what paint do people put through their airbrush

[hobit]

Hi all, I'm after a bit of advice.

I have recently ordered an HS evolution two in one airbrush, my first airbrush. While I am waiting for it to be delivered I have been wondering if I should order some airbrush specific paint such as vellagio air or their newer game air range, and if I am buying into a new paint range should I consider the scale 75 paint which some people rave about.

I currently own a mixture of GW, vmc and vgc. Should just use these.

Thanks for any advice and recommendations.

Cheers hob

 

[Zab]

Thin to the right consistency and use the right PSI and any of those are fine. You'll have to play quite a bit to get the mixes right but if you practice enough thinning will become second nature. I recently got some scale 75. Metallics and inks. They are interesting. Haven't blown them through the AB yet. I'll pick up a few more sets but they already have a very different behavior compared to GW so you might want to try a few before you commit whole hog. I have heard some folks in my local painting group who loathe how they behave. I think they might be great for wet on wet given how their metallics perform... Have fun with the AB and wear a mask

 

[MAXXxxx]

while they work, forget vgc. I behaves really bad in my AB. All others are fine.

 

[gohkm]

How so, Max? I have had best results with VMA, but VGC is definitely second - it works really well through an airbrush. P3 comes in third.

Maybe it's the thinner you are using? Vallejo paints do not play nice with any other thinner except Vallejo thinner.

 

[Zab]

How so, Max? I have had best results with VMA, but VGC is definitely second - it works really well through an airbrush. P3 comes in third.

Maybe it's the thinner you are using? Vallejo paints do not play nice with any other thinner except Vallejo thinner.

Oi tell me about it. I have some liquitex AB medium. Works great with pretty much any paint except Vallejo. 9 times out of 10 though i just use water.

 

[gohkm]

Surprisingly enough, VMA takes Tamiya x-21A thinner quite well. However, it is do heavily pigmented that it requires a lot of dilution to do juicing.

 

[moetle]

I've used Reaper, GW paints old, new, and ancient (various results), Minitaire, Liquitex Matte and Gloss, VMA, and Andrea. The only thinners I use are Vallejo thinner, a homebrew thinner and distilled water.

Wear a mask.

 

[hobit]

Thanks for the replies, I will remember the tip about thinners. I read on the vallejo site that the game colour is not designed for an airbrush as it dries quicker and is of thicker consistency, also containing some harmful substances not ideal for spraying. This of course does not mean they couldn't be airbrushed and highlights the need for a mask.

I own more vmc than game colour so will avoid the game paint untill I have more experience.

Really appreciate the replies

Cheers hob

 

[airhead]

I've probably put more things through an AB than most of us would want to (make up for face paint, food coloring for cakes, urethanes, lacquers, enamels, and water based model paints.)

Thin (reduce) to near water.
Use the right thinner (reducer).
Keep the gun clean.

Tamiya paints like their own thinner (alcohol based?)

Consider an AB medium to reduce your paints. This will add back some binder that has been diluted with the reduction. Most model paints start at around 1 part paint, 1 part AB medium and 1-2 parts water.

 

[Splurch]

As Zab said, Liquitex Airbrush Medium is fantastic and works well thinning just about everything. Liquitex also makes slow dri which is great if you're just using water but still having the tip get clogged regularly, a little slow dri drastically reduces how often you have to clean up the tip. Since you already own Vallejo stuff, I assume you have some Vallejo primer, if you don't get some, they are amazing through an airbrush (I hate their white though, too watery.) Try priming a bunch of stuff first, even just some sprues, to get used to the brushes behavior. Their non white primers are the perfect consistency to push through a brush, dry fast, easy to clean afterwards and are just great to start to learn the basics of using an airbrush.

 

[Johnslater96]

This was an informative thread. I am just getting back in to the hobby and my wife got me an airbrush for christmas. It came with some paint, but not stuff I would really like to use on my figures so I just ordered a set of 16 VMA Basic colors. Looking forward to trying them out.

 

[MrJim]

FWIW, I use Badger Minitaire paints. (bought the full set) Painted for a few hours last weekend using their water based primers and about a dozen different paints. Was able to switch between colors with a quick wash of water then Awata-Media airbrush cleaner without having to take the airbrush and experienced no clogging.

 

[EpicMiniArt]

thin to skimmed milk consistency and spray away, the only problems you'll have are with metal paints, u'll need AB metal paints as the metal flakes are a ground down enough to spray.

Always use a proper AB thinner and I use Vallejo thinner and have not had a problem with thinning any paints I use with it