Spray cans and airbrushes

[Marshal Wilhelm]

G'day all,

 

I was wondering how similar in thickness is GW's spray cans are compared to "the norm" of thickness used in an airbrush....?

 

If I don't have to mess around with an airbrush, that would be sweet. However, if the spray can paint is too thick, then my plan comes to naught.

 

Anyone familiar with both and can comment with authority?

[IronKobra]

The thing about the airbrush is it takes a bit of getting used to, but after a while you can control how thick, how thin, how opaque, how heavy etc the paint is. After a bit of experimentation you can really do a whole lot more with an airbrush than you can with a can of spray.

 

I am by no means an expert on an airbrush, but I have dabbled a little and I will be getting more into in the near furture and only after my small trials I see they are so much more useful than a spray can.

[DV8]

Are we talking about applying Primer to a model, or Paint?

 

Assuming equally primed models (re: thickness), airbrushing will give you more control over how much or how little paint is applied. So as a result airbrushing tends to be much thinner than simply spraying on a color with a spray can.

 

 

DV8

[darth_giles]

The big advantage I see to an airbrush is that you can color-match the color coming out of it to an actual GW color. As in, that's the color you're running thru it. I've never been able to do that with GW spray cans. The paint in the cans is always some other color; the red is a very pale orange-red compared to actual Blood Angels Red.

 

Unless GW has done a 180 in their spray paints, that is.

 

Edit: You can SOMETIMES color-match a basecoat color to some other company's can, though. Testors Desert Sand (matte version) is a pretty good match for GW Bleached Bone, and I think they've got an equivalent for Blood Angels Red as well.