How does one go about airbrushing? i am getting some Tau aircraft and an airbrush to paint them with. how do i do it?
Sorry Dave, this one slipped through the net!!!
I use one but for very basic stipes on tanks. Maybe someone can give some better advice!
I can give you a few pointers
You need to make sure you have the right equipment to use an air brush.
Airbrushes come in loads of different styles, for painting models the best is whats known as a gravity feed, double action trigger internal mix air brush .
Basicly the paint goes in to a cup that feeds the air brush from above.Double action trigger allows you to control both paint flow and air flow and internal mix means the paint and the air mix inside the brush .
You need an air compressor, if you were thinking of using cans of air ,forget it , sell the air brush, its not worth the effort.
Your compressor needs a filter and a pressure regulator and a hose to connect the air brush.
Make sure the compressor is an oil free compressor .
If your using acrylic paint then get a large box to place behind your model when spraying to catch the spray that misses the model.
I have used citadel and vallejo paints to airbrush, i thin them with filtered tap water or vallejo air thinner, some people say to use certain alcohols to thin the paint but i found that it thickens the paint rather than thinning it
Then its a case of working out the mix and trying it out , practice practice practice is all i can say. The trick is to get the paint to come out of the brush and on to the model, if your paint is too thin it will run if its too thick it wont come out of the air brush at all, make sure you clean the brush after every use ,then clean it again!
It is said your paint should have the consistancy of milk , but this is a bit of a myth, it really depends on loads of different aspects like air pressure, what nib your using , what the colour is ,what are you painting what effect are you looking for ? its difficult to give an exact water to paint ratio ,its a bit of an experiment and once you have figured it out you should be ok.
i found that reading alot of internet and printed air brush books helped and also do a search on you tube for air brushing models as there are several really good instruction films . :blink:
Heh, just found this. I got the airbrush, went for the full whammy as anything less seemed stupid. And messed around. In fact, the first airbrushing i did was ridiculous. I airbrushed a chaos black model blazing orange using an hour and 50 odd sprays of paint. It looks mint though XD.
Thanks anyways guys!