citadel paint gun for basecoating?

[Kaptejn]

Hey all. Today i recieved my order for a citadel paint gun in order to speed up the pretty damn boring peocess of assembling an entire army. So far i've done a couple of layers with the gun butnit seems to be working pretty bad since the undercoat is still very visible. How mqny layers do you usually have to do and at what paint/water ratio? I used the markings on the paint conrainer this far but it seems preety thin to my newbish eyes.

 

Thanks in advance for your help :)

[S.k.i.t.t.l.e]

I haven't tried the GW spray gun, but I know that other airbrushes use the paint pretty thin. "Milk-like consistency" is a term that crops up. Buypainted has a vid on youtube that shows the approximate consistency.

 

[Bartali]

It depends.... Base coat, opacity of the paint being sprayed, consistancy of the paint mix and the effect you're going for all need taking into account.

Normally I'll just apply coats until I get the effect I'm after. As for consistancy, I've found I want the model to look 'wet' after I've sprayed, but without the paint running on the model

 

Consider the Vallejo Model Air range which is pre-thinned and can be sprayed straight out of the bottle.

 

As for my expereinces with the Citadel Spray Gun - it's absolutely fine for basecoating, you can even do some basic pre-shading/zenithal highlighting with it, and even some basic patterns on vehicles with judicious use of masking tape. Not so good for any fine work though - you need an air brush for that.

[Tanhausen]

What colour are you basing?

 

If its a clear one (white, yellow, red) they usually have problems covering, so a light primer (white or grey) is usually a good idea.

 

As for paint/water ration, again it depends not only on the brand but even the range!

 

I'd say thicker than "dirty water", probably a 3-1 mix (3 parts water).

 

And since the spraying is fast and dries fast aswell, better to do 4 smooth layers than 1 thick one ;)

 

Last, try and get a compressor and an airbrush: its cheaper due to the air and you'll have much more control and will be able to do much more stuff :)

[Kaptejn]

So far i've been using the chaos black spray for undercoat but im thinking id prolly be better off with

Skull white since im painting blood angels.

[Tanhausen]

If you have to buy products, I suggest Vallejo Grey primer.

 

Polyurethane (which means it stick well and has a rubber texture which allows for A BIT of flexibility) which can be either brushed or sprayed.

 

If you want to use the spraygun (get a 25 USD double action airbrush and a cheap compressor...you can find bundles for around 80 USD, try Artesania Latina), you can either thin it a bit with water (2 primer:1water) or even better Vallejo's thinner (2 primer:1 thinner).

 

Good luck with the painting :tu:

[Bartali]

Or probably better for BA, Vallejo's German Red/Brown primer. You'll be fine with white though if that's what you have lying around

[Tamwulf]

I bought the Citadel Spray Gun last year with the intention of using it on my Skaven army. This was my first time using an airbrush. I'd been exposed to it before, had seen some video's, even watched a fellow gamer paint an entire Panzer company for FoW.

 

1. The Citadel Spray gun is a type of airbrush. A very simple, "primitive" airbrush.

2. Cans of air are expensive

3. The best/only use for the spray gun is as a base coat type airbrush.

 

If you ever want to do anything else with your spray gun, you'll have to step up to a real airbrush. Did I mention that canned air is expensive? For the price of 10 cans of air, you can get yourself a good, low pressure air compressor perfect for airbrushing.

 

Issues I had with the spray gun:

1. Clogged NozzleGW paint is not the best for use in any airbrush and requires a lot of thinning. A ridiculous amount of thinning. Too much thinning. You can't use water, or you'll just be spraying colored water on the model. You have to use some kind of liquid medium to thin it out. After you get it thin enough, the pigment count of GW paints is a bit on the low side, so you end up spraying multiple layers. The nozzle size of the spray gun is pretty big too, so when it does clog, and it will no matter what kind of paint you use, it's a PITA to clean.

 

2. As I quickly discovered, it was cheaper for me to buy the more expensive army painter spray colors and use those to base coat my minis. After buying the spray gun, buying enough canned air for 200 Skaven, and enough paint... I could have bought ONE Army Painter Colored Spray can and bought myself some lunch.

 

3. Those damned cans of air... ugh. As you use the air, the rapid expansion of the air exiting the can creates a temperature drop and a pressure drop in the can. Some French guy named Bernoulli discovered this back in the 1750's while he was playing with fluids. Oh, this is also the key theory about how things fly (I prefer magic, but...). Anyways... The pressure is really high when you first start to use the can. As you use the can, the temperature inside drops drastically, which drops the pressure. On top of that, you are using the propellent which further reduces the pressure. The result- your paint will splatter at first, then go on smooth, then the pressure and temperature will drop so much that it will actually start to freeze the paint at the nozzle and... splat/clog.

 

4. The actual size and shape of the spray gun makes it a very awkward tool to use. It was OK if I was using it on a big model, like a Rhino or Drop Pod. For smaller stuff, it was a nightmare. The fixed size, large nozzle makes it impossible for fine detail. Even if I masked parts of the model off to avoid over spray, I would still get over spray and/or splatter (combination of paint and those damned cans of air).

 

My advice: Bite the bullet, and get a real airbrush and a air compressor. Avoid GW paints, and use high pigment airbrush paints. Valejo and Tamiya make a great airbrush line. They are specially formulated for airbrushes, and take very, very little thinning to use straight out of the bottle (I have, and it worked OK. Not recommended). P3 paints surprised me at how well they went through my airbursh- just require a lot of thinning, but they have a really, really high pigment count. Reaper MSP works pretty well too. Again, GW paint... bleh. Lots of work to get the same effect as the above paint lines.

 

Summary

The Citadel Spray Gun is an OK/poor base coat run. GW paint sucks for Airbrushing. Cans of air are just stupid. Save up your money, buy a good quality air compressor and airbrush.

 

Good luck!

[Tanhausen]

Great post tamwulf :)

 

I stand by you 110%...except for the fact that the paint gun is a spraygun, not an airbrush :P

 

As usual, going cheap in the start goes expensive in the end...