New to Airbrushing question?

[Modler bob]

Right on the correct forum, I think :smiling3:
I have no experience with air spaying, not even from a shaking tin (apart from my old cars)
So what would be a first reasonably priced air sprayer to buy, please?
I wouldn't mind a second-hand one. Is there a classified forum for that?

[Andy the Sheep]

Bob, my experience in airbrushing is not very impressive; I have an old Badger 150 and this means it's a bottom fed a/b. In fact, it sucks the paint from a pot under the nozzle, thus requiring more energy to do the job while a gravity fed one takes advantage of the gravity to let the paint flow into the airflow and then through the nozzle and onto the model.
My only suggestions are:

• choose a gravity fed one; it works at lower pressure and, as far as I know, it's better for finer paint works.
• as a newbie in a/b, look for an easy-to-disassemble-and-clean airbrush. An airbrush which is difficult to clean is something that could make you hate this painting technique.

Two more points in favour of a gravity fed a/b:
first: almost all a/b I see on other modellers' benches are gravity fed and I'm pretty sure there's at least one good reason for that; :smiling4:
second: I'm seriously considering to buy a second a/b, a gravity fed one!

The second item needed to enter the airbrushers' world is a compressed air source.
There are many compressor on the market at very different prices (a search on Internet will give you thousand of possibilities; here is a sample LINK).
Some details to look for are: noise level, with or without a tank, the workload (long and frequent vs short and infrequent paint sessions), budget (some are well above the 300€ line :money-face and space available. If you can install a compressor outside your home, thus reducing the space and noise problems to almost zero (for you, not for your neighbours ) , than you can go for a larger one, like those you can find in almost every DIY shop.
I have an Iwata Power Jet Plus Tubular Air Compressor, which is not cheap and maybe a bit too much sophisticated for my current Badger, but it's an object you buy once every 20/30 years.
I read somewhere that a modeller is using an old 5 kg extinguisher bottle loaded with CO2 and fitted with an ad-hoc pressure adapter. The compressed CO2 is cheap and has no moist.
A friend of mine has an homemade compressor made by adapting an old nebuliser compressor to an old moka coffe boiler (Matron is already taking care of him...:face-with-thermometer::rolling::tongue-out3. It sounds weird, and, in fact, he's a little on the weirdo side, but he's a very fine modeller!

I'm pretty sure you will find good advice here. Many members are far more expert than me about a/b.

Hope to see soon some of your "hissing stick" paint works.

Andrea

[Modler bob]

Thanks for the very long reply Andy.
I guess most of us modellers are a bit weird
I have taken on board all you say, and will do some series research.
Regrds
Bob

[Jim R]

Sound advice from Andrea.
Buy a compressor. Do not try to use compressed air cans - they are expensive and do not deliver a consistent air pressure. Buy a compressor with an air tank. The tank give consistent pressure (expensive compressors often work well without the tank but they do mean a big outlay). Airbrush should be dual action (press down for air and pull the trigger back for paint), gravity fed and have a nozzle about 0.3. Something like THIS. OK the airbrush is a basic Chinese job but will work fine and you can upgrade later. The AS186 compressor is what many on here use very happily.
Jim

[Ian M]

My five bobs worth;

A good compressor is a must stay away from the cheapo offers.
A compressor with an air tank is preferable. The reserve of air will give a better flow of air without 'pulses'.
A good airbrush to start with? Have a look at Sparmax. Great little units. Several different sizes to choose from. Both the nozzle and amount of paint it can hold.
A good place to start is go to the Scale-model shop and have a look at what is on offer.
Find what you think you need then you can ask on here for advice. Then you will get 200 different replies to help you out. lol

[BarryW]

Lots of good suggestions there. For me the following is a specification I would suggest.

1/ A gravity fed airbrush with a needle size of .3 or .35 that is good for general use. You could stretch to .4 but I would not go down to .2 as it can be more prone to clogging though that depends on what paints you use.

2/ Avoid the cheap Chinese ‘knock offs’ as a false economy. They work well for some but for many they don’t last long. I would suggest spending something in the region of £100 or so for a decent brand. Brands I have used and would recommend include Harder & Steenbeck (exceptionally easy to strip clean), Iwata (refined and reliable), Creos Procon Boy (reliable, refined) and Topnotch (decent all-rounder).

3/ Get a compressor with a tank. You can get these for between £60 and £100 and, in this respect, a cheap Chinese model can provide decent value. If a bundled airbrush is included either throw away the airbrush or just use it for primer.

4/ If you still have some money left you might want to get an in-line ‘fine pressure control’ at the ‘business end’ as an easy way to adjust pressure. I set the compressor pressure at the highest level I might need and then adjust it up and down, as needed, at the airbrush end.

Airbrushing can be really rewarding, providing a finish and effects that you would not manage with a brush. But it does need a lot of practise to master it. Indeed it is a very steep learning curve but well worth persevering with.

There are a lot of tutorial videos available and I strongly recommend watching them.

There are ways that you can shorten the learning curve and simplify your airbrushing, though and what I would recommend is to eliminate one of the varying factors that you need to contend with when learning. That is thinning ratios. Every paint has its own thinning needs and this can change depending on your set up. So the answer to this is:
1/ Use the same paint all the time through the airbrush so you get used to it’s characteristics. That said, a lot of brands are not even consistent between their own colours so that is not necessarily that easy to do.
2/ There are different characterises between types of paint. Water based acrylics spray differently to alcohol based, lacquers are different again and enamels different again. In terms of ease of use I rank them in the following orders.
1/ Lacquers are the best through the airbrush. They spray like silk, adhere well, dry in minutes. The downside being smell and they cannot be hand brushed very well.
2/ Alcohol based. These also spray well, perhaps not quite as well as lacquers but pretty good. Also have some fumes and are not ideal for hand brushing.
3/ Water based acrylics. These are commonly available and popular but need to have added retarder to stop ‘tip-dry’, they can take a long time to cure, as opposed to just being touch dry, an important consideration for masking as they don’t adhere well and can easily peel off with masking. They do hand brush well though. Their big benefit is a lack of smell so they are ‘friendly’ if you are spraying in a confined area but do wear a particle mask.
4/ Enamels. A lot of people love enamels and I rate them fourth only because they are not as widely available these days. They have no spraying advantages over lacquers but plenty of advantages over water based, other than fumes. Humbrol used to be the most easily available but I understand they are withdrawing enamels from the market and, besides, I was not impressed by them anyway.

To summarise - lacquers are best for the airbrush and if you use a lacquer based paint that does not need thinning, even if spraying fine lines, you get a win win situation. I use a brand called MRP (also known as Mr Paint, that is not to be confused with the Gunze Mr Color range though). I have used their lacquers through the airbrush exclusively for over 5 years and I have never had to thin them or mix them due to their huge range. They spray beautifully at a low psi of 10-15 or even lower when spraying fine lines. The pigments are so small they work even with small needle sizes. I use their primers and varnishes as well as ordinary paint. That said, you do need a paint booth to extract fumes (another expense to allow for) and for hand painting small details over the lacquers you will need a small selection of water based acrylics (I use Vallejo).

This is a lot longer post than I intended but I hope it’s helpful.

[Steve Jones]

When I first started out I picked up a compressor for £50 and brought two basic airbrushes from China for £15. Once I got used to the idea of airbrushing I started to update my kit. There is plenty of second hand stuff around on Gumtree, Ebay etc.

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Bob

i agree with the other; a duel action gravity fed airbrush is the best optoon. That way you can control thd amount of air and the amount of paint seperately.

i bought a cheapo Chinese airbrush from Ebay when my daughter toyed with nail art and was pleasantly pleased with it. A good starter airbrush.

regarding compressors- like others have said; one with a reservoiur is essential. My first one didn't have one and the air pulsed which did not make airbrushing easy, having a reservoir tank means the airflow will be a constant pressure.

it may sound counter intuitive but if I were starting out I would get a decent compresser and a cheapo Chinese airbrush.

when you are set up with them there are two things you need to do: practice and clean the airbrush. practice, practice practice and clean, clean, clean. More people have problems by not cleaning airbrushes than anything else. Every I use mine I take it apart and clean it, then I clean it again! i probably spend more time cleaing than actually airbrushing!

l
with most things, it takes practice to get any good. The airbrush is no different.

There are 7 variables when airbrushing:

1 - air pressure, - set on the compressor,
2 - amount of air going through the airbrush - controlled on the airbrush, (usually by pushing down on the airbrush trigger)
3 - paint consistency,
4 - amount of paint going through the airbrush - controlled on the airbrush (usually by pulling the trigger backwards which pulls the needle back allowing more paint through the nozzle,
5 - size of the airbrush nozzle,
6 - how far you are from the surface being painted,
7 - the speed you move the airbrush across the surface being painted.

it sounds worse than it it, but only by practice and trial and error will you what is comfortable for you, and that will depend on what you are doing. For instance airbrushing a base coat over a whole model may be best holding the airbrush. a few inches from the models with a high pressure setting so you get a wide spray area, while detailed camo may be best holding the airbrush closer and running at a lower pressure.

i used to airbrush s lot more than 'i do now, so everytime i return to airbrushing I work through a practice routine to 'get my eye back in', I posted it a while ago, :

https://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/airbrush-practice.32531/

Also wear a mask - most paints are not actually poisonous but the droplets do dry and if you breath then in they will not do your lungs any good.

most of all - have fun!

Peter

[Dave Ward]

I don't think I could possibly add anything else to the sage advice above! Ask 100 modellers how they airbrush & you'll get 100 answers!. All I can say is practice, practice & more practice! I use a cheapo kit as a guinea pig, its gone beyond piebald - more Technicolour Dreamcoat!
Dave

[Modler bob]

Thanks for the very long reply Andy.
I guess most of us modellers are a bit weird
I have taken on board all you say, and will do some series research.
Regrds
Bob

Beg your pardon Andrea,. I thought you was a bloke

[stillp]

4/ If you still have some money left you might want to get an in-line ‘fine pressure control’ at the ‘business end’ as an easy way to adjust pressure. I set the compressor pressure at the highest level I might need and then adjust it up and down, as needed, at the airbrush end.

Any chance of a link Barry, please?
Pete

[JR]

All been said really . Agree with Dave on practice , oh and don't be put off if you use acrylics and you get tip drying .

[PaulinKendal]

Airbrushing comprises four separate actions: air on, paint on, paint off, air off. And don't you forget it!

Seriously, I found getting my head around using the dual action lever the hardest part of starting to airbrush - you tend to shut off air and paint simultaneously, which is a surefire route to clogging the damn thing up.

So - air on, paint on, paint off, air off!

[Tim Marlow]

I don't think I could possibly add anything else to the sage advice above! Ask 100 modellers how they airbrush & you'll get 100 answers!. All I can say is practice, practice & more practice! I use a cheapo kit as a guinea pig, its gone beyond piebald - more Technicolour Dreamcoat!
Dave

I’ll echo this, except, I think you would get 110 different answers LOL.

It always comes down to buying kit, then making it work for you in the way that you want. That comes with practice, nothing else. What will work for you, will work for you. What works for me, works for me, and what works for him, works for him. There is no “magic formulae”, just experience gained by time served.

An example is airbrushes. Virtually everyone on here uses one of the many top feed brushes in the market, and get great results. They are capable of the most refined painting and have the lowest demand for air.

Bottom feed brushes are very useful if you need to do a lot of painting without refilling the colour reservoir when batch painting or painting very large items. They need more air pressure when driven though, and are more suited to over all spray jobs than detail work.

Me, I think I’m the only one using a side feed brush. It’s a bit of a hybrid, with some of the advantages of both types of brush, but also some of the drawbacks. I use it because of the advantages it has that suit the way I work. It is so much easier to clean than a top feed, because the paint path is full accessible. It is very robust, yet refined in operation. It can use large or small colour cups, and have them changed mid painting like a bottom feeder, and lastly, the cup can be placed on either side so I can always see what I’m working on….. but it does take a little more pressure to drive it so loses out in the most refined uses.

Don’t overthink this. To airbrush you need an airbrush, an air source, and some ancillaries like connecting hose and airbrush stand.
Work our your budget, and get items that fit within it. Don’t blow the majority of the budget on the brush, because without a reliable source of air it will never do what you want. On the other hand, the best compressor in the world won’t make a cheap airbrush perform like a top end job. I would go 50% on the brush, 40% on the air, and 10% on the ancillaries.

[BarryW]

Any chance of a link Barry, please?
Pete

Hi Pete. SMS doesn’t have any that I can find listed but I found this on line.

https://www.graphicsdirect.co.uk/products/harder-steenbeck-fpc-valve-complete?gclid=CjwKCAjwk_WVBhBZEiwAUHQCmUlbKlFsd1D8Hxuf_fe_j1ivZogKv843e341sJvlrcG0-uwibrcdOBoCvjMQAvD_BwE

They are also called MAC valves incidentally. They do the same thing.