate controlled basement and has completely eliminated problems with sheen, drying time, and the dreaded white frost. I also find that putting base coats on many models takes a fraction of the time it takes using a brush. I have been expanding my repitoire of techniques and now paint most of my horses using my airbrush and have been doing a lot of the shading work on vehicles with it as well. Mine certainly has not replaced brushes for most work, but I definitely find it very useful and would not want to give it up. The main disadvantage is the need to be pretty meticulous in cleaning up after use so that you don't clog it up with dried paint. I found a bunch of good tips on the interwebs and once I started using those, I have had very few problems. As for entry costs, if you are looking to use an airbrush for the sorts of things I am, it doesn't need to be too high. The Iwata Neo that I use is a very serviceable basic airbrush and can be had very reasonable prices. If you live in the US where Hobby Lobby is found, you can use one of their 40% off coupons and get obne for ~$42. I have a no-name compressor I got off Ebay for < $100 USD and it has workd perfectly for me for nearly 2 years. |
BCantwell | 06 Apr 2017 9:48 a.m. PST |
WarWizard, I clean mine with a 50/50 Windex/water solution. I scammed a couple of my wife's used contact lens solution bottles and keep one filled with this and one with distilled water. I keep a small bucket near my painting desk and when I need to clean it I just rinse it out, then run alternating windex and water through it a few times. I pull the needle and wipe it down before those cleaning rinses. Sometimes use a q-tip to get extra paint out from around the tip and the paint resevoir. I also tend to store mine tip down in a jar of 50/50 windex, which keeps any paint bits that I missed from drying out in the tip. I'd say that it takes me no more than a minute or two of cleaning between colors. |
Garand | 06 Apr 2017 9:51 a.m. PST |
I use my airbrush extensively, though for full discolsure I am also a military modeler as well. I use it often for spraying basecoats if the figures or models are going to predominantly one color. I use it sometimes for soft-edge camo on models larger than 1/48 scale (in 15mm the diffusion even with a fine tip is too much to be realistic…look at BF models for what I mean). I also use it for laying down clearcoats as well. An airbrush does not nor should not replace completely brush painting, but to supplement or complement it. @Warwizard: in terms of changing colors it depends. Reds & blues tend to be strong colors so often require stripping & cleaning if going between those colors. White almost always requires stripping when switching to. But if you are switching between earth tones or other dull colors (like olive drab to brown), you can run some thinner through the mechanism for a couple minutes then go to the next color. For acrylics I usually use rubbing alcohol (the cheap stuff for cleaning the airbrush) or sometimes just water. EDIT: I should note the paints I usually airbrush with are either Tamiya or Testors Acryl. I do not use enamels in an airbrush anymore, & try to avoid water-based acrylics since I have yet to find one that actually sprays well (I'm going to try Vallejo model color in a future project, and am looking at Mission Models acrylics which got high praise recently). Damon. |
Puddinhead Johnson | 06 Apr 2017 9:52 a.m. PST |
As for entry costs, if you are looking to use an airbrush for the sorts of things I am, it doesn't need to be too high. The Iwata Neo that I use is a very serviceable basic airbrush and can be had very reasonable prices. If you live in the US where Hobby Lobby is found, you can use one of their 40% off coupons and get obne for ~$42. I have a no-name compressor I got off Ebay for < $100 USD USD and it has workd perfectly for me for nearly 2 years. You need a compressor. That's at least $100 USD for a good one. |
durecell | 06 Apr 2017 10:00 a.m. PST |
I got one recently as a present. So far I've used it for priming, painting the model a specific colour and painting tanks. I've done 5 sessions so far. With priming I found that it's easier to just use a spray can due to the clean up time of the airbrush afterwards. Airbrushing the model a specific colours is nice and has saved a lot of time over using a brush. Painting the tanks went badly I tried something called colour modulation but wasn't able to get the spray small enough to do detailed work. Based on my results with painting tanks replacing the brush is completely impossible for now as I can't do anything more than painting a model one colour. I found maintenance on the airbrush time consuming and I've managed to bend one needle and break a nozzle so far. While my skills should improve over time early results have been disappointing considering the cost of the thing. |
Garand | 06 Apr 2017 10:25 a.m. PST |
I use spraycans too, but recently started moving away from them in favor of an airbrush. Like the above I was using them to save on clean-up time, but frankly the level of finishing is just not where I want it to be. You can get thinner, denser color coats with an airbrush, which has finer spray patterns to get complete coverage. FREX if I miss some spots I then have to go blast the model again with spraypaint, causing paint build up in areas I might not need or want it. An airbrush allows me to more effectively get the color where I need it. Damon. |
whitphoto | 06 Apr 2017 10:27 a.m. PST |
$10 USD airbrush, $200 USD compressor. I use it for basecoats and sealing mostly. I also use it if I need to spray PVA on terrain to make flock stick or anything like that. |
Wackmole9 | 06 Apr 2017 10:47 a.m. PST |
collect dust on my sheaf. |
Xintao | 06 Apr 2017 11:04 a.m. PST |
|
daler240D | 06 Apr 2017 11:48 a.m. PST |
i just find it does a finer more consistent finish that is a lot easier to control. |
Phillius | 06 Apr 2017 12:56 p.m. PST |
I use mine for priming and base coating. In the past I have used one to do Tyrannids for my son; the red and black colour scheme, with the blue highlight on the plates (for which I used a brush). Most recently I have used it to paint the bases of my ECW Royalists. That's after I have textured the mdf bases. And yes, I do get some spray on the boots, but if done carefully enough, it just looks like marching dust. I have also used it to do the base colours on my ACW Yankees. Two different blues, jackets and trousers, and black for the head gear. Then finished off with the brush. At it's most useful, I expect to use it to do primary colours on figures. Followed by a wash, and then a brush applied highlight. P.S. I am no expert. |
Striker | 06 Apr 2017 2:42 p.m. PST |
I use mine for 1/35 models but for game stuff I paint vehicles with it. Basecoating 6mm vehicles & aircraft and my 1/2400 ships. I also use it for terrain, which is what I practice my masking skills on. I don't use it as often as regular brushes but I really like it for light colors (especially white). I do have one of the "hobby" compressors but one from from the local hardware store will do fine and it should be less than $200. USD |
Chris Wimbrow | 06 Apr 2017 4:00 p.m. PST |
I have a nice Badger 350 (that hasn't seen a bit of paint for my fear of screwing up) but I used a cheap (Testors, maybe?) one to prime a bunch of GW Epic scale minis and it was amazing. Think spray can with better control, and mixing your own colors as needed. Different nozzles can bring it down to almost writing with a pen. Besides the expense, there's just the venting and protection from overspray (which the cans need as well) and dealing with a noisy compressor. |
Chris Wimbrow | 06 Apr 2017 4:01 p.m. PST |
Oh! But it doesn't replace fine sable brushes for the close in work. |
bc1745 | 07 Apr 2017 10:21 a.m. PST |
Nothing….that's the wife's job! |
Anthropicus | 07 Apr 2017 12:02 p.m. PST |
Saves enormous amounts of time on base coats. I can usually get some blacklining and shading for free with careful, angled application of a light base shade over a black undercoat. |
PeterH | 11 Apr 2017 11:55 a.m. PST |
does anyone spray both enamels/solvent based paints and water colors and/or varnishes for that matter through the same airbrush or should one use separate airbrushes? I have an Aztek, not used yet, and have wondered if I could use it to spray Tamiya acrylics for one job (tank camo)and Humbrol primer on another job (tanks and figures) |
Joes Shop | 11 Apr 2017 1:15 p.m. PST |
I have enough so that I can assign specific airbrushes to specific paint type(s) – but – it is not necessary or required. The key when switching paint type(s) using one airbrush is to clean it completely from one type before using another. I have used the Aztek with all different types of paint with no issues: I really liked it but the trigger design was so odd (for me) that I sold it. The only real exception to make is for lacquer based paint and metallics (e.g., Alclad): I only use one airbrush for those since (microscopic) metal flaking can be extremely difficult to remove.
|