As I've finally completed and airbrushed a kit (see my Bf109 completed thread), I’ve put together a few ‘lessons learned’ by someone new to airbrushing and acrylics. It’s nothing original, and I know there are lots of folks around this forum who know far more about it than me, but this is my experience, and if you’re starting out with airbrushing, you might find it useful:
Overall, my first experience of using an airbrush has been very positive, and if you’re thinking of taking this particular plunge, I’d encourage you to do it. Like everything new, it’s a bit nerve-wracking at first and you’ll leave your comfort zone temporarily, but, for me at least, it’s been well worth it.
This has got a bit long - sorry!
- Those compressors you get off eBay work just fine, as do the cheap Chinese airbrushes that come with them, at least if you’re just using the airbrush as a small spraygun (which most of us do most of the time).
- Practise on plastic bottles, packaging, etc. before attacking the kit. I found this really useful. Even when I felt ‘competent’, I test sprayed my ‘practice bottle’ before each new coat. Plastic packaging with various contours and corners was good for practising the awkward corners such as wing/tailplane roots (not too much paint and keep the brush moving). The bottle was also useful for testing out decals for silvering, etc.
- Acrylic paint is fragile even when dry, so handle with care and think about giving it a coat of varnish if you’re likely to be giving it a hard time in later stages of the build.
- Because the airbrush gives such a thin coat, you can give extra coats of varnish, primer, etc. if you need – it won’t obscure the detail.
- Clean and prime surfaces really thoroughly – I had a few problems with the top coat coming off when masking was removed, which I put down to missing sections with the primer (see next point).
- If your eyesight isn’t the best (like mine), it can be difficult to see whether you’ve primed properly if the primer is the same colour as the plastic (e.g. grey on grey). Try putting a different colour primer on first, such as white, then priming again with your preferred colour.
- For some top colours, such as yellow and, I believe, white and red, a white primer/undercoat is required. I had major problems with yellow top coat over grey primer looking very dull, resolved by stripping it and recoating over white primer.
- Vallejo Model Air works very well in an airbrush (as you’d expect), but not so well if you have to paint smaller parts with a brush. It might be worth airbrushing these too. If you do use a brush, a large soft one seems to give the most consistent coverage.
- Thinning Model air in a ratio of 10:1 paint to thinner worked for me. It may not have been necessary. But I found the Vallejo varnishes really needed thinning, more like 1:1.
Overall, my first experience of using an airbrush has been very positive, and if you’re thinking of taking this particular plunge, I’d encourage you to do it. Like everything new, it’s a bit nerve-wracking at first and you’ll leave your comfort zone temporarily, but, for me at least, it’s been well worth it.
This has got a bit long - sorry!
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