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Decanting Ironlak Spray Paint


Evil Eye

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So I acquired a new weapon in my arsenal in the battle against mediocre paintjobs- Ironlak Chrome Silver. It's a ridiculously shiny and very durable spray paint that resembles factory chrome, but DOESN'T flake off at the slightest provocation like Alclad. It also has a vague vanilla aroma, which is nice. So, nigh-on identical finish to factory chrome but durable enough for wargaming, what's the problem?

 

Well, Ironlak is really meant for Graffiti. I tested it out on a cheap toy as a practice run, and I ran into one big issue- it comes out the can VERY quick and thick. Not unusuably so, but enough that if you depress the nozzle for a nanosecond too long, it clogs the details. Now, this could be the nozzle I'm using, and I will be sure to test out different nozzles (which I have thanks to a previous can I bought for a now abandoned board project). However, I would love to be able to airbrush it on, and thus may need to decant it.

 

Now I don't necessarily need a tutorial on decanting it as there are many available (though any additional advice is appreciated). The question is, is anyone familiar with this brand, and is it even suitable for decanting for airbrush work? I don't know how fine the pigment is (I can't imagine it's too coarse as it's so shiny) but I also don't know if there's any other potential problems with using it through an airbrush.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi,

 

There's a couple of things to remember when using spray paint.

 

Firstly, cans are available in two different pressures - high and low. High pressure is exactly that, you press down on the cap and it comes out very fast. Low pressure allows for a bit more variation, a gentle press will result in less paint coming out at a (comparatively) slower rate, although you can replicate the effect of a high pressure can with a firmer push.

 

Ironlak is a high pressure brand, as are many of the smaller, cheaper manufacturers. If you want to use spray cans on your minis, I'd recomend using a low pressure can as it allows much more control and a thinner coat, so you have less chance of losing any detail under the paint. There's a few manufacturers of low pressure cans (although they also make high pressure variants so double check what you're buying). I'd suggest either Molotow or MTN94 - I see you're UK based, so this is a UK sellers I've used in the past:

 


 


 

You can buy cans from some art supply shops, but they always have a *huge* mark up. Go directly to a graffiti supplier if you can.

 

Secondly, caps. Caps are come in two types - male and female. Male caps have a connector on them that goes into the top of the can, female caps go on cans that have the connector coming out of the top:

 

http://artprimo.com/catalog/images/capchart/male-female-can-cap-diagram-med.jpg

 

For the most part caps are universal between brands, but super cheap paints from Poundland / DIY-type paints tend to be male cans and their caps won't fit Ironlak / Molotow / MTN. This isn't really in issue because those paints and caps are awful - very high pressure, and horrible paint.

 

Proper caps come in many different types, but the main ones are fat, medium (which generally come as standard on the can when you buy it), skinny and soft (also known as fade), and are distinguished by the cap colour and "dot" colour. Fat caps have a wide spray, medium are medium, skinny are thin and soft are more diffused and generally used to blend between colours. For minis I'd probably stick with the medium or  a soft. Fat caps are too much even on a low pressure can, although they could be useful for large pieces like scenery, and skinny would be too small, meaning you'd have to move the can more and most likely end up with an uneven coating of paint. (From a quick look, Ironlak ship with a fat cap on them. This would explain your results so far).

 

Caps can be bought here:

 


 

I'm not sure about the mechanics of decanting the paint for airbrush use or how good they'd be once done, as I've never done that, but at the very least I'd suggest using either Molotow or MTN over Ironlak. While it's by no means a bad paint, Ironlak is a smaller company as such their paint tend to be thicker, glossier, and have *much* less variation in colour choice. Molotow and MTN are much bigger, with a more 'developed' product, and I suspect they would work much better.

 

Best of all though could be MTN Water Based - it's designed for use on canvases and the like rather than walls so it's thinner, and being water based it would probably dilute much better and work with an airbrush. However, the colour range isn't as good and I'm not sure how well the chrome works when it's not an acrylic. It might be a bit washy, rather than the solid shine you get with the normal stuff.

 

Hope that helps, and if you've got any questions then let me know. 

Edited by Spottswoode
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Thanks!

 

I might have to look into the other manufacturers- if their chrome is as good as this one (and in a more controllable form) it'll definitely be worth it. I'll try and track some down when I have more money anyway. In any case I will continue to experiment with what I have, and I'll report back.

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No problem. Try Molotow with a soft cap and see how that works out.

 

The other option is if you only need to cover a small area, try one of their paint pens. They're push flow, so dab it a couple of times on a scrap of paper to get the paint going, but the paint inside is exactly the same colour and quality as their sprays, so it's a really good finish.

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