Grizzly_bear Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I wanna buy an air brush but i'm like a lost cause as i do not what the hell to look for etc and so forth...... any help and advice will be much appreciated.... Grizz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanhausen Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Page 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
champion_wasabi Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I was in the same boat as you about a month ago. I wanted to get back into gaming and painting but I find that I lack time to be able to paint the way that I want to. I decided that I would make the time no matter what. That being said, I always wanted to get into airbrushing. Seeing different results and what I could and couldn't do, youtube, many many different sources. Not to mention that it's a time saver, seeing DV8's wolves, eggroll's angels. So I started doing research, a lot of research. These are the fruits of this research. Hope that this helps. I've been compiling this into an article for submission. I've seen a lot of people asking and very few sources that have beginner answers. Action Choose single or double action. In a single-action airbrush the trigger only controls the airflow. Push the trigger down and air passes through the airbrush to atomize the paint. Let go of the trigger and airflow stops. The volume of paint is controlled by adjusting the depth that the needle travels into the nozzle. This is accomplished by an adjustment screw on the airbrush, usually at the back of the body. In a double-action airbrush the trigger controls both the airflow and the paint volume. Push the trigger down and air passes through the airbrush, just like a single action brush. Pull the trigger backwards and this allows paint to begin to flow. The farther back the trigger is pulled the more paint is delivered to the airflow. In this way the double-action airbrush is able to provide constantly varying amounts of paint. You do not have to stop, adjust the paint flow, then start spraying again. So the way I see it, a double-action airbrush is much more flexible to use than a single-action airbrush. When painting, the ability to adjust the paint volume coming out is of great value. This is not to say that a double-action airbrush is critical painting. There are many people who use single-action airbrushes extremely well, youtube shows this quite well. It goes back to the concept that an airbrush is just a tool and what works best for one person is not automatically the best choice for everyone. Double-action brushes take a little more time to get used to because your hand has to do two things at once. This is a minor inconvenience that most people overcome very quickly though. Feed Airbrushes obviously require both air and paint to work. Air is simple; hook the airbrush to an air source, and the pressure does the rest. Paint is fed into the airbrush. Two types of feeding are generally used for airbrushes; "Gravity" and "Siphon" Gravity fed airbrushes typically have a paint cup on either the top or side of the airbrush. Paint is poured into the cup and gravity pulls a minute amount down into the mixing chamber of the airbrush where it is atomized and sprayed. Siphon fed airbrush work on the principle of a siphon. A bottle, or other container, is connected to the bottom of the airbrush and a tube runs from the airbrush down into the bottle. As air is blown across the top of the tube paint is pulled up into the mixing chamber where it is atomized and sprayed. There are also some hybrid airbrushes that are a combination of the two. The Badger 360, for example, has a section that can be rotated so that it can use either a paint cup on top or a bottle on the bottom. There are also paint cups available for siphon feed airbrushes that raise the paint level up above the mixing chamber of the airbrush. If the paint level is higher than the mixing chamber, gravity will assist the feeding. The advantage of a gravity feed airbrush is that it will feed at lower air pressure than a siphon feed brush. The air pressure does not have to pull the paint up from the bottle below, so they are capable of spraying at lower pressures. This is important when painting fine lines on minis since lower pressure usually means less overspray to deal with. The advantage of a siphon feed airbrush is usually quantity. The bottles used on them can hold a lot more paint than most paint cups. While this is usually not that critical on minis, it is important when painting large objects or base coating whole armies. DV8 comes to mind for this. It is a nuisance to have to stop every couple of minutes, refill your paint cup, and then try to pick up where you left off. This leads to... Cleaning! Cleaning operation for either type is pretty much the same. Put some thinner in the cup or bottle, and blow it through the airbrush. In most cases that is all that is required. I have seen both types, and unless they're completely disassembled for cleaning it takes about a minute to clean either one. When they are completely disassembled for cleaning the siphon feed brush has one more part to clean than a gravity feed brush, that being the bottle cap assembly itself. OK, maybe a gravity feed brush *IS* slightly easier to clean, but we are only talking a few seconds. :( Gravity feed airbrushes have a paint cup that holds the paint. This bears some consideration when you are choosing the one that you want. In most cases the cup is on the top of the airbrush, but in some cases it is on the side. The cups themselves are normally fixed to the airbrush and are not interchangeable in most cases, however they do come in varying sizes. If you build large models, an airbrush with a tiny paint cup will cause you to have to stop frequently to refill the paint cup. Likewise, if you build small models a large paint cup is probably just going to be in your way. One of the things that I'm worried about when I first start using a gravity feed brush is that the paint cup will either cast a shadow right where I want to paint or block my view. For some siphon feed airbrushes you can purchase a paint cup. They usually sit to the side of the airbrush but since they sit higher than a bottle, and the paint is usually up around the center of the airbrush, they do allow you to spray at a slightly lower pressure. Another thing to consider is whether or not the paint cup has a cap on it. People who spray acrylics know how quickly they dry. Since most of us paint with acrylics; P3, Vallejo, GW; we all have and idea. If the paint cup is open to the air the paint can start to dry in the cup. Having a cap on the paint cup attempts to helps this problem. Nozzles and Needles Most airbrushes have nozzles and needles that can be changed for different purposes, and most people tend to think that a smaller nozzle / needle combination automatically means a finer line. Not always true. A huge gaping hole at the end of your airbrush will never give a fine line, but what controls the line width is the relationship of the needle and the nozzle. It's like a common garden hose nozzle. Most of them can be adjusted to give a wide mist spray or a narrow spray by simply turning them or squeezing a trigger. This is accomplished by changing the area size between the hole in the end of the nozzle and the needle inside. Water, or paint in the case of an airbrush, flows over the needle and out of the nozzle. A thinner needle allows the paint to hit the end of the nozzle at a very shallow angle so that it will exit in a narrow cone. A thicker needle will cause the paint to exit the nozzle at a much wider angle. The difference, obviously, is a trade off between a narrow line and being able to cover large areas. Keep in mind that, just like your garden hose, paint exits an airbrush in the shape of a cone. An inch in front of your garden hose the spray pattern is probably only an inch wide. Ten feet from the end of the hose it is several feet in diameter. An airbrush is the same. Right at the nozzle, the spray pattern is only slightly wider than the nozzle itself but several inches away from the nozzle it will be much wider. The closer you can get the nozzle of your airbrush to the surface, the finer the line will be. This is affected by the air pressure. Put the nozzle right against the surface and paint will splatter everywhere so you have to get back far enough to prevent splatters. But that means you start getting into over spray which also causes the line to widen out. Fine lines are always a balancing act between thinned paint, air pressure, needle/nozzle and the experience. You can also run into problems using ultra-fine needles and nozzles when using paints. Ultra-fine nozzles are usually designed for ink which has a much smaller particle size than paint. In many cases using a very fine nozzle will do nothing but cause feeding problems because the paint is just to thick for the nozzle. So thin, thin, thin. Iwata, Badger, Paasche, Aztek are all brands of reputable airbrushes. After all this I've personally decided to go with a Badger Renegade Velocity. I've read a lot of reviews online and saw that these were comparable to what a lot of people have said is top, Iwata. The deciding factor is that it found the Badger for half price on Amazon. I'm hoping to receive this brush soon. Once it's here, I'll start a new thread on my learning. Hope this help. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Cypher Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I'm about to get an airbrush myself, and one thing I'm curious about - would Citadel or Vallejo paints need to be thinned much or at all? If so, how much, what sort of thinner etc.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
champion_wasabi Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Citadel Colour Paints need to thinned down to milk consistency. Go with 1 part paint to 1.5 parts water. I've also been seeing people talk about using alcohol or Windex. Go with 50/50 water to alcohol or Windex, mix with paints. Citadel Foundation, obviously need to be thinned as well. Research says that it's 70/30 thinner to paint. Vallejo Model and Game Colour is supposed to be thinned anywhere between 3:1 to 2:1. Vallejo Model Air is specially formulated to be used in airbrushes. Though I still hear about people going 9 parts paint to 1 part water. I don't know why that ratio is like that except to think that it's because we're all used to thinning paints out of bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Cypher Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Ah you rock mate, cheers :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanhausen Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 First of all, a nice bit of experience you share there... its nice :) I'm actually surprised you get 2:3 GW:water mixes flowing decently. For both GW paints and VGC paints, I never do anything under 1:5 and I still have problems (.25 needle). If you are starting from scratch, I suggest going for Vallejo Model Air. And rather than thinning it to a specific ratio, I simply add a drop or two of vallejo thinner, regardless of the amount of paint... works perfect for me. I've tried water and window cleaner... to any ratio you might think: it doesn't work for me (I get splattering). As for the OT...be prepared to do a lot of trial and error :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
champion_wasabi Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Lol. :confused: There is no experience involved actually. This is all from research online. I've seen a lot of videos on youtube where the mix was quoted for that. Personally I will be doing a lot of trial and error as well. I have slowly but surely been weening myself off of Citadel Colour for awhile. A couple years ago I had an opportunity to try using P3 and fell in love. Foundation is great. Washes are great. I still reach for my Citadel metallics out of habit but I like using Reaper metallics quite a bit. Though in the end I can say that my personal go to is P3. I've heard that because P3 uses liquid pigment instead of powder, airbrushing with P3 is quite manageable. Being able to thin P3 down a whole lot due to the way I paint, I figure that airbrushing will be the same idea. Just a touch more thinning. Here's to hoping. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstersmith Posted April 30, 2011 Share Posted April 30, 2011 I use Createx and Faskolor. They are RC paints. There are ALOT of paints out there for military color schemes designed for air brushes. I would go with those myself. I constantly get frustrated with my Ewatoc getting clogged by Citadel paints whenused to base coat. Alot of Faskolor line match citadel for base and theyare designed to blend wet. Makes some great effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verpine Posted May 1, 2011 Share Posted May 1, 2011 My suggestion is Iwata Revolution or Eclipse. I have an Eclipse. Of course, I've never tried any other AB's, so I can't give a good comparison, but the Eclipse is amazing. Go double-action for sure, it lets you do a lot more with the airbrush. IMHO, a single-action is really just a glorified spray can (I hope I don't take too much flak for saying that). And please, please, please clean the :lol: thing! Your life will be hell trying to clean it when it's too late, and you have a tiny chunk of dried paint in your nozzle or something like that, and the AB won't work properly!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papakeno Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Hey all! I have considered buying an airbrush to step up my painting one notch. Is there anyone that owns an airbrush that could give me some hints on what model I should be looking for (airbrush pen and compressor)? Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Nihm Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 10 seconds of Searching: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=230728 http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=227995 http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=227019 http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=225840 http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=223548 http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...amp;hl=airbrush http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...t&p=1938645 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Valerius Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 First of all, a nice bit of experience you share there... its nice :) I'm actually surprised you get 2:3 GW:water mixes flowing decently. For both GW paints and VGC paints, I never do anything under 1:5 and I still have problems (.25 needle). If you are starting from scratch, I suggest going for Vallejo Model Air. And rather than thinning it to a specific ratio, I simply add a drop or two of vallejo thinner, regardless of the amount of paint... works perfect for me. I've tried water and window cleaner... to any ratio you might think: it doesn't work for me (I get splattering). As for the OT...be prepared to do a lot of trial and error ;) Going to necro this thread a bit since it isn't THAT old. Do you really paint 1:5 paint:thinner, Tanhausen? I'm just surprised because I was just working on using an airbrush for my GK Stormraven (the first thing I've tried with the airbrush), and I was doing 1:3 paint:water. I don't recall if I had previously thinned this pot of paint, which is a bit of a wild card, but I don't think I did. Even 1:3 was WAY too thin. I didn't get great coverage (which isn't a problem by itself), but when I went back to put another thin coat on to improve coverage, I just pushed the existing paint around more than anything else. The model is going OK so far, but I'm definitely going to have to let it dry before I can touch up the coverage. I ask this because if my paint wasn't too thin (although I think it was), maybe I was doing something else wrong. I was doing about 20-25 PSI for the air, which shouldn't be too terribly high from what I've read. Or, perhaps, is my experience normal? Side note: this has convinced me that I am thoroughly in error throwing sprue away after I get done building kits. I don't think I ruined my Stormraven or anything, but the thought definitely crossed my mind that maybe I shouldn't be taking my first steps on a $60 model. I guess I need to start hanging on to sprue for times like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanhausen Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 GW and game color yes, I thin A LOT. However, it varies from color to color within the same range. Browns for example are quite thick. I simply love model air... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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