new to airbrushing....Help??

[Xlanax_lot]

Hi Guys! After much researching and much saving I am finally the prowd owner of an airbrush!


I decided to go for:
-Iwata Smart Jet Pro (single piston compresor, with controls)
-Iwata Eclipse CS (dual action gravity feed airbrush)
- Scale75 acrylic paints


I have never even seen an airbrush before, so this is my fist go at it, it will be arrivi g nect week and I was wondering if any of you has had any expirience with painting, cleaning, efects, tutorials, or pretty much anything that would help my learning curve go smother!


Thanks guys

 

[ten ball]

To start just use tap water on plain paper. It will get you use to the AB trigger pressures etc. + its clean and you wont have to worry about a face mask because its just water vapor.
After a hour or so you can move on to the paint with a bit more confidence

 

[MAXXxxx]

To start just use tap water on plain paper.

unless you use VGC paints as they are a paint with water. (ok with Vallejo AB Thinner)

It will get you use to the AB trigger pressures etc. + its clean and you wont have to worry about a face mask because its just water vapor.

Yellows, Reds for example. Most of them are cadmium based. Normally won't be a problem as they have little of the stuff, but still. It's not safe in reality. Yeah the thinner would be just water vapor, but the thinned paint... not really.

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tutorials:
- Airbrush Essentials from AK Interactive is really good for showing the basics of thinning/pressure/spraying/cleaning. Either as DVD or downloaded as a torrent. I'd really start here.
- If there is a possibility than an AB-Workshop in a local art-store. Here where I live there is one about once a month. 2 Days (sat, sun) the teacher is someone who won a few medals with AB-body painting.
- for cleaning there should be some instructions from the manufacturer. About how to assemble/disassemble the AB and such.
- still for maintenance. I find these vids ok (From "Awesomepaintjob"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9plBA1BITmY , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1EsQozxEjM
- YT AB vids from "buypainted": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u88vUmdk9s ,

 

[ten ball]

Sorry I didnt make myself clear, when I say water I mean JUST water no paint (just spraying tap water on paper to get the feel of the AB)

 

[MAXXxxx]

ahh, ok that's different.
Little idea to that: add some food coloring to see what you paint. It's thinnable with water and non-toxic at all. Also won't clog the AB and with simple water is easy to clean up.

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very compressed what I find important when AB-ing:
- wrap the air hose around your arm to keep the AB more stable
- when AB-ing the movement should always be: press down, pull back, release forward, release up
- You will need to clean the needle from time to time because of acrylics drying on the tip, so prepare to have 'fun'
- thinning / pressure is key (This is shown pretty good in the AB-Essentials video). Sadly I didn't find good guidelines for it as it changes based on AB, paint, weather.
In general:
- The more thinned the paint the less pressure it needs, but have to be careful of being too close to the surface. At the same time with less pressure you can have more control for detail work.
- You can spray with less thinning if you up the pressure (to 40psi or so), but it'll dry the paint on the needle extremely fast
- not 100% dependable, but okish guide:
- for basecoats 1:2 (Thinner : VMC/VMA) or 1:1 (Water : most GW/P3 paints)
- for transitions 1:1 or 2:1 (Thinner : VMC/VMA) or 2:1 (Water: GW/P3)
- for glazes/dusting: 3-4:1 (Thinner: VMC/VMA) or 4:1 (Water : GW/P3) , sprayed from about 10-20cm away
- and of course: Learn to clean it. You'll do it a lot. I find I take more time cleaning the AB than really painting with it (eg: spraying the colors: 1 minute, cleaning: 2-3, later when doing some transitions: spraying a few minutes than again cleaning) . Of course I don't paint armies / units, where the speed of the AB could really shine.

 

[ten ball]

Ah! good tip :good: Were both very clever lol lol :rotfl:

 

[Xlanax_lot]

@Ten ball
@MAXxxx

Thabk you very much for all the help an for taking the time to write such detailed explanations.

i am sure I will find all this very usefull! Hoperully I can start to paint Ok with it soon enough!

 

[shaun5603]

What size needle you using? The reason being scale 75 is tricky to work with great paints and highly recommend them, however when using them AB they can pose issues especially just starting out. I had bit rough learning curve when it came to AB and scale colors.

if you never used the paints a few key points. There thick on pigment so shaking is must and really benfit from adding steel ball to help them. If you go to use the paint and see clear liquid coming out, stop and shake them some more. Thinning depends on the color I find some reds need more thinner than some of grays. So trail and error is needed. One thing that helped me a lot with liqudex air bush medium add few drops when thinning, again going to have play around with that stuff.

My one y AB is .2mm and after some practice I don't have any major problems using them even the metals. However they need to be very thin and that why I used air brush medium.

.5mm needle is bit easier to start with and requires less trail and errors when finding good flow.

I use a smart jet compressor as well, and for PSI I find 8-14psi is good. When cleaning it I will up it to 20 and spray water thur it few times. When turning off the compressor hold down the trigger to clear out the line.


what is the size and scale of models you are going to be working on?

 

[Xlanax_lot]

What size needle you using? The reason being scale 75 is tricky to work with great paints and highly recommend them, however when using them AB they can pose issues especially just starting out. I had bit rough learning curve when it came to AB and scale colors.

if you never used the paints a few key points. There thick on pigment so shaking is must and really benfit from adding steel ball to help them. If you go to use the paint and see clear liquid coming out, stop and shake them some more. Thinning depends on the color I find some reds need more thinner than some of grays. So trail and error is needed. One thing that helped me a lot with liqudex air bush medium add few drops when thinning, again going to have play around with that stuff.

My one y AB is .2mm and after some practice I don't have any major problems using them even the metals. However they need to be very thin and that why I used air brush medium.

.5mm needle is bit easier to start with and requires less trail and errors when finding good flow.

I use a smart jet compressor as well, and for PSI I find 8-14psi is good. When cleaning it I will up it to 20 and spray water thur it few times. When turning off the compressor hold down the trigger to clear out the line.


what is the size and scale of models you are going to be working on?

This are great tips man! greatly appreciate it!

I am mostly painting GW miniatures so they will vary from small, single foot soldiers of about 28 mm up to monsters of about 100mm I am mostly painting the Lizardmen/seraphon range.

I am starting with the standard needle that the AB comes with, that is a .35mm needle, regarding paints I will definately buy some of those metal balls to put in the paints!

 

[shaun5603]

Lizardmen was my first fantasy army when they came out. enjoy painting them up.

Scale colors are very Matt when they dry. There ink set is very glossy so they will help if your trying to make wet skin look. The Matt look will be great for old weatherly skin.

There fanstay range is colors dry a little different. Not sure about the war front colors.
also scale does its own YouTube videos not the easygoing tutorial but you worth watching.

 

[Xlanax_lot]

They are definatelly fun to paint! I have been trying to finish my army for a while now, hopefully the airbrush will help me with them! Specially when taking lighting into consideration!

 

[airhead]

beginner exercises:

Get some paper towels - the ones with dots on about 1" spacing are the best.

Some ink, some water, some dish soap.



Put down an impervious surface - some thing you can paint on with a disposable cover (newspaper, etc.)
tape down one of the paper towels.

Get a 2-4 oz. jar. Put in water and a few drops of ink (food coloring will work as well - I like that idea). Add enough ink / coloring so that it looks like coffee, not like iced tea.

(top loader) fill up the cup with this and start learning to shoot horizontal lines - follow the dots. Left to right, the right to left.
Learn to make the lines fatter and then thinner. (don't release the trigger, always roll forward then release the air)
Learn to start and stop.
Learn to start small and stop large.
Learn to start large and stop small (dagger stroke).

Now doe it all over again up to down and down to up.
Then do diagonals.

Change the paper to glossy paper (old magazines).
Notice the difference in the amount of color you can lay down at a pass without making spiders and centipedes.

Have fun.