Airbrushing Darkstar Metals (sort of)

[Evil Eye]

As has been mentioned in the coloured metallic thread, I discovered C Roberson's range of metallics, some of which were repackaged by Darkstar in their molten metal range (but otherwise unchanged). I had a try at airbrushing their metallic purple, but found it was horrendous to work with! I thinned it a fair bit with Mr. Aqueous Thinner, my acrylic thinner of choice, but found I was getting major clogging problems.

 

Now to be fair, it could have been my fault for trying to use it with a Procon airbrush with a 0.2mm needle, and I do have a much cheaper and larger-needled Expo airbrush for more "troublesome" paints (as well as an Iwata Eclipse I need to restore) but I was wondering if anyone else has tried airbrushing the range? Is the pigment just too coarse? I know it's mica rather than aluminium after all. Do I need to use a different thinner? Add some Vallejo Flow Improver or other retarder to the mixture? Just thin the everloving :cuss: out of it and spray it at a really low PSI? I'd like to get it to work, as the paints are really nice colours, work wonders by brush and are very good value. I am aware that airbrushing metallic acrylics is something of a hot-button topic (certainly most mecha modellers tend to avoid them and use alcohol based metallics due to them behaving much better) but it seems like something that could be worth at least trying to get to grips with for the formerly mentioned reasons.

[Marshal Loss]

I've used some with a 0.4mm needle at my usual c. 25 PSI and it was okay - far from the best metallics I've ever used through an airbrush, but nothing as bad as you're describing. Just had a quick Google to help you out and Darkstar have this information on their website:

 

 

• What do I need to do when airbrushing with them? - Mix the paint down to about 3 drops thinner to 1 drop of paint. Make sure that you shake the paint well before using it. We recommend that you use a 0.25mm needle or above, preferably a 0.3mm

 

Probably best to try that advice first and go from there.