Airbrush Undercoating

[ChemicalFencer]

Hi all,

I'm in the Bahrain and there is a distinct lack of mini painting supply shops. Ignore White Dwarf, Carousel World of Imagination doesn't stock the paints or sprays. I'm rather nervous to carry it over whenever I'm home in the UK. Sending stuff over can be a nightmare. The car primers here aren't that good and are very messy.

So here is my question to the forum . . . (I have already checked other posts and nothing quite answers my query).

Is using an airbrush ok for undercoating? I have a small supply of GW paints but have doubled up on skull white and chaos black. I also have found some UK suppliers who say they are able to deliver to Bahrain (but not checked them out yet).

Also what can you recommend instead of GW paints? I appreciate that this may bring up the whole which is better GW or Vallejo or PP etc

Finally, perhaps advice on a decent cost effective airbrush that can run off propellent.

Thanks

CF

 

[PegaZus]

One thing that comes to mind is art gesso. I've been using that as a brush on primer when it is too cold out to use my sprays. I'm sure that there will be some downside somebody else can chime in on. Have to thin it of course, and it says (as I'm reading the label) that it is for porous surfaces. Still, haven't had much trouble with it, save from needed a couple of coats. Still, might be worth trying. Might even go through an airbrush. Dunno, don't have one.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Hi all,
Is using an airbrush ok for undercoating? 1
Also what can you recommend instead of GW paints? I appreciate that this may bring up the whole which is better GW or Vallejo or PP etc 2
Finally, perhaps advice on a decent cost effective airbrush that can run off propellent. 3

1 A spray can is no different in principle than an Airbrush, so there is no problem. In fact you probably will be better off using an Airbrush as the quality of spray can 'primers' will not be as fine as you can tweek your airbrush to.
2 Vallejo Airbrush Colours have a good Grey Primer, nice coverage good mid tone to work with. Best of all you can use it through an Airbrush OR diluted and applied with a brush. Dries on the model relatively quickly and smoothly, so much so that I was able to use it to prime a model at a demo and start to paint said model in less than 10 minutes after finishing the preperation. Vallejo do a "foundation white" equivalent to GW's "smelly primer" but I have to say I think that is dire, diluting badly and drying unevenly.
3 Airbrush propellant in cans isn't really cost effective in the long term. Perhaps you'd be better off looking to get a low cost compressor. But if all you want to do is prime with the airbrush there are several easy maintenance options. I'd recommend the Testors AZTEK range as the nozzles are interchangeable and possibly less of a problem in getting replacements posted out to Bahrain. More complex Airbrushes use a fine needle throughout the body and attempting to get a thin (approx 1mm) replacement through the post and security checks intact might be a nightmare.
Here's the link: http://www.testors.com/category/136948/Airbrushes

Good luck

 

[freakinacage]

Hi all,

I'm in the Bahrain and there is a distinct lack of mini painting supply shops. Ignore White Dwarf, Carousel World of Imagination doesn't stock the paints or sprays. I'm rather nervous to carry it over whenever I'm home in the UK. Sending stuff over can be a nightmare. The car primers here aren't that good and are very messy.

So here is my question to the forum . . . (I have already checked other posts and nothing quite answers my query).

Is using an airbrush ok for undercoating? I have a small supply of GW paints but have doubled up on skull white and chaos black. I also have found some UK suppliers who say they are able to deliver to Bahrain (but not checked them out yet).

Also what can you recommend instead of GW paints? I appreciate that this may bring up the whole which is better GW or Vallejo or PP etc

Finally, perhaps advice on a decent cost effective airbrush that can run off propellent.

Thanks

CF

i would have thought that if getting cans of stuff sent across is a pain, you would be better off with a compressor. especially when you consider increasing costs of propellant (ie you need to keep buying it) and decreasing quality as the gas runs out

tbh some of the gw stuff is great, especially tallarn flesh, i love that! i would recommend the whites and reds from p3. from vallejo, offwhite and ivory are good for highlighting. i like the sea greys and the blue-greys for nmm. also the german cam. black-brown is great for shading (thanks ritual!)

when you say good for undercoating, do you mean priming? the two are very different. until you have used a proper primer, you dont realise how shit gw sprays are for priming

 

[ChemicalFencer]

@Freakinacage: Ahhh yes, sorry for priming purposes, although it would really quicken up army painting if used for base-coating (didn't GW have something like that a while ago?). There is a large toy shop here (life sized toy elephants, rhinos etc) that sell propellant. I suppose I'll have to look at it some more and check to see if its suitable for what airbrush I decide to get.

@Dragonsreach: Thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at the webpage and perhaps leave the site open so my wife and accidentally see when I'm looking at before Christmas. I think it will be worth investigating the grey primer. Before I invest in a compressor perhaps it will be better to experiment with the cans to make sure I'm getting what I want out of it.

 

[flagoon]

2 Vallejo Airbrush Colours have a good Grey Primer, nice coverage good mid tone to work with. Best of all you can use it through an Airbrush OR diluted and applied with a brush. Dries on the model relatively quickly and smoothly, so much so that I was able to use it to prime a model at a demo and start to paint said model in less than 10 minutes after finishing the preperation. Vallejo do a "foundation white" equivalent to GW's "smelly primer" but I have to say I think that is dire, diluting badly and drying unevenly.

What is the name of this grey Vallejo paint? My friend is using airbrush to prime my minis, but he only uses Humbrol for this, and as black primer is ok, I would like to use some other colors to work with. Would you be so nice and suggest me some white primer for airbrush as well?

 

[ChemicalFencer]

What is the name of this grey Vallejo paint?

Hi Flagoon,

I don't want to tread on Dragonsreach's toes here but its called Grey Primer (not trying to be funny). If you look on their website you can download their catalogue and its on page 9. They call it Gray Primer (spelled that way) and the item code is 71.097.

Would you be so nice and suggest me some white primer for airbrush as well?

I'd like to know that one also.


CF

 

[flagoon]

I don't want to tread on Dragonsreach's toes here but its called Grey Primer (not trying to be funny).

Yeah, I have a good shop with paints here and they listed all paints with small picture how the color looks, and Grey/Gray Primer looks more like blue/purple that grey That's why I didn't noticed it. Thanks for pointing this out for me.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Would you be so nice and suggest me some white primer for airbrush as well?

Try Vallejo Airbrush White.
It's a very fine pignemt paint but shouldn't stop it from adhering to a bare figure.
Don't forget Vallejo Airbrush Grey Primer is just like any other paint you can mix it with other colours to get a tone closest to your own preference.

Had Chemical Fencer been in the UK I'd have also suggested he (or anybody else for that matter) look at Montana Gold Spray paints available from http://www.jacksonsart.co.uk which have a huge range of colours you can use as a primer.
Want to do a full on Slaanneshi army; look to Shock Pink or Blackberry as a primer.

 

[airhead]

A few thoughts:

Primers:
Paint is different than primers. Primers have additional additives to promote adhesion both to the metal below and to the paint above... In our hobby it is not as critical as we don't normally hit our minis with high speed buffers and high pressure washers.

Do you have any automotive parts stores that sell touch up paints? The spray cans of automotive primers tend to be some of the better grades of primers. Black, white, red lead (but I bet there is no longer any lead in it..), maybe even grays.

DIY centers also sell spray cans. Krylon in the U.S. (sorry, cannot help you elsewhere...)


Air

Disposable cans are the worst option unless you only intend to use the airbrush for 10 minutes a month or less. That is about all the air you can get out of one. And that is just about enough for me to get all my paints regulated and brushes working....

Other options:

Airbrush compressors: quiet, but tend toward low volume, low pressures.

DIY compressors: designed for running nailers, staplers, etc. Higher pressures and volumes, but some are very noisy. Not great for apartment dwellers.

Another option that I hesitate to bring up: Bottled air - either CO2 or Nitrogen. Set up is probably more expensive than a decent compressor. High pressure regulator in addition to your low pressure regulator. Bottle purchase (or monthly lease), bottle filling charges. I'm talking about the CO2 bottles that they use in cola fountains up to large volume nitrogen bottles like they fill up your paintball tank with. This is absolutely quiet, but you always run out of pressure late at night on a weekend in the middle of a project.

 

[ChemicalFencer]

@Dragosreach

Thanks for the tip on the white, will try it when I order some more paints.

@Airhead

Thanks for your input Airhead

Do you have any automotive parts stores that sell touch up paints? The spray cans of automotive primers tend to be some of the better grades of primers.

DIY centers also sell spray cans. Krylon in the U.S. (sorry, cannot help you elsewhere...)

I can get car primers, but not had much luck with them. Over here they just tend to be grey and they also swell a little. I have had to strip off minis even after a light pass

Disposable cans are the worst option unless you only intend to use the airbrush for 10 minutes a month or less.

I wasn't thinking about using an airbrush all the time, it would be rather infrequent. Probably prime 2 or 3 minis at a time and then another few in a few weeks. I thought about the cans just to experiment with before seeing if I liked using one before the added expense of a compressor - I'll be able to justify it to the accountant (Mrs ChemicalFencer ).

CF

 

[airhead]

@Dragosreach

Thanks for the tip on the white, will try it when I order some more paints.

@Airhead

Thanks for your input Airhead



I can get car primers, but not had much luck with them. Over here they just tend to be grey and they also swell a little. I have had to strip off minis even after a light pass
Avoid any that say "self-leveling" this means they are designed to fill in scratches (read that as "remove detail").


I wasn't thinking about using an airbrush all the time, it would be rather infrequent. Probably prime 2 or 3 minis at a time and then another few in a few weeks. I thought about the cans just to experiment with before seeing if I liked using one before the added expense of a compressor - I'll be able to justify it to the accountant (Mrs ChemicalFencer ).

Understand that.
CF

Feel free to ask away. I'm not familiar with a lot of what is available on your side of the pond, but CMON is very far spread and we mostly try to be helpful.