Hello all, total newbie, looking to learn

[Guest]

Hello Andy and welcome to the forum :smiling2:.

[papa 695]

Hi and welcome to the forum Andy

[Guest]

What kind of models do you intend to build? Chances are you won’t need to use different sizes of paint cup: I mostly build 1/35 scale military vehicles, and find that even the smallest cup that came with my Aztek A470 holds enough paint for an entire model, for example, never mind the different colours in a camouflage pattern. Being able to easily change the nozzles for wider or finer spraying is very useful, though.

Good call. I'm already worrying too much about the little things! I guess I just need to crack on and get a few builds under my belt. That should show me what I really need :smiling:

[spanner570]

Hello Andy. Welcome to the Forum.
Join in and have fun.
Can't help with A.B.'s advise, I use brushes.

Ron

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Andy
Most quality airbrushes have the facility to swap nozzle/needle and paint cups. I know my Iwatta does :thumb2: I think a decent air supply is almost as important though. Smooth air means smooth paint.

[yak face]

Hi andy welcome to the forum. Youll find the knowledge on here invaluable . Sounds like you're on the right track already , just dont be afraid to ask anything . As a former apprentice paint sprayer myself ( albeit 35 years ago , abbey garage , bottom of twentywell lane!) i reckon youll be able to master the airbrush no probs, its basically the same principles - air first then slowly feed in the paint , its a two stage trigger just like a spraygun, you can even get an AB with a handle and trigger if you like. As for the equipment , maybe a quieter compressor would be nice but once its charged the tank it shuts off so the noise is only once in a while. The cheap chinese airbrushes are perfectly usable ( its all ive ever used) so give them a good go first before splashing out hundreds of pounds. So you're in Gleadless , im just up the hill in Frecheville, come on the south yorks massive!!! Cheers tony

[Guest]

Small world Tony! As a youth I used to bomb up Twentywell regularly in my mini, pretending I was on a hillclimb :smiling5:

I bit the bullet and a cheap airbrush compressor arrived today. So much more useable as I can hardly hear it running under my workbench. Not that the noise of my big one bothered me that much, but if I could hear it in the house I know the neighbours could too.

I have looked at those trigger style airbrushes as they would be like an even smaller version of my Iwata LPH80 which is an awesome mini gun, so it would be an easy conversion, but I've spent the afternoon painting plastic milk bottles and I think I'll soon get the hang of a "regular" airbrush.

Also made a good start on my first model, painting the cockpit parts then having to the scrape the paint back off so I could glue them together! Probably not the last rookie mistake I'll make but it's all part of the learning curve I guess.

[Guest]

...painting the cockpit parts then having to the scrape the paint back off so I could glue them together!

I don’t know about anyone else, but I use cyano on everything that isn’t likely to be stressed, i.e. fuselage, wings etc.
Might save you the effort of scratching off paint!

[Guest]

With some more experience, you’ll be able to look at the parts and see what bits you can put together before painting, and which are best left loose so you can get the paint where you want it to. I usually try to put together as many parts as possible that need the same colour, and leave off those that need a different one. For an aircraft cockpit, for example, this could mean glueing most of the cockpit together except the seat and pilot (if one is provided), paint these three bits separately, and only then bring them together.

Take a look at my Lightning, for example: as you can tell from those photos, the pilot was glued in only after the rest of the cockpit was painted. What you can’t see there is that I had also left the seat off, but the rest of the cockpit parts, I put together before painting.

What also helps is to use a glue that dissolves model paint — that way you often don’t have to scrape much paint off at all, especially if the joint will be out of sight anyway.

[Tim Marlow]

I second Jakko on the glue use, Revell Contacta cuts through quite nicely if you give it a few seconds to work before joining the parts. You have to be careful of overusing the glue, but that is true if you have scraped the joints anyway....

[colin m]

I could use my existing compressor, but at 96dB

Hello, and yes, that's how I started - I had to use ear defenders !

[Guest]

I second Jakko on the glue use, Revell Contacta cuts through quite nicely if you give it a few seconds to work before joining the parts. You have to be careful of overusing the glue, but that is true if you have scraped the joints anyway....

Yes, the Contacta seems to have worked quite well, it was just so cold out in the shed last night that it took an age to dry. The temperature never really bothered me when I was woodworking in there but it sure makes a difference when painting and glueing it seems. Might have to finally get around to insulating it a bit better!

Hello, and yes, that's how I started - I had to use ear defenders !

I'd need to buy them for the whole street :smiling5:

[Dave Ward]

Tony, Andy,
Twentywell Lane! - Our hillclimb was Hagg Lane over at Rivelin, in a Moggie 1000, praying that we didn't have to stop................. Going down was a bit hairy, as well, involving use of the handbrake. Jointly owned with my brother, it was a real battler. It was stolen, and never did surface!
Dave

[Guest]

Yes, the Contacta seems to have worked quite well, it was just so cold out in the shed last night that it took an age to dry. The temperature never really bothered me when I was woodworking in there but it sure makes a difference when painting and glueing it seems.

Definitely: acrylic paint will harden faster when it’s warm, since it’s a chemical reaction that causes them to “dry”. I used to spray my models in the shed, where there is a CV radiator but it’s not exactly turned up high, and the difference in drying time between winter and summer was very noticeable. Solvents in both glue and paint will evaporate faster in the warm too.

[Guest]

Definitely: acrylic paint will harden faster when it’s warm, since it’s a chemical reaction that causes them to “dry”.

Indeed.

At work, between coats I have a "flash off" setting which raises the air temperature to 40C and activates a system of 32 blower vents that create turbulence to scrub the boundary layer of saturated air away from the cars surface, massively reducing drying time. A model would be dry in seconds in there, although I'd have to strap it down or the violent air movement would blow it around like a rag doll!