Airbrushing - Does anyone else just not care?

[lhg033]

I like the idea of an airbrush but I dont have the space for one nor the time or patience to learn it.

 

For organic models e.g. orks/nids since contrast paints came out I have primed black then wraitbone to give an approximation of zenithal lighting but I do try to make sure not to have to heavy a shadow from the black. I have tried preshading and highlighting/drybrushing the base model too to varying degrees of success. I've generally enjoyed the painting and like the results so no FOMO for not having a brush here.

 

I'm not put off watching a video by it using an airbrush. At most I take the views of either "could i do that/similar another way?" 

 

 

[Lord_Ikka]

Like others here have said, my use of an airbrush is sort of a short-cut to make painting less of a chore. For the longest time I absolutely hated painting and really had no motivation to do it, and then I started using an airbrush to lay down my first base layer for large projects (full army painting mainly). It took all of that, to me, super boring part of the painting that was laying down the majority of the armor color by brush and made it so that I was just "involved" in the more exciting parts of washing, drybrushing, and detailing.

 

I've never even tried to use it for more than a time-saver; while I appreciate those that can use an airbrush to paint a mini or add some sort of effect, that's not what I use mine for and probably never will. I view it as a slightly more complicated way to do things than if I got a colored primer and used that as my primer/base layer, but it allows me more flexibility because I don't have to buy multiple spray cans for different armies.

[Rhavien]

I'm in the airbrush camp. It's been one and a half year now, since I started using an airbrush to get the first shades and it's just a charm. Whilst priming and get the basecolors down was always a chore to me, now it's the most fun part of the painting. After having fun with some slapchop I saw a video what you can achieve with some basic color shading. Started with a cheap Amazon set. After one year, I decided to upgrade to something mid class. I'm still using some cut out cardboard box as a spraybooth and it's just fine. 

[Zoatibix]

I hate my airbrush. I even got a mate to pop round to see where I was going wrong. Which was helpful but when I went to use it again a couple of weeks later…despite cleaning it down throughly…it was somehow jammed. 

[LameBeard]

1 hour ago, Zoatibix said:

I hate my airbrush. I even got a mate to pop round to see where I was going wrong. Which was helpful but when I went to use it again a couple of weeks later…despite cleaning it down throughly…it was somehow jammed. 

We need that reaction that stands for “I feel your pain, brother…”

Edited June 4 by LameBeard

[jaxom]

On 6/2/2024 at 2:43 AM, Magos Takatus said:

The technique that turns me off in videos is "slapchop". I just think it was overdone in videos for a time and while it was popular I felt like I could spot a model painted like that a mile away. A transparent tint of a greyscale shadow just didn't look right to me. People got nicer results by swapping the black, white and grey with other colours but most didn't bother.

Dana Howl did a two-part video on what she called 'sketch style' or underpainting and it was basically how to get airbrush style under coating using drybrushing and shades and the using glazes to add color. Slap chop is basically a cruder, worse version.

 

Key thing is the miniature should look black-and-white painted before adding any color.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Bryan Blaire]

If you are getting tip dry and it’s affecting your enjoyment of painting with an airbrush, check out this video - hope it helps and enhances your enjoyment some:

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

It's a tool that's used to do some painting techniques that are often just time savers compared to doing it manually.

 

Someone else mentioned slap chop and it's a great comparison for multiple reasons. The first is it's an example of a manual technique that you can do faster (and smoother) by airbrush, but is available if you don't have that tool. The second is that it's a technique that isn't going to appeal to everyone's interests; if you don't like how it looks, the video probably isn't going to be for you, same thing with the artus opus dry brushingz or juan hidalgos contrast/speed paint style.

 

But anyways, people tend to incorporate airbrushing into even tabletop level jobs because it adds so much for so little time. The gradient you get even going from basecoat to midtone use to require a huge amount of skill in wet blending or a huge amount of time in glazing; you can blast it out on your entire army in like, a 30 minute session now.  So why not have that step for an easy to replicate, army-wide tutorial? If you don't like that it uses an airbrush you can substitute it with the artus opus drybrushing, or glazing, or some of the many different coloured rattlecans, or wet blending or whatever.

 

It's also worth asking why you're watching these painting videos. Is it to replicate the scheme for your own army? Is it to learn new techniques? Or is it just to enjoy seeing someone elses process and the end result? 

Edited June 8 by SkimaskMohawk

[Bung]

On 5/28/2024 at 7:46 AM, Tyriks said:

I have an airbrush (actually my second) and never use it. I keep trying from time to time but it never works. Either I dont thin enough and it clogs every thirty seconds, or I thin too much and get crap coverage. Sometimes both, somehow. Just never found a system that works. I would love to make it work, somehow. I think my climate is maybe too humid most of the year or something.

 

I think you missunderstood something about airbrushing here.

Thinned paints will always be less opaque and cover less than unthinned paint.

Which is a a great point for airbrush use.

 

If you want a good coverage you have 2 options either use a better non-waterbased paint like Tamiya, Mr. Hobby / Gunze, AK Real Colors, etc. or you need to Spray a few layers to get to your desired result.

 

Last one is great as it lets you do some gradient which works like glazing if you work on your airbrush skills.

 

My tip in general is, thin your colours 1:1 and spray with 1,5 bar (around 20 PSI in freedom Units) try this and see if you need to adjust and only adjust one thing at a time (pressure or paint/thinner Ratio).

Makes it easier to see what works.

 

A good airbrush thinner helps too, the best i found are from Mr. Hobby.

Most time you can use the Standard Thinner but some waterbased paints like Scale Color need the Aquaus Version.

 

Edit to ad:

If you need a few layers for good coverage with your colours dont worry its pretty standard for airbrushing as you work in really thin layers of paint.

Edited June 9 by Bung

[Tyriks]

13 hours ago, Bung said:

 

I think you missunderstood something about airbrushing here.

Thinned paints will always be less opaque and cover less than unthinned paint.

Which is a a great point for airbrush use.

 

If you want a good coverage you have 2 options either use a better non-waterbased paint like Tamiya, Mr. Hobby / Gunze, AK Real Colors, etc. or you need to Spray a few layers to get to your desired result.

 

Last one is great as it lets you do some gradient which works like glazing if you work on your airbrush skills.

 

My tip in general is, thin your colours 1:1 and spray with 1,5 bar (around 20 PSI in freedom Units) try this and see if you need to adjust and only adjust one thing at a time (pressure or paint/thinner Ratio).

Makes it easier to see what works.

 

A good airbrush thinner helps too, the best i found are from Mr. Hobby.

Most time you can use the Standard Thinner but some waterbased paints like Scale Color need the Aquaus Version.

 

Edit to ad:

If you need a few layers for good coverage with your colours dont worry its pretty standard for airbrushing as you work in really thin layers of paint.

I'm not sure what you think I've misunderstood about airbrushing here. Could you explain that? If you just mean about thinned paints, then I haven't misunderstood. I was spraying multiple coats. But if I thin enough to minimize blockages, it isn't faster than using an actual brush, so I don't see a point in dealing with it. Even when my paints are thin enough that I need 4-5 coats or more, it still blocks up my airbrush, often pretty quickly. I spent more time cleaning it than using it, hence why I mostly gave up on it.

[SkimaskMohawk]

25 minutes ago, Tyriks said:

I'm not sure what you think I've misunderstood about airbrushing here. Could you explain that? If you just mean about thinned paints, then I haven't misunderstood. I was spraying multiple coats. But if I thin enough to minimize blockages, it isn't faster than using an actual brush, so I don't see a point in dealing with it. Even when my paints are thin enough that I need 4-5 coats or more, it still blocks up my airbrush, often pretty quickly. I spent more time cleaning it than using it, hence why I mostly gave up on it.

 

This definitely is not the norm. 

 

The ratio to thinning for proper use vs coverage is pretty subjective; it changes with paint, psi, needle size, and even stuff like humidity and trigger control. But, you should be able to find a mix that covers well without clogging your airbrush after a little bit of experimenting, in the same way you have to play around with watering down paints normally to get a feel for the correct consistency. My biggest clog causers was always using thicker paint (usually GW) with a smaller needle, without proper thinning and cleaning .

 

Once you've figured out the mix, it should never take longer to layer up you coverage, unless you're doing something like a single model rather than units or chunks of armies. You should also rarely clog unless you're doing very large projects and fail to rinse out the cup intermittently.

 

 

[Bung]

7 hours ago, Tyriks said:

I'm not sure what you think I've misunderstood about airbrushing here. Could you explain that? If you just mean about thinned paints, then I haven't misunderstood. I was spraying multiple coats. But if I thin enough to minimize blockages, it isn't faster than using an actual brush, so I don't see a point in dealing with it. Even when my paints are thin enough that I need 4-5 coats or more, it still blocks up my airbrush, often pretty quickly. I spent more time cleaning it than using it, hence why I mostly gave up on it.

 

May i ask what paint brands and colour hieß you use, together with Airbrush and needle size?

 

You description sounds like using cheap craft paints in a chinabrush.

I get people going in cheap with a chinese knockoff gun but the Chance they are just crap was always to big for my tastes.

 

I had my fare share of airbrush problems when u started more than a decade ago without youtube support, so im pretty confident your problems are caused by cheap materials.

 

[Tyriks]

It's a Badger 105. Paints are a bunch of types - Vallejo, Monument (probably haven't tried many of these as I was just starting to collect them last time I did much airbrushing), GSW, AK, some GW but mostly just washes and contrast paints to tint things.

 

As far as needle size, whichever it comes with.

 

I think my climate just isn't well suited to it. It's often very hot here and even my wet pallette dries out pretty fast. My first airbrush was definitely a cheap one and I thought that's why I hated using it, but getting a better one didn't help much.

[Bung]

38 minutes ago, Tyriks said:

It's a Badger 105. Paints are a bunch of types - Vallejo, Monument (probably haven't tried many of these as I was just starting to collect them last time I did much airbrushing), GSW, AK, some GW but mostly just washes and contrast paints to tint things.

 

As far as needle size, whichever it comes with.

 

I think my climate just isn't well suited to it. It's often very hot here and even my wet pallette dries out pretty fast. My first airbrush was definitely a cheap one and I thought that's why I hated using it, but getting a better one didn't help much.

 

What thinner do you use?

Being hot shouldnt be a problem especially with thinner paints there is less chance of spider legs.

 

Depending on the colour lighter hieß like yellow, red etc. are getting more transparent when thinned for airbrushing.

Except you use something like Tamiya XF Colours 

 

Second Point, White sucks for airbrushing, except Tamiya i havent found a good White for airbrushing (as in oppaque White not Inks for pre-shading).

 

Maybe you should look into additives.

Airbrush drying retarder should help you.

You still need thinner though.

[sarabando]

5 hours ago, Bung said:

 

Second Point, White sucks for airbrushing, except Tamiya i havent found a good White for airbrushing (as in oppaque White not Inks for pre-shading).

 

Pro Acryl titanium white is phenominal via brush or via airbrush. 

 

[Bung]

3 hours ago, sarabando said:

Pro Acryl titanium white is phenominal via brush or via airbrush. 

 

 

Nah, i am Camp Tamiya, as they do great colours and were used for the og HH Paint shemes.

[Brother Raul]

On 5/22/2024 at 12:12 PM, sitnam said:

You ever watch a painting tutorial, then immediately lose interest when in involves a airbrush? I have nothing against airbrushing, but I just don't have a desire to ever use one. Just something else to take up space, something to maintain and clean, something new to learn.  Maybe it's because of my line of work, but other then the space issue, I just don't want another  tool to use.

 

Anyone else feel the same way?

Thought I was the only one haha. When they pull out the airbrush and some random brand paints I'll just stop right there.

[Evil Eye]

I like my airbrush quite a lot. My Iwata Eclipse has given me phenomenal service for over a decade. I almost exclusively prime by airbrush these days, and having discovered the trick of spraying can paint into a plastic cup and then pouring it into the airbrush, I've gotten a lot more use out of it. Also, for certain projects (notably mecha/large-scale figure subjects or anything that requires smooth AND durable paint) it's the way to go.

 

That said, I do find airbrushing aqueous acrylics an absolute pain in the unmentionables. The inevitable tip dry and clogging annoy me something fierce. Also, I actually don't like how overly-airbrush-dependent mini paintjobs often look. They have a weirdly artificial feel to them; you see a lot of "professional studio" paintjobs that are technically well done but kinda soulless-looking, often making heavy use of aibrushed gradients and overdone OSL.

 

So yeah, I love my airbrush and wouldn't want to be without it but it's definitely not a catch-all solution to painting.

[Firedrake Cordova]

On 6/10/2024 at 4:39 AM, Tyriks said:

It's a Badger 105. Paints are a bunch of types - Vallejo, Monument ... As far as needle size, whichever it comes with.

If you're getting clogs, are you adding any flow improver? To some extent tip dry and clogging are a fact of life with airbrushes and acrylic paint, but flow improver (which also contains retarder) does help to reduce them. The Badger Patriot 105 comes with either a 0.3mm or 0.5mm needle (depending on the version), neither of which are small enough to be problematic with acrylics.

 

Also, is this video any help?

Spoiler

 

 

Edited June 16 by Firedrake Cordova

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

 

On 6/9/2024 at 12:49 PM, Tyriks said:

I'm not sure what you think I've misunderstood about airbrushing here. Could you explain that? If you just mean about thinned paints, then I haven't misunderstood. I was spraying multiple coats. But if I thin enough to minimize blockages, it isn't faster than using an actual brush, so I don't see a point in dealing with it. Even when my paints are thin enough that I need 4-5 coats or more, it still blocks up my airbrush, often pretty quickly. I spent more time cleaning it than using it, hence why I mostly gave up on it.

 

Not sure what might be causing all your clogging issues, but I doubt it's heat since I'm in Texas and don't have any problems like that. If you can resolve that, it is definitely much, much faster than using a brush even if you're only doing base coats.

 

As for the general topic of the thread, why get upset with someone for a tool you refuse to use for one reason or another? Several people have mentioned how they're considerably more affordable than they used to be not to mention a huge amount of resources to learn how use them and diagnose issues that I didn't have access to when I first got into airbrushing in the early 90s. Over the years I've noticed that a lot of the people in this hobby have an incredibly narrow view of what they deem acceptable tools to use - generally just what the company that makes the miniatures they like are offering - and will absolutely not venture outside of that despite ease of use, lower costs, or a much better alternative to something like a proper gap filling putty vs Greenstuff which it is horrible at.

 

I skip the "NO AIRBRUSH" videos these days because whatever the technique is, it's practically guaranteed to be more difficult, take longer, and not have the same quality result with a brush.

 

To each their own but I prefer my hobby horizons to have a wide open sky.