How do you spray fine lines with your airbrush?

[Guest]

Hi,

Well I've finally got my airbrush and compressor set up today, a Badger 200G with a Sparmax TC501G, and have spent the afternoon practicing with different pressures, paint/thinners mixtures, blutack masking etc. and really pleased so far with the results.

Whilst I was practicing I tried to get as fine a line as possible by using different pressure and paint mix and did manage to get as fine as @ 1.5-2mm but it would only spray about 25mm long before drying on the needle. I went as far as using about a 60/40 mix of thinners/paint to stop it from drying too quickly and tried with the pressure set as high as 30psi right down to about 10 psi. What am I doing wrong or am are asking too much of the airbrush?

Other than that it sprays lovely and makes an amateur like me able to get a decent finish! The brushes can stay in the draw now.

[John]

Take the nozzle cap off and spray close, I think yours is a single action AB? can you alter the flow from the AB? with a double action you can control the flow better

[Guest]

A few possibilities on this one.

Is it a dual action AB?

(quick google it looks like a single action?)

Immediately you have a problem as you're relying entirely on initial setup to meter your paint flow and cannot regulate it as you go.

Personally, while single action brushes are perfectly good for painting, (I started with a £10 blister pack badger which I still have), they are little use for fine detail in the sense of what an Airbrush artist would need.

Even a cheap ebay dual action clone of an Iwata would be better for detail lines.

However, i'm hoping to help, not bash your airbrush, apologies.

Your paint / thinner ratio sounds fine, make sure you're using the proprietry thinner for your paint, i.e. Tamiya paint - Tamiya thinner etc as they are matched and typically have retarders in, IPA will thin and spray tamiya acrylic well but does dry quickly. Alternatively add some drops of retarder to the mix.

Take off the fan cap and get close to with the tip of the AB, be careful you don't damage the needle tip.

Low pressure, 10 - 15 should be adequate.

The fine-nes of the lines will also be linked to the needle and nozzle thickness, an airbrush artist will typically use a 0.2mm nozzle and needle for fine work and certainly no thicker than 0.3mm.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Guest]

Thanks John, I'll try that tomorrow. Just one thing though, if I take the nozzle off does it not blow bubbles back up in the paint reservoir? The reason I ask is someone showed me a quick way to mix the paint and thinners in the AB paint reservoir is by undoing the nozzle cap a couple of turns and spraying some air gently.

The AB is a single action type with the needle adjuster on the rear.

What would be the smallest width line an AB could spray or is this dependant on your AB spec and nozzle size?

By the way John thanks for the quick service on my past 2 orders, received a package this morning mate.

[Guest]

Hi M1ks,

Thanks for the tips.

I am using Tamiya thinners with Tamiya acrylics, good point.

I think I was advised this AB as I'm only really starting in the world of scale modelling along with airbrushing, and really for what I'll need it for at the moment it will be ideal. I'll certainly try the method of taking off the fan cap though and see how I get on. It explains why the chap who recommended me this AB actually had a slightly bent needle tip on his own one, perhaps he'd been using it for close fine work.

That makes sense what your saying about airbrush artists having very fine tips. Been looking at youtube lately watching spraying techniques and some of them artists are amazing. I guess one of their AB's would be far too fine for large camo work though and covering a 1/32 scale HE111 fuselage.. lol.

I can see why some people own several AB's now.

Thanks for uour help.

[Guest]

Small point Colin. Use White Tac for some reason Blue Tac leaves a slight stain on the paintwork.

Laurie

[John]

Thanks John, I'll try that tomorrow. Just one thing though, if I take the nozzle off does it not blow bubbles back up in the paint reservoir?

Not the nozzle just the cap I'm not familiar with your AB so I don't know if it has a cap, if it does you can get closer to your subject.

By the way John thanks for the quick service on my past 2 orders, received a package this morning mate.

Your welcome, thank you for your custom.

[stona]

All good advice. Why do you need to spray ultra thin lines? I often spray freehand camo schemes or german squiggles and find a line 1-2mm wide is easily achievable. I do use double action brushes which give more control.

Today I have sprayed panel lines on my Hurricane and found myself pulling back from the model to widen the lines slightly and get a softer edge.

I do differ from some of the others in that I've never found it necessary to remove any bits. I'd be worried about damaging the needle.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Hi Stona,

I'm a complete novice when it comes to airbrushing.

It's not really that I need to spray fine lines, it was more the fact I'd seen artists on youtube spraying fine detail and wondered why mine wouldn't go that fine, and thought I was doing something wrong. Mind you, it does go down to 2mm.

Looks like I'm asking a bit much of a single action AB with a medium head fitted. Just noticed that Badger do a "fine" version of this AB too.

It's a good bit of kit though, well built and nicely weighted, and has given some great results today even in my sausage fingers.

[stona]

A factor to consider is the medium that artists use. Modellers tend to use paints which often don't work well with very fine nozzles due to the size of the pigment particles whereas many artists use inks which spray like water!

If you can spray a 2mm line with your single action brush you are already doing pretty well. It certainly sounds like you've got the paint/pressure conundrum solved.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

i use a badger 200 and it has a medium tip on it.i purchased a fine tip for it but didnt notice it was any finer when spraying, the only thing i noticed was that it kept clogging up a lot faster than the medium tip.i have not used it since and i stick with the medium tip although mine is the old style badger.i am a complete novice with the airbrush and maybe i just had not thinned the paint enough.

[Guest]

I didn't consider the pigment particles being larger causing the nozzle to block up easier, makes good sense though and also didn't consider artists using ink, that would explain the finesse they get.

When I was managing a 2mm line with the AB I must of been using near enough a 70/30 thinners/paint mix if not more and about 10-15psi. Mind you it was clogging after a couple of inches.

Next step is to try with the nozzle cap removed, maybe I can open the needle slightly and still get a sharp line without clogging.

I did read an article yesterday that mentioned acrylic retarder to stop it dry so quickly, wonder if that would help?

Not sure if you guys have seen these articles before but found them very helpful......

Thinning Paint

What airbrush is the best