Well, having always wanted one I finally treated myself to a cheap airbush/compressor combo on trademe (the local e-bay equivalent). I figured it would be good to learn on. The airbrush was a no name double action siphon type. Ok. I managed to get the name of the shop it was purchased from....should be able to track down what it actually is at some stage.

I had at home an Airfix Spit Mk 1 that someone had chucked into a kit I bought secondhand as spare parts...they'd done a shocking job on it. Nevertheless it looked a fine test subject to learn how to use the brush.

All paints were Tamiya Acrylics.

Lessons Learned and Conclusions Drawn

From my massive two days experience

1. Like many people, I was initially highly apprehensive, but I need not have been. It is relatively simple....although I can easily see that expertise is a long way off!

2. Pull your airbrush apart before you start and just have a look. It corrected a number of mis-apprehensions on my part...eg when I hear people talking about .35mm needles I imagined a hypodermic type thingy with a .35mm hole in the tip. Not so. It's a solid needle forming the flow through a hole in the tip of the airbrush of the appropriate size. I imagine that pulling the needle back a little adjusts the spray pattern (haven't tried this yet).

3. I'm actually very glad I started with a double action. Being to do air-on before introducing paint is excellent for getting any paint spatter out of the way and also sorts out any water building up in the line.

4. See above....I need a moisture trap and so will you unless you're working in a humidity controlled environment. Auckland in December is humid and I'm working un-airconditioned just off the garage. But turning air-on away from the model for a sec or two then bringing it to the model without turning the air off is good practice and usually clears any water there might be.

5. Thinning paint is easy to over-do initially, but is quickly routine by sight. I was thinning about 50% early on, but probably settled to 40% later.

6. Don't put thinners in your jar with the paint. Mix it in the cup. Why? Because unless its a new paint bottle with a tight fitting cap, the paint is now thin enough that shaking it is a BAD idea. Your imagination can fill in the details.

7. Use the lowest air pressure you can. The paint goes on better and the air is less likely to blow it around. It lets you get closer to the model which is great for accuracy and better lines/less overspray...unless you're trying to do big areas at once.

I started on 15-20PSI, but by the end was trying (the compressor regulator is not terribly precise) about 10-15PSI. This is actually slightly problematic with a syphon feed which needs more energy to haul the paint up, but it will come...sometimes took a few secs to get a flow going.

8. Acrylic paints don't stink, but thinners do. Being a beginner, I purchased the Tamiya thinners for flow enhancing and retarding (as well as thinning ofc). The place soon reeked, and this is with a large window open. I may use water more for in-between-colour cleaning, but you're still using plenty of thinner in the actual plaint. Some ventilation and/or a mask will be a must. Because I'm sharing a room with the family PC, I'm going to have to do something about an extractor fan. It just won't do.

9. Cleaning ain't so bad. Soon got the hang of it, and the pieces are fairly robust. Cotton-buds (or Q-tips as I understand they are called) are your friend. I am now the cotton-bud distributor's friend, as I will be putting his children through university. You can never have too many.

10. Picking up paint to put into the cup. I was using a couple of big droppers I got from a chemist....but they do retain a heap of the paint; seems kind of a waste.

What I'm going to do is get a bunch of squirt bottles from somewhere and tip my paints into them. Can't see it costing much. Squirting straight into the cup will be the way to go.

11. Masking is a pain in the ass.

There's a hard line to find between something that will stick and something that will then pull off the underlying paint. My paint masking tape comes off too easy when there are obstructions lurking close to the line, meaning the demarcation suffered.

I cut out camou masks from paper and stuck them in place with blue tack...beware the tendency to make your masks bigger than they ought to be; left the second colour a bit aneamic. Not to mention I also masked the actual areas I wanted to colour green...LOL....but no matter. I just have a test Spit with the green and brown camou areas reversed from normal.

I bought some more blu-tack and will try using that for curving camouflage, but straight lines still needs masking tape. Will experiment with thinner and thinner widths of tape that avoid other bits on the model lifting it.

12. You don't always have to mask if you don't need a hard-edged or dead straight line. I can already see that you can get quite a decent demarcation by hand. Will just need more practice. Another reason I'm happy to have a double-action first.

13. Spray some stuff on the sprue or on cocktail sticks + bluetack. Too much hassle to mask it properly once it's on the model. Things in this category are props & spinners and undercarriage.

14. Spray back and forth rather than in one place. Build up the colour. Sticking to one spot invites puddling. Back and forth.

14. Moving your airbrush back and forth rapidly leads to unplanned redecoration of your desk surface On a related note, try not to fill up your cup too far. Half a cup is far more than enough for a single engine 1/72. Any more is just asking for it to be slopped over the table by some clutz who shall remain nameless.

I'm sure I can think of more but that will do..and my lunch hour is ending. Thoroughly enjoyed my first run with an air brush, and by the end of it was confident enough to spray a white band around the fuselage of my Italeri Me 210, which went ok although I managed a very slight spider right at the start as there was still thinner left in the brush from the colour change clean.

Looking forward to experimenting more with it, as well as painting my first "real" model....which will likely be an Airfix Hudson with a simple three colour scheme. I think we'll be leaving the German camouflages for just a wee while yet!

Hi there from the U.S., might I recommend that you try Polly Scale Acrylics or Model Master Acryl paints. Both can be thinned with just a little bit of water. I think they are superior paints or at least easier to use than Tamiya paints. Hope this helps some, Russell.

Yeah, I might well do that. Thinning with water would be well worth the effort. The local stockists only have Tamiya and Gunze Sangyo however, and I'm a bit reluctant to waste the stocks of Tamiya I built up from old brush painting days. Hmmm.

I understand you can thin Tamiya with straight isopropyl alcohol, which should be far easier on the lungs. That will probably be the first thing I try while using up the remaining Tamiyas.

Right, had my first go at airbrushing Future (Klear) last night.

Had brushed it on my test plane, but found it too easy with the brush to get puddling.

The airbrush, in contrast, worked really well.

However the down side was lots of Klear spray rebounding out of the spray box....had to keep leaving the room, and got an eyeful. That's the end of spraying for me until the weekend and a trip to the local hardware store for goggles and a mask....and possibly also an extraction fan. Eyes a bit sore this morning, but look great

For masking try tamiya tape - if you can get it down there, never had it lift any paint.

You can thin Tamiya paints with laquer thinner, great finish, but boy does it stink. Not bad if you can use a mask. I spray in the garage, so it's not to bad.

Enjoyed your post, goes along with my first impressions, it gets easier after time.

HTH

Andy

I have a post with photos of a paint booth I built for about $100.00, allows me to paint indoors all year round,I am sorry to say I do not know how to link or post photo here a big improvment for safety and stink will work on my photo post skills.

huh? I use tamiya thinner X-20A to thin tamiya acrylic paints...stuff smells like alcohol not laquer thinner

Lacquer thinner is to be avoided in a small room methinks. The Tamiya thinner is far less noxious, even if quite smelly enough.

I'll probably end up forking out for some Tamiya masking tape...their putty is good, the thinners and paints work fine, their models are good, so it's a good bet their masking tape will be reasonable.

Dave, I think I saw that post......plastic storage bin, fan at the back? That's sort of what I'm thinking about doing; it seemed a neat idea.

Presently I'm using a box lined with absorbent paper hand towels held in place with bluetack as a stopgap measure....it's quite surprising to me how much of the Klear simply bounced off them even though quite dry. The paint got absorbed reasonably well.

have a look at my post "rustic paint booth" its constructed from plywood and a motor that is resistant to blowing up from paint fumes....solid unit compared to plastic storage crate? .most fumes are downdrafted and go out the duct work.I use reccomended thinners per manufacturer to avoid any problems.tamiya acrylic thinner x-20A is alcohol so allthough not as bad as others it is toxic, I use a painters cannister respirator mask even with my spray booth.my booth is somewhat like the artograph 1330 hobby model paint booth only $300.00 less I am a registered respiratory therapist so I tend to be paranoid about toxic fumes, now if I could build models as good as some here I would be quite pleased, the paint booth project went quite well.

Hey Ivan, great post, it echoed my initial airbrushing experience exactly (I'm a newby as well).

A couple of suggestions. Firstly, go to your local chemist and get a 5 litre drum of Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol), it will cost about the same as a couple of Tamiya X20A bottles and last a lifetime. Second, go to the local hardware and get some different width rolls of 3M Painters Tape (the blue one). It is low-tack and cheaper by far. If you are still afraid of the tape lifting your paint just stick it onto your jeans leg and rip it off a few times to further reduce the tack.

Please post some photos of your work as you go.

Cheers, D

Cheers Damian,

I'll try the 3M stuff. Forgot to pick up some Tamiya tape at the hobby store on the weekend.

Would the 3M stuff work masking canopies? My low tack masking tape simply won't stay on the canopy I'm now trying to mask unfortunately (an Airfix Whirlwind). Had a look in the local book stores for bare metal foil but no luck....will try a specific purpose arts & crafts store when I get the chance.

Had my first disaster with the airbrush on my last brush painted model, an Mw210. Air-brushed some very nice exhaust trails across the lower wing...but on the final track went back over it one too many times, it got too wet, and the air pushed the paint to the side. Tried to scrape it off and the exhaust smoke, the underlying future AND the base paint layer all came off, courtesy of the amount of thinner in the spray. Will post a pic later; was a damn shame as it really looked good.

After you have finished painting and before weathering, apply a couple of coats of Klear/Future to protect the paintjob. You can then weather to your hearts delight. Also, I swear by Tamiya acrylics, love them, and I find I get the best results if I thin them with screenwash (then blue stuff)from the local motor factors. 5 litres for about £3 and it lasts forever.

I gave it one coat of Klear, with a couple of days to cure, and it was pretty good...but not in the face of a dozen passes of 50% thinned smoke. Lesson learned...

Ivan,

..some excellent points in your first post - for point 10, I find using a brush to transfer paint to the cup works perfectly for me - little or no waste. Re your point 7, for anyone starting out a gravity feed is so much easier than a syphon feed.
I never airbrush Future/Klear - as its 'self-levelling' a brush application is easier..

Here's a picture of the Italeri Me210 with the damage pretty plainly visible. I left it alone for a while (and Xmas holidays intervened also) but have now repainted the area and sprayed with Klear...will panel-wash it today or tomorrow.



Next is the first model I've airbrushed, an Airfix Westland Whirlwind. This shot taken just after a coat of Klear had dried...Airfox Mozzie and Bristol Blenheim in background and foreground respectively. I've got rather a lot of old Airfix kits! It's memory lane territory for me. Still needs washing and weathering.

Hi Ivan, I use Tamiya tape for masking and can do canopies, but with complex canopies like the Halifax (Revell Mk1) I used old decals (the Revell 1/48 Ju52 was great for this as it contained loads of spare decals) painted over the right colour and cut very thin with scissors before soaking and applying to transpaencies. I have a range of tapes 6mm,10,19 and 40mm and find the 40mm good for RAF camo as it is wide enough to cut the camo pattern in the tape. I know Tamiya tape is pricy but you don't use much, I haven't finished my first roll of 10mm after 2 years. The wiggly edge between the camo and black on the Halifax was masked using 40mm tape cut wiggly. Klear I spray lightly, unthinned, holding the brush 6 to 9 ins from the model to prevent pooling. Thinning, I have used water to thin Tamiya paints in an emergency along with a drop of acrylic flow improver, it was fine and doesn't dry as fast as IPA. White board cleaner seems to work fine and I'm sure it is only expensive IPA. I still have trouble with gloss finishes. I've been spraying about 2 years now and still occasionally muck things up but wouldn't go back, apart from doing plain varnished wood finishes like WW1 props, which I still do with a brush. btw unmasked camo looks good on some models but if the real a/c was sprayed unmasked the area of overlap might be, at most, 6ins wide, that is 1/12in (2mm) at 1/72 scale. I agree, gravity is best, I buy mine from a company in Yorkshire who also sell all the parts and a very nice compressor with water trap. Google search on "airbrush" should give results. A brush is about £25, compressor about £60. I'll find the url if you need it

New airbrush newbie discovery for the week: WHITE paint.

Brushed white is quite hard (not impossible) to get "pure", without any underlying paint showing through.

Not so with an airbrush. You get a lovely stark white that you realise, after a while of admiring it, is somewhat too bright for your model.

So lesson for the week: tone down your white slightly. In my case, adding a few drops of brown to the mix (a brown & green camou next door to the white). With different adjoining colours such as grey I might lean toward a few drops of black, but the brown addition gives the white a slightly ivory finish, which works better in scale.

In my case, having already painted and futured the white props before deciding they were too white, I got a cotton bud fresh from wiping panel wash and rubbed it over the props to very slightly dirty them down.