Airbrushing?

[Glovanator]

Hi All,

 

I was wondering if anyone had ever tried to paint a whole miniature using only an airbrush and could tell me of the results you achieved? Also, if anyone had an example of a miniature which was painted well with just an airbrush that would be appreciated.

 

I'd like to justify purchasing an airbrush, but I was hoping to get a good understanding of the detail that's possible. All airbrushes claim they can paint "hairlines". Obviously on a 28mm miniature a hairlines is going to look alot bigger.

 

Thanks.

[Solid Zaku]

It's certainly not impossible, but you'd either need a LOT of tiny masking tape, or simply make the art very stylized. I've seen 'hairline' tips for airbrushes. On the hood of a '68 Cadillac El Dorado, yep, those are some tiny lines. On a 28mm mini? Pfft, it's like trying to paint the Mona Lisa with a paintball gun. That being said, it's actually doable, if you use the right techniques.

 

Now, understand that you're NEVER going to be able to use an airbrush like a marker for freehanding, it's just plain not doable unless you use a really tiny stencil. What you can do is use the airbrush as, more or less, a washgun. That means using the gun to create successive undercoats and washes that end up in a presentable finished product. There are plenty of examples, both on the B&C and in White Dwarf articles, of whole armies painted using solely washes. The good thing is using a 'washgun' for this end simply streamlines the process immensely. A limitation of this is, of course, that you can't really make armies other than monochromatic ones, like Ultramarines, Blood Angels, or Word Bearers. Astartes forces such as the Astral Claws, Howling Griffons, or Executioners...funny how they're all Badab War Chapters.

 

Now, if you were allowed to use brushes for things like trim colors and the like, practically anything's available to you. However, you're stipulating that you use airbrushes in exclusiam.

[Stolid Fox]

You can do a lot of neat work with an airbrush, especially with blending -- check out this:

but fact is the hair lines you'll have to do by hand. Things like eye lenses are probably the best common example. But you can get a LOT of work done with an airbrush if you get good at it.

[Glovanator]

Thanks for the advice and link. I was wondering more about very fine details, but I think I get the impression.

 

Probably going to have to find someone w/ a really fine pointed airbrush and see what type of detail I can achieve.

[Mycetic Swarm]

Ok, I'll have to disagree with people who say you can't do hairlines with a airbrush. I have a friend who does taxidermy and he does tiny tiny details with his airbrush I'm talking the equivlant to doing the little pupils on your space marines eyes. He also does line highlighting and all that stuff. I was very skeptical myself till he showed me.

 

However a bit of warning here, this is what he told me when he first switched from brushes (he use to be skeptical too) to only airbrushes. When you start out you will be garbage and you will want to quit, after a long long time of practicing you will be able to do tiny details only then. Also it is very expensive because you will need a quality airbrush where you can control the flow. And you will need a good compressor.

 

Some effects also look better with a airbrush mind you, such as making your tank look all dirty like it's been kicking up dust and mud.

[Griffon Games]

The proper equipment to work at that scale would be something like these airbrushes - http://www.iwata-medea.com/index.php/products/custom_micron - which go for many hundreds of dollars. I have yet to see somebody do an entire Marine with one - though I would love to see it done well.

 

I use an airbrush all of the time - but to do vehicles:

 

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1338/5121787901_bc41cb6a0a.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4151/5195440223_5752bfddf8.jpg

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullspork/