Critically_hit Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Hiya, I'm looking to invest into an airbrush specifically for miniature painting. Frankly, I don't know the first thing about airbrushes and just googling the things got me some useful confuzzlement but not much more. I'm sure there's some people that know much more about what a miniature painter is looking for in an airbrush. So, please help a fellow painter along! Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzen Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 the basic stuff you need to look for in an airbrush are gravity fed & dual action.. requires less paint & gives you more control.. as long as you get those.. start cheap so that if you decide its not for you.. you dont end up wasting a load of money. oh and a compressor is all sorts of useful. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2703655 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanhausen Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 This guy in youtube (SMConsortium or something like that) has some decent start up videos (though you have to bear with him). In my experience, people tend to buy airbrushes because they think that will automatically paint their miniatures. Wrong :) Airbrush does have some neat uses, but mainly (and if any pro comissioners think differently, please! correct me) for priming, base coating, doing cool power weapons (such as this month's Grey Knights) and painting vehicles (most of the mini at least). Highlights, shading and so on is quite difficult to be able to do... though you do save time. Shading for example, if you prime black, short sprays of progressively lighter colours lets you do in 20 minutes what would take you 20 hours with a brush ;) Knowing this... if all you want is to prime/basecoat, I'd say get a cheap spraygun/nozzle feed airbrush. They are around 10-15 Euros and all you do is either let the air (with paint on it) go out or not. Double action gravity feed aribrushes allow you to control both how much air and how much paint you put out. Than means more control and, as said above, due to being gravity, you can paint down to the last drop. As for the air source...compressors are a must. They start at 50 Euros and even if you buy... 8 air cans? you'll save money in the short run. Try to get one that isn't noisy and that doesn't require to build up pressure. The "elephant" compressor is a classic :) Sorry for the wall of text... hope it helps :) Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2703685 Share on other sites More sharing options...
averykess Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 The intro that Tanhausen recommended by SMConsortium does is pretty good. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2703932 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanhausen Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Thanks for searching the link :P He's a wierd guy (aren't we all sometimes) and he sometimes talks from the hearing (direct translation... means he uses second hand information) but he has solid and neat comments mostly. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2704007 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vindicatus Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Airbrushes are awesome, and as Tan said, they can make light work of something that would normally take a whole lot longer. However, there are some things you need to do to ensure that you get the most out of your airbrush 1) Compressor : As the Masterclass book states, even the best airbrush will preform poorly if the air supply is equally poor. You don't need to get something that requires gas to operate or a zoning permit to run, but having an adjustable pressure guage is essential, as well as what they call a 'moisture trap'. It dries out the air before feeding it to your brush to avoid getting unnecessary water infiltration into your paint when you're working. 2) Thin your paints. No, really. Most, if not all paint is too thick to successfully spray with an airbrush, so you need to work on creating a formula with your paints to ensure that you get the right kind of flow. It all depends on the paint, truth be told, but you're aiming for something about the consistency of 2% milk. 3) Clean your airbrush EVERY time you run paint through it. Usually, if I'm doing a lot of colours at once, I'll do one, hit the sink and blow everything out with my extension hose from the waterline (forcing water through the paint chamber and through the nozzle until it runs clean), and go back for another. After I'm fully done with it, I strip it down completely and give it a good scrub to make sure there aren't any paint burs or dry patches that will gum up the operations later on. That being said, you just need to hunker down and practice with it once you finally decide on what's best for you, and what you're going to use it for. After about a half hour of screwing around with mine, I figured out how to OSL a muzzle-flash on a Space Marine's arm (thanks to a muzzle-flash bit I got from Armourcast), and there are tons more uses out there. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2704042 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Valerius Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Is there a lot of overspray, and need to shield your environment from getting painted? I paint on my kitchen table (joys of living alone :)), will I need to set up some sort of cardboard shield so I don't paint my table? Also, not entirely related but I keep seeing this term (and can't find a definition)... what's OSL??? FYI, Tanhausen, the term you were looking for is "hearsay", in US English at least. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2704064 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanhausen Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Object source light(ning)...fancy term for a hard to master technique. I covered my painting table with plastic dining cloth <_< And how do you use it? Being a hearsay? Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2704168 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Valerius Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Do you find that stuff not on the table is at risk? So, if my fridge is a couple feet away from my table, should I cover it? Having never used an airbrush, I have no idea how much it sprays. Also, is it recommended/required to wear a mask? I imagine that one might not want to breathe in atomized paint. Hearsay is a noun, so if you told me about something you heard from your cousin Fred I might say "That's hearsay, it isn't reliable information." Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2704274 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vindicatus Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 It's used as hear-say. Dude1 : So I heard that Mike likes Jill. Dude2 : That's hearsay, they really hate each other. Applicable in times when you use second-hand information without confirming the source as true and factual. Anyways, yes, OSL is a heck of a technique, and I love to try to include it whenever possible. :angry: Pure win once you figure out just how to use it. There's a tutorial around here about the Magmatrax (i want to say that's the name), with some brilliant layouts of how it works. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2704276 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanhausen Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 I thought magma was basically dry brush and stippling :angry: As for the effected spray area, Ill take a pic tomorrow of my working station: its simple and its quite a bit of DIY. But the wall is like 30 cm and has never gotten paint...because usually you spray from the top down and now from the side like when you prime. Link to comment https://bolterandchainsword.com/topic/225840-aibrush-where-to-start/#findComment-2704320 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.