DragonTombCreations
New member
Hi I was wondering if I could get some information on airbrushing miniatures. what type of airbrush does one use and where I can find it?
Need information on airbrushing
- Thread starter DragonTombCreations
- Start date
TAB Studio
New member
Airbrush !
Here
I am not so knowledgeable but remember seeing this thread before...
I have one on preorder from Testors mfg., they have a kit coming out soon with all the things you need in it including a compressor If you PM me when I get the kit I can let you know if it is any good.
Here
I am not so knowledgeable but remember seeing this thread before...
I have one on preorder from Testors mfg., they have a kit coming out soon with all the things you need in it including a compressor If you PM me when I get the kit I can let you know if it is any good.
W
Wolf_Fang
Guest
airbrushing minis.... not so easy... only minis you can really airbrush are vehicals.. AKA tanks.... planes... grav tanks... the BIG stuff... problem is simply this... itd be easy to miss your \"shot\" and the nozzles tend to not go that small... however for tanks it would be great and next time i get a tank i plan on using it.
QuietiManes
New member
Actually you can get close to hair thin lines reliably with an airbrush. Just depends on the tool, the user, etc. The cheap ones arent much better than a can of spray paint. They\'re really only \"useful\" on larger vehicles and such though so that\'s pretty accurate. I did see some pretty impressive Tyranids one time though, done in a \"turtle shell\" meets \"tree frog\" sorta scheme done with an airbrush but it was only a couple of the bigger bugs, Carni and Lictor.
It very much depends on your airbrush, if I remember correctly. The Iwata Micron is capable of REALLY thin lines, but is a very specialized and expensive airbrush. It\'s the type of airbrush that a professional illustrator or painter would use, and is supposed to do \"hair thin\" lines. Of course, it also depends a lot on the user. With a good dual-action airbrush and lots of practice, you could paint minis. I would think you\'d need to use thin paint and low air pressure, and you\'d put the airbrush tip very close to the mini itself.
I\'ve honestly only used my airbrush on one miniature so far, and that was because he was slightly larger in scale and I just wanted to put a green base coat over everything. For me it\'s a trade-off between the smooth and even coat you get with airbushing and the amount of set-up and break-down time involved...sometimes I think while the smooth coat would be cool, the area is just too small to really justify needing that type of treatment. I\'ve also considered using it for base coating larger scale minis or minis with a whole lot of skin tone. Other than that, I mostly use it for resins and platics kits.
Cody Kwok hasn\'t really updated his tools and how-to site that much, but that\'s where I started a bunch of my research: http://www.codyscoop.com/gk.shtml
As with most things, you need to know what you really need it for so you can find the right tool. If you have the money to spend, you can get some pretty crazy set-ups.
I\'ve honestly only used my airbrush on one miniature so far, and that was because he was slightly larger in scale and I just wanted to put a green base coat over everything. For me it\'s a trade-off between the smooth and even coat you get with airbushing and the amount of set-up and break-down time involved...sometimes I think while the smooth coat would be cool, the area is just too small to really justify needing that type of treatment. I\'ve also considered using it for base coating larger scale minis or minis with a whole lot of skin tone. Other than that, I mostly use it for resins and platics kits.
Cody Kwok hasn\'t really updated his tools and how-to site that much, but that\'s where I started a bunch of my research: http://www.codyscoop.com/gk.shtml
As with most things, you need to know what you really need it for so you can find the right tool. If you have the money to spend, you can get some pretty crazy set-ups.
Einion
New member
Hi, where are you based, what kind of figures (i.e. what size) and what kind of airbrushing do you want to try - fine lines, general undercoating, overhead/zenithal shading?
You can airbrush figures quite easily - many of the pieces in my gallery are airbrushed in part including the two Hornet figures which are 1/35 scale.
It\'s true though, airbrushing is not ideally suited to very small scales though.
Einion
airhead
Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
What I said in the thread that TAB linked to still goes. Feel free to u2u, IM or email me if you have any questions. I can get a bit more opinionated in private.
@Equus, the CM can get down to 0.2 mm where the standard pencil lead anymore is 0.5 or 0.7 mm. I still don\'t want to try dotting eyes with it, but it can be done.
The downside to shooting paint is the cleanup time. Have to flush for each color change and final cleanup. If you were basecoating an army, go for it. as well as working on a dragon.
@Equus, the CM can get down to 0.2 mm where the standard pencil lead anymore is 0.5 or 0.7 mm. I still don\'t want to try dotting eyes with it, but it can be done.
The downside to shooting paint is the cleanup time. Have to flush for each color change and final cleanup. If you were basecoating an army, go for it. as well as working on a dragon.
Yep...knew someone with a Micron once. Very specialized, and amazing for what it does. Not something that\'ll ever really be your workhorse brush though. 
The Yokuni model that I put in for the Wyrd contest was actually base-coated with an airbrush, now that I think of it. That was because I wanted to get an overall green tone to it. Not the most successful experiment that I\'ve ever had, but given the size of the mini and the headaches I\'ve had recently with green, it was useful.
I\'ve also been considering experimenting with a kinda zenithal primering using the airbrush, since the atomization is going to almost always be superior to a rattle-can spray and it\'s easier to control, IMO.
And since when does sounding opinionated ever stopped us here? :innocent:
The Yokuni model that I put in for the Wyrd contest was actually base-coated with an airbrush, now that I think of it. That was because I wanted to get an overall green tone to it. Not the most successful experiment that I\'ve ever had, but given the size of the mini and the headaches I\'ve had recently with green, it was useful.
I\'ve also been considering experimenting with a kinda zenithal primering using the airbrush, since the atomization is going to almost always be superior to a rattle-can spray and it\'s easier to control, IMO.
And since when does sounding opinionated ever stopped us here? :innocent:
War Griffon
New member
I currently have an Aztec 470 lovely grip and great feel with loads of different nozzles I would recommend decent acrylic paints with it though. I haven\'t tried the VJ Air model yet but normal VJ at a ratio of 1:1 wateraint is what a lot of people recommend.
Be careful with the Aztec hose though as my one developed a hole quite quickly as they are only a nylon type material and the connection on an Aztec brush is smaller than most others so you won\'t be able to get a braided hose off the shelf as Aztec don\'t do them.
I\'m waiting the arrival of a compressor at the moment so I can start using it I have several old vehicles and parts to try it out on before hopefully moving up to the larger 1/8th kits as I don\'t fancy doing a lot of them with just a normal brush you know it\'ll all go wrong if you try it
Martyn.
aint is what a lot of people recommend.Be careful with the Aztec hose though as my one developed a hole quite quickly as they are only a nylon type material and the connection on an Aztec brush is smaller than most others so you won\'t be able to get a braided hose off the shelf as Aztec don\'t do them.
I\'m waiting the arrival of a compressor at the moment so I can start using it I have several old vehicles and parts to try it out on before hopefully moving up to the larger 1/8th kits as I don\'t fancy doing a lot of them with just a normal brush you know it\'ll all go wrong if you try it
Martyn.
@ Martyn - Nah...it doesn\'t all go wrong...it all just goes too long. I painted a resin 1/6 scale of Vash the Stampede for my sister with hand brushing. Let me tell you though, after painting that much dang red, I swore off painting anything red for months.
What kind of compressor are you getting, btw?
Oh, and on a side note, the airbrush I have is an Iwata Eclipse CS. Decent gravity feed dual-action. Not much in terms of flexibility with the nose or anything, but more than enough control for most of the stuff I do with it. Still getting the hang of even using a dual-action, but it\'s interesting.
I painted a resin 1/6 scale of Vash the Stampede for my sister with hand brushing. Let me tell you though, after painting that much dang red, I swore off painting anything red for months.What kind of compressor are you getting, btw?
Oh, and on a side note, the airbrush I have is an Iwata Eclipse CS. Decent gravity feed dual-action. Not much in terms of flexibility with the nose or anything, but more than enough control for most of the stuff I do with it. Still getting the hang of even using a dual-action, but it\'s interesting.
War Griffon
New member
Only a little one if I ever get the skill/chance to use it properly then I might upgrade at a later time. The one I am getting is HERE
Just waiting for them to come back in stock and ship it straigh tout to me they reckon it should be this week but we\'ll see
Up to now the largest I have painted if 90 mm kits but I have some larger 120 mm and 1/8th scale that I want to do but the amount of flesh on them makes the thought of using a brush terrifying.
Edit: The sites posted in the other link are fine if you are in the States but after filling in all the forms you are informed they won\'t ship to the UK I could have got a decent hose otherwise looks like I will have to use a friends address and get him to aitmail it to me from his place.
Just waiting for them to come back in stock and ship it straigh tout to me they reckon it should be this week but we\'ll see
Up to now the largest I have painted if 90 mm kits but I have some larger 120 mm and 1/8th scale that I want to do but the amount of flesh on them makes the thought of using a brush terrifying.
Edit: The sites posted in the other link are fine if you are in the States but after filling in all the forms you are informed they won\'t ship to the UK
I could have got a decent hose otherwise looks like I will have to use a friends address and get him to aitmail it to me from his place.War Griffon
New member
No doubt they are fun the books always make them sound easy though well trial and error to find a way that suits I think will be the way ahead
I am planning on getting a few plast type busts from one of the ;ocal cheap shops with a veiw to practicing on before I go anywhere near anything but a tank
I am planning on getting a few plast type busts from one of the ;ocal cheap shops with a veiw to practicing on before I go anywhere near anything but a tank
If you haven\'t already hit it, I\'d recommend Cody\'s site I linked above for some good starting info on working with resins, if that\'s what you\'re looking at doing. Learned a whole bunch of useful stuff about using putty from that site.
Hardest thing for me was just purely the jump in scale, since I hadn\'t even graduated from drybrushing my highlights. I hadn\'t even really thought of thinner transluscent layers at the time, so the thought of shading and highlighting something that big gave me fits.
Good friend of mine who does mostly 2d art also suggested just airbrushing on anything you can get your hands one...ie paper, empty soda cans, etc. The challenging and neat thing about using dual-action airbrushes is getting a feel for manipulating it for what kind of effect you\'re trying to achive. For instance, I painted an untold number of soda cans black while I was trying to figure out good ratios to thin my paint, let alone how I could get even coverage without loading the target or overspraying or whatever. It\'s always good to practice control...I also wasted a WHOLE bunch of paint because of excessive overspraying and impatient basecoating. I think for basecoating one of my 1/6 models I went through something like one and a half pots of Gunze Sangyo paint just to paint a sweater.
Hardest thing for me was just purely the jump in scale, since I hadn\'t even graduated from drybrushing my highlights. I hadn\'t even really thought of thinner transluscent layers at the time, so the thought of shading and highlighting something that big gave me fits.
Good friend of mine who does mostly 2d art also suggested just airbrushing on anything you can get your hands one...ie paper, empty soda cans, etc. The challenging and neat thing about using dual-action airbrushes is getting a feel for manipulating it for what kind of effect you\'re trying to achive. For instance, I painted an untold number of soda cans black while I was trying to figure out good ratios to thin my paint, let alone how I could get even coverage without loading the target or overspraying or whatever. It\'s always good to practice control...I also wasted a WHOLE bunch of paint because of excessive overspraying and impatient basecoating. I think for basecoating one of my 1/6 models I went through something like one and a half pots of Gunze Sangyo paint just to paint a sweater.
Airbrushing mini\'s
As Yoda once said \"Size matter\'s not! Judge me by my size do you?\" My litle unicorn is one from Rafm mini line and true 25mm. In the picture you are seeing him at is about 225% larger than the actual figure. The grey gradiations are all the airbrushes effect, as is the peachy blend on the nose. The only paint brush work done was the grass, horn and stones. That was just a little light dry brushing to pop the fine details up. The eyes were masked with liquid latex and the rest was done with a free hand mask. The free hand mask was made from a thin piece of plastic card stock that I custom cut to look like a tiny french curve. :idea:
Garyo
As Yoda once said \"Size matter\'s not! Judge me by my size do you?\" My litle unicorn is one from Rafm mini line and true 25mm. In the picture you are seeing him at is about 225% larger than the actual figure. The grey gradiations are all the airbrushes effect, as is the peachy blend on the nose. The only paint brush work done was the grass, horn and stones. That was just a little light dry brushing to pop the fine details up. The eyes were masked with liquid latex and the rest was done with a free hand mask. The free hand mask was made from a thin piece of plastic card stock that I custom cut to look like a tiny french curve. :idea:
Garyo
QuietiManes
New member
It wasnt an army, or at least not that I saw. Just a couple contest entries. Think it might have been GD 3-4 years back. There was a Carnifex tearing into some Marines in a combat/duel diorama and a Lictor hiding in the bushes/rubble and one or two others all in different categories. Might have been a female painter, I remember thinking \"she paints bugs?\" or something at the time.
War Griffon
New member
Garyo, How do you find the latex mask stuff for working on mini\'s? What I mean is does it remove easily enough with taking paint with it or do you seal the mini before you use the mask?
Equus, Thanks for the Cody link I shall book mark that and have a read tomorrow/later this morning
Equus, Thanks for the Cody link I shall book mark that and have a read tomorrow/later this morning
