Airbrush Problems

[Banks]

Hey guys,i've been traversing the net for answers,but i'm not finding much. I'm new to airbrushing,just got it less than week ago. I have picked up the Harder and Steenbeck Ultra .2mm. The issue i am having on a constant basis,is that MOST of the time,my airbrush doesn't want to spray anypaint. Sometime the paint in the cup bubbles,sometimes it doesnt. Normally it will start off just fine,i'll be able to basecoat a single model,and then i have my issues. I'm using both Vallejo and Citadel paints,i thin them down(using windex,though i'm finding out isn't the best idea). But i'll brush the tip of the nozzle off just in case theres any dry paint,but no such luck. Pretty much the only solution i've found it to give it a deep cleaning,which gets very old when it happens every 5-10 minutes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Lucien Eilam]

If you're sure you're thinning the paint properly, try straining it. it could be clumps of clotted pigment or flakes of dried paint.

 

Also, if you've been thinning the paint in the cup, don't do that.

[Banks]

No i've been thinning the paint in a seperate container. But what do you mean by straining it? Like through an actual strainer?(Like you do with vegitables or something)

[Lucien Eilam]

Any fine mesh. A tea strainer is usually about right.

[Banks]

Hmm okay,i'll have to give that a shot.

[Bung]

If you spray GW or Valejo Game / Model Colors your muzzle is too small for most of the paint pigments.

I got the same issue with the H&S Evolution. 

Get the 0.4 mm muzzle set and it will work with your GW and Valejo paints.

I use the 0.2 mm muzzle only for small details with colors designed for airbrushing.

[Banks]

Ooh okay,thank you Bung,yea i thought that might be the case,but didn't want to jump to conclusions.

[Bung]

I learned it the hard way, trying to spray the old Foundation colors with a 0.2 mm  muzzle.

Wasnt really successfull.

[Banks]

Yea,i didn't have much success either. However! I now have the .4 mm needle/nozzle. And it has been 100% better! Thank you for that Bung! Although iwas wondering now if you have any suggestion with shading models that are a base of Vallejo Sky Blue.

[Bung]

Except for a few colors i do my shadows and highlights with 2-3 colors i mix into the base color.

 

For highlights i use bascolor with Vallejo Ivory or Ivy Yellow depending on the basecolor (for sky blue i would suggest ivory with yellow it could be some greenish tone)

If you use some clear white it will get chalky and wont look so good if you dont want it.

 

For the shadows i use a mix of the basecolor with Vallejo Dark Sea Blue. Its a real dark blue and produces a more natural shadow than simple black.

 

I did a test mini for yellow in a german 40k forum so here i show you how i did that.

 

First:

Basecoat with Black GW Primer and added first highlights with white

 

http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/big/ayv8-19-f717.jpg

 

For Yellow i needed some other basecolor cause yellow on black sucks great so i used Mahagony (70.036) Vallejo Model Air

 

http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/big/ayv8-1b-d9d4.jpg

 

Then i sprayed the Basecolor with Yriel Yellow

 

http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/big/ayv8-1d-642e.jpg

 

Then i used a normal Airbrush color: Transparent White from Schminke for the top Highlights

 

http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/big/ayv8-1e-f457.jpg

 

Then i sprayed the Shadows with Magenta from Vallejo Model Color and washed the mini with Vallejo Model Wash Dark Yellow

 

http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/big/ayv8-1g-2838.jpg

[Banks]

Interesting, So when it comes to either highlights or shadows,its good to mix your base color in,so it stays within the same range of your base color  and provides a smoother transition? I wonder how mixing Deep Sky Blue would work with Sky Blue.

[Bung]

Yeah, most time this way to work is called layering, there are alot of tutorials about that out there.

[Brother Amarel]

Just to add to Bung's point, the pigment in Vallejo Air is much more finely ground, than in the Vallejo Model or Game range. Thinning the later two ranges won't make any difference to the original pigment grain size.

 

Vallejo Air is really nice paint, btw :).

[Banks]

Yea, i really wish they sold Vallejo Air here in the US locally. I have managed to find a small range of the Model Air,but its still not a great selection. But i've been watching some tutorials and they have come in handy. I'm still getting used to controlling my air brush,the most challenging part for me is doing small details(lines for pre shadowing mostly) because it sprays a bit too much and i get that splatter effect,which i'm assuming is because my PSI is too high.

[Bung]

Try it with some masking, here is a nice tutorial for that:

 

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2014/05/tutorial-masking-options.html

[Firepower]

Try it with some masking, here is a nice tutorial for that:

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2014/05/tutorial-masking-options.html

Loved it, simply because it has the sentence "Looks like alien poo."

Never seen masking putty before. Interesting concept really. Masking with tape can be painfully tedious at times, but I never did it enough to get fast at it.

Anyway, masking may not be totally necessary for preshading. Preshading (preshadowing, whatever) actually tends to be somewhat sloppy, from what I've seen. Just a quick and rough go around with black/dark browns before the actual painting starts.

PSI could indeed be something of an issue. That's just something you'll more or less have to learn on your own. You'll get people online saying 'Use X PSI' all the time, but the numbers tend to be rather different between artists, and really it just comes down to what you want to achieve and the paint you're using. You may even actually be using a perfectly fine PSI for the paint, but are holding it too close to the model.

And of course, you'll have to develop a smooth, steady hand. It's sorta like drawing in pen, without ever touching the paper.

Now by "splatter effect" do you mean 'spidering' like this: http://homepage.eircom.net/~safc/spider.jpg

Or is just just not coming out in a grainy sorta sputtering, like this: http://wl.static.fotolia.com/jpg/00/00/53/33/400_F_533335_3tui0fcuDASOLm5sgzvEfym4sfymD1.jpg

The first occurs when the paint is too thin. The second occurs when the air and paint aren't flowing smoothly. This can be a result of clogging, a bent needle and/or nozzle, poorly and/or unevenly thinned paints, or 'bar-belling.' Bar-belling tends to happen with a lot of people when they start out, because they just let the trigger snap back into place once they're done drawing a line, rather than smoothly closing the flow of paint and leaving the air going.

If you're still having issues with clogging, try some lube. Regdab needle juice made my life significantly easier. There's no cure for dry tip, but this helps hold it at bay a great deal while you paint.

And thus ends my brain-dump of quasi-relevant information

[Banks]

I've actually got a mixture of the two happening, The first happens on the model itself,and then when i was testing some things out on paper,i got the second effect. Which i do notice i often let the trigger kind of snap back into place.