I bought an airbrush - phase 2 begins

[Rev]

Well,

thanks to the advice of many of you on this forum, phase 1 (R&D) is complete and I\'ve now entered pase 2 (P&A = Purchase and attempt).

I plumped for an as new Iwata smart jet pro compressor off ebay (local to me, I collected and saved on postage £100)

I followed nicks link and bought a BD130A airbrush, with a 7cc gravity feed cup. True to form it took 2 days from order to arrival, very good service. The idea is that I\'ll use this £17 gun to \'learn\' and then if I get the bug I\'ll plump for a better airbrush.

I also followed all your advice and bought a spare needle from the outset (its the thing in the bag with red caps in between the compressor and brush). Having seen in person how delicate they are I\'m quite glad I did.

Here is a picture of my set up for £130:

I\'ve just put it all together and turned it on and it works really well (witout paint as yet).

I\'m going to do some tests later, does anyone have any final bits of advice before I do?

Also I have some questions as I embark into phase 2:

1) How thin do I need to think GW paints? is 3:1 ok, can I use water or does it need to be thinners?

2) How thorough do I need to clean it between spraying each colour? Do I need to deep clean it after every session?

3) I\'ve set it to 20psi on the gauge, and as I depress the trigger it drops to around 15-17psi as I spray. Is that ok? Do I need to set the gague higher so the actual spray is 20psi or will it be alright as it is?

Thanks all for your advice and in getting me this far.

Rev

 

[airhead]

* spare needle = good, but get the cone to go with it.

* cleaning, learn to disassemble your gun, pull the needle out, take the aircap off, take the cone out. Clean everything spotless. Soapy water should do. Don\'t damage the cone. A set of \"airbrushes\" may help (a bunch of small brushes designed for airbrush cleaning). Invest in a small interdental brush. They are very handy for cleaning the nooks and paint chambers.


* pressure, you should be able to shoot that gun at around 5 psi. At 20 you\'ll be blowing spiders on everything - unless you are shooting t-shirts or thicker automotive paints.

* Thinning: GW paints or anything can be thinned to shoot through your gun. Think milk or ink (very thin). Put your paint in a bottle to thin, add thinner (water or maybe a bit of airbrush media). If your paint is old and has some dry bits in it, sieve it through a small square of old pantyhose.

* Setup - Release your needle clamp, slide the needle foward until it just seats in the cone. Retighen clamp.

* Practice - Push down for air, pull back for paint. Do NOT just pull your finger off and let the trigger snap back. Roll your finger foward and turn off the paint, then release for air shut off. It is good practice to keep the air on at all times to learn trigger control.

* More practice - get a roll of paper towels with a dot pattern on them (or grids) at about an 1\" - exact is not important here. Practice starting at one dot and shooting to the right to the next dot and stopping. Turn the paper sideways, shoot to the left. Get a new sheet and shoot up, then down. This teaches trigger control and ingrains the motions (muscle memory) you need to be able to paint without thinking of the airbrush mechanics all the time.

*Storage - Clean the gun after every session. A quick flush between colors is generally ok, especially if you are going darker. Last thing, release the needle lock, pull the needle back just a bit (1/8\" to 1/4\")

That should get you started.

 

[Dragonsreach]

A while ago I did have a recommendation made to me about thinning medium and that was buy a 5ltr bottle of Halfords Screenwash as a thinning medium. (I think it was Generulpoleaxe mentioned it to me over a cuppa).

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
A while ago I did have a recommendation made to me about thinning medium and that was buy a 5ltr bottle of Halfords Screenwash as a thinning medium. (I think it was Generulpoleaxe mentioned it to me over a cuppa).

Silkscreen cleaner is very good for flushing your airbrush, but I\'ve never heard of using it for a thinner.... Or is screenwash thinner different?

I\'ve used Golden\'s or Liquitex\'s airbrush medium. It has some binder in it that helps offset the thinness of the paint.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Rev
I plumped for an as new Iwata smart jet pro compressor off ebay (local to me, I collected and saved on postage £100)

I\'m glad you went with that one, I\'m sure you won\'t regret it.

Originally posted by Rev
I also followed all your advice and bought a spare needle from the outset (its the thing in the bag with red caps in between the compressor and brush). Having seen in person how delicate they are I\'m quite glad I did.

Originally posted by Rev
1) How thin do I need to think GW paints? is 3:1 ok, can I use water or does it need to be thinners?

Don\'t go by formulas; paints vary from the factory sometimes but much more than that they dry out differently with local conditions once opened. So go by consistency - appearance, spraying character.

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
A while ago I did have a recommendation made to me about thinning medium and that was buy a 5ltr bottle of Halfords Screenwash as a thinning medium. (I think it was Generulpoleaxe mentioned it to me over a cuppa).

Lots of armour and aircraft articles over the years have mentioned using this instead of water for better results.

Originally posted by airhead
Silkscreen cleaner is very good for flushing your airbrush, but I\'ve never heard of using it for a thinner.... Or is screenwash thinner different?

This is windscreen-cleaning solution.

Einion

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by Einion

Originally posted by airhead
Silkscreen cleaner is very good for flushing your airbrush, but I\'ve never heard of using it for a thinner.... Or is screenwash thinner different?

This is windscreen-cleaning solution.

Einion

Ahh, we call it windshield wiper fluid. The alcohol (methanol?) in it evaporates quicker than plain water would. Makes sense. Same reason some here thin with windex (glass cleaner) but the amonia in it can harm the chrome plated parts.

 

[RuneBrush]

One thing I would say is that I\'ve had a bad run using rubbing alcohol (Tamyia) with foundation paints. I posted a pic on here, but they curdled the paint.

GW paints, the little bit of airbrushing I\'ve done (and it is a little) I\'ve thined roughly 50/50, and filtered it through the same gauze you use for fermenting beer. Its surprising the lumps you get out of it.

Pete

 

[Rev]

Great advice, I will be back for tips!

Can I thin with Johnsons Klear, I use it for thinning paints for normal painting or would I be better to stick to the halfords screenwash.

What advantage does halfords screenwash give me over water?

Thanks!

Matt

 

[visgoth]

Originally posted by Rev
Can I thin with Johnsons Klear, I use it for thinning paints for normal painting or would I be better to stick to the halfords screenwash.

My experience is Johnsons Klear (Future here in the US) needs to be thinned to spray well. But I\'m using a cheap airbrush, so that could make the difference. If I were you, I\'d give it a try on a test piece, but have the supplies ready to clean the airbrush.

I\'ve gotten good results doing several things that people have told me wouldn\'t work, and poor results from doing things the way people insisted was The One True Way.

(I\'m no airbrush expert, so don\'t take my word as universal truth, it\'s just what I\'ve discovered in my own experimenting.)

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Rev
Can I thin with Johnsons Klear, I use it for thinning paints for normal painting or would I be better to stick to the halfords screenwash.

You\'ll probably need to use water as well, even if just a little bit. But it depends on your nozzle.

Originally posted by Rev
What advantage does halfords screenwash give me over water?

It\'s supposed to thin \"better\" than just water with some of the craft acrylics. I think it would be worth trying it and comparing it to water, see how your brush likes both and then you can pick.

Einion

 

[Rev]

so i can thin my paints (GW and foundation) AND quick flushclean my airbrush with halfords screenwash?

Sounds almost too good to be true!

 

[Rev]

Spent all afternoon toying with my airbrush!

Got quite a few blockages though, which made switching between colours harder than I\'d thought as I had to strip and clean a couple of times to get rid of gunk (damn foundation paints) in the end I took your advice and strained it through a cotton shirt.

Was good to get more confident stripping it all down though, am going to try it again with some airbrush paints see if its any different.

Tried thinning with screenwash - its pretty blue does it afect final colouration at all?

cheers!

rev

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Rev
Spent all afternoon toying with my airbrush!

Good fun innit?!

Originally posted by Rev
Got quite a few blockages though... in the end I took your advice and strained it through a cotton shirt.

Did that help any?

Originally posted by Rev
Tried thinning with screenwash - its pretty blue does it afect final colouration at all?

Apparently not. I wondered this myself when I first saw it demoed in a magazine but I\'ve never read a mention of a problem that I can recall.

IF the tip of the needle on a traditional airbrush is strong enough, one thing you might like to try for nozzle blockages, if it\'s obviously right at the opening that you\'re getting most of the clogging, is something I figured out for myself working with my Azteks. Just keep a small stiff-bristled brush handy dipped in solvent (screenwash might work fine, I usually used acetone if I had it) to swish over the nozzle, spray a brief blast of water through, swish it again and repeat if necessary.

I like to use a small Cryla round as these are the stiffest synthetic brushes I have.

Einion

 

[airhead]

even better is to learn to shoot without the handle on the back of the brush. When you get a paint bit, pull back on the needle/needle clamp. You may have to pump it a few times to work the clot out, but that will handle all but the worst.

Don\'t release the needle clamp, just hold down the trigger (keep air on) and work the needle back & forth manually from the back. This should have more travel to the needle than just pulling back on the trigger.

 

[Rev]

Right then, well I\'ve finally had a crack.

It took me about 2 hours of cursing before I realised I was using paint thinned too much.

I bought a bottle of model air and it sprayed perfectly right from the bottle, so I figured that a slightly thicker consistency was required and it worked.

Here are my first attempts, following the medusa pattern from the masterclass FW book;

I\'m pleased, once I\'d finally figured it out I had a ball. Looking fwd to trying more, but migt buy more model air paints as thinning is a pain.

Bought some stiff mini brushes as advised off ebay and they\'re a must have! Also a small pair of pen knife tweezers I find invaluable when cleaning and putting back together.

More to come!

thanks for the advice

rev