Airbrush inbound – let's talk paints.

[sundancer 42985xp 2]

So yesterday (May 1st) I ordered an airbrush, a compressor and an airbrushbooth (to suck away those bad fumes and stuff). The kit I ordered comes with a bottle of Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner so I have everything to paint and clean my new kit…

…except paints. Well I do have paints, old Citadel Colour, some current GW paints, Vallejo Model Colour, two acrylic artists inks and a few Army Painter bottles. All over the place. So here’s the question: what paint do I get or do I simply get myself some airbrush thinner and thin my existing paints? I’ve read some not so long time ago that if you use brand X as colour brand X is your best choice as a cleaner because it’s tailored to that brand.

My first impulse would be to get Vallejo thinner and for the time being limit myself to my Vallejo colours for the airbrush.

Also base coating with an airbrush. Just thin a white or black and off I go or are there some traps to look out for? Any advise is greatly appreciated.

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 2]

water works

[zorg 18801xp 1]

As @avernos says practise with just water playing with the settings and seeing how adjustments change the fan and coverage an in no time you will be preaching about how good spray guns are. dont forget thin coats are better than runs.

[stubbybrushParticipant 924xp 1]

2nd try….

All of the above, plus give this a look……….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elF3Ml6qmVs

[orlandothetechnicolouredParticipant 4380xp 2]

Am I too late to say practice with water?

spray onto a sheet of paper/newspaper rather than a mini until you get comfortable with things

[sundancer 42985xp 1]

So water and paper first. Right.

And on a sidenote: I totally forgot that I got a friend of mine to share his Warhammer Conquest subscription with me. I get to keep all the terrain and the first set of terrain just came through in the German channels (we’re a bit behind). So water first, then 40k containers and boxes… at least those I don’t care about the actual colour scheme because it’s terrain 😉

[horati0nosebl0wer 19649xp 1]

Watering down paint is a good idea as its the same thing that you’d do with regular brushwork. For me I go with Vallejo Flow Improver and have been happy with results over their paint thinner. The former doesn’t end up clogging like the latter does when put in the airbrush.

As far as brands I’d say look Vallejo Air if you wanted directly engineered paint but the info floating around these boards, as well as some Golden Button winners, has been that inks really work. A basic black paint and then a white ink zenithal works awesome. Be sure to gloss coat over the primer step so the colors stay true in value. Trust me on making the mistake of not doing that. It might give you good results for mixing on the fly is you were to put in a retarder and then spray in subtle highlights/shading.

While I’m not keen on the presentation in the by Next Level Painting for the persona but he’s got good info. Luke on the other hand is down to earth and gives even more to try and save some money. Here’s my contribution for what has helped me.

[timchubbKeymaster 3166xp 3]

Food colouring works well for practice to

If you want to combine snacking with practice try using ready made white cake icing as a practice board, can get good at sunbursts and get a sugar rush….

[sundancer 42985xp 0]

Another (maybe stupid) question on that subject: Is it necessary to use Airbrush Primer for priming models or can priming be done with regular paint? Where are the differences and advantages? I tried to find an answer online but turned out blank.

[avernosKeymaster 33947xp 2]

primers are designed to give a good key and surface for other paints to adhere to. If you plan on priming with an airbrush use a specific primer and remember unlike spray cans you generally need to leave them 24 hours to fully cure.

[m30wm1x 2318xp 1]

Aye, primer is just good sticky paint to get a starting layer for more paint to stick to. Airbrush primer is just a flowwy primer so you can, theoretically, use it straight from the bottle. Vallejo does good ones either their airbrush or mecha range work well but the 2nd half of the bottle will want thinning a bit as you get through it.

You can use a brush on primer if you thin it a bit, I use a mix of 2pt water : 1pt vallejo airbrush cleaner for thinning everthing in the airbrush, and have a practice spray. DON’T just have the 1st layer on a model be an airbrushed NON-primer as it’s just too thin and not stuck well, it’ll chip and flake. There’s also no reason why if you have a favourite rattle can primer you don’t just prime with that and airbrush the layers.

[guillotine 16041xp 1]

Use airbrush primer. Simply because they are really good primers. Vallejo Surface Primer, Stynylrez, Mig (Surface and One-shot), everything I’ve used produces excellent coat for painting and they level beautifully. Like Gerry wrote, it’s a good idea to leave them to properly dry for 24 hours. Primers, like most paints through airbrush are touch dry in few minutes but take longer to fully cure. If you compare a model primed 15mins ago to one primed yesterday you’ll see, feel and smell the difference, esp. with black.

[sundancer 42985xp 3]

Well I’m happy to report that the first run went rather well even with some not expected behaviour… but that will be part of a project later on 😉  Now to wait 24h

[sundancer 42985xp 3]

So I build this:

Took it here:

Did this:

And this came out:

Not to shabby I think. (Ignore the bad build quality of the barrel. I’ve got the second container set from the 40k Conquest magazine from a friend. My barrels are still not build.)

[horati0nosebl0wer 19649xp 0]

Very well done pieces. Priming is forgiving and with the right layers are never too thick to obscure details.

Now that you’re doing pieces like this and have stuff to weather here’s some mote info.

 

 

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