Airbrush help


wilson44512

wilson44512

Newbie RRDER
I have never airbrushed. And i want to airbrush some laser cut buildings. Can any one tell me how to thin the paint to use in the airbrush? I"m going to use all purpose water based acrylic paints since i have lots of that kind. What should i use to reduce the paint? And what mixture should i use? thanks for any info
 
I use distilled water (from the drug store) to thin acrylics. Thin until the paint is the thickness of 2% milk.

Here is a great article with troubleshooting and reviews on airbrushes. This is well worth reading.
https://sites.google.com/site/donsairbrushtips/

Before using the acrylic paint and before ruining your buildings practice with diluted ink (airbrush jar of water with a few drops of India ink).
 
Airbrush Fail . . .

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd resurrect an old one, whine and complain a bit, and then the old thread can work its way down again over the next few weeks.

Benchwork done and painted, track glued down, wiring done, DCC decoders installed, lots of trouble free testing with my very small fleet of rolling stock, and got my first structure built, now just need to paint it.

Got myself a harbor freight kit (double-action) and tried to paint antique white polyscale with it. It kind of worked okay, but truth is the spray pattern is way too small (compressor maintains 30 psi while spraying, no thinning of paint) for what I want to do and the test paint I did on some scrap styrene (thank you, God, for making sure I tried a test first) looked pretty bad. I realize the airbrush I got has a 0.35 mm tip, so maybe it is just too small to expect a nice wide pattern (I would like something like a spray can NOT on steroids). I think I may invest is a paasche talon with the three different tip sizes and both the regular and fan spray caps so I can experiment with different setups, but it definitely slows me down a bit (I should wait for the next billing cc billing cycle to avoid raised eyebrows from the director of capital expenditures). In the meantime, a coworker pointed out that there is a Badger 150 set at work that was purchased about 7 years ago and has yet to be used . . .I may try that with the 0.5 tip and see if I get better results.

Anyway, sorry for the long post that pretty much doesn't help anyone but me (in a psychotherapy sort of way). Maybe in an effort to redeem the post, I'll thank several individuals who have participated in a couple of active airbrush threads over the past few weeks . . . I have appreciated reading others' experiences and opinions.
 
Your fail was a result of not thinning the paint. Polyscale is very thick and the pigments are coarsely ground (especially white!). You have to thin it to the consitency of milk to get it to spray reliably. A .35 mm tip can spray a pencil line out to maybe a 3/4" wide line. That's what I get out of my airbrush. I have an Iwata. I have never painted with a Talon, though I have painted with a Millenium which is basically the same brush but a siphon feed. The fan cap is nice but do you need a 3" wide pattern? That's a lot for an HO scale structure! You'll also need more air to make it work properly. Make sure you have enough compressor! I also brush paint structures with polyscale.
 
Alan ya beat me to it.

Alan has given some very good advice. The trick for getting any airbrush to work at its best is the consistency of the media you're spraying. The 2% milk consistency is good. The HF brush is a good starter dbl action to learn on, and it does spray very well. Make sure you clean all the paint out of the brush before it clogs. You may have to disassemble the brush to get all the dried acrylic out if there is any in there.

I personally wouldn't buy a new brush until I learned on the one I have already.
 
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drolmaeye said:
compressor maintains 30 psi while spraying,
Click to expand...
That seems a bit high to me. Lots and lots of overspray and back spray, which can in turn lead to a bumpy finish as the dried back spray settles back onto the primary surface. I have a regulator I can adjust from 5 to 15 psi.
 
Thanks for the replies. The compressor is one of those ones I see many places, that kicks on at 43 psi and shuts off at 58 psi (but maintains 30 psi while spraying). For now, I will get a small air tank (5 gallons) to fill and I will put a proper regulator on the outlet. This should allow me to go up to 40 psi, but also lower than 30 if, in the future I spray different paints or use a gravity fed brush.

The other night I tried to thin the paint, but only after painting with stuff right out of the bottle. I think the brush may have partially clogged so the thinned attempt(s) weren't really good tests. Next time I will start with the paint thinned maybe 4:1 (?) paint to alcohol and see if the consistency looks like lowfat milk.

Also, no new airbrush right away. I took apart the harbor freight brush immediately after use, carefully cleaned it, and reassembled it and it seems to be in good working order. I'll spend my money this week on the tank, regulator, and fittings. And it doesn't cost me anything to test the larger tip on the Badger 150 from work. Yes, the fan nozzle would be overkill . . . if I go with a Talon I'll just get the selection of tips. Truth is I think the airbrush was working just fine save the thicker acrylic paint. I just wanted it to do something it wouldn't do (paint a nice, wide, yet controlled spray pattern) with that tip, paint, and pressure.

Anyway, last night's post was the reaction of someone who wanted something to work perfectly the first time without investing practice time. Now I am back to my reasonable self and I expect in a few weeks from now I will be airbrushing well enough to paint a respectable structure.
 
Think twice about thinning Polyscale with alcohol. I have heard of people thinning Polyscale with windex, windshield washer fluid, and just plain water. I use Testors Acrylic thinner. I only have experience with one paint that thins with alcohol and that's Tamiya. If the paint is not formulated for it, alcohol can actually speed the drying process and give you a different set of problems.
 
Thanks, again, for the advice. I'll swing by the LHS and get Testors Acrylic Thinner prior to next practice attempt.
 
Hey guys,

I have been using acrylic paint that I buy in tubes and bottles from a local crafts store. I also started using Windex for thinning. I did read somewhere that you can use winshield washer fluid or Pledge Future floor wax. I think I will stay with the windex, althought the winshield washer fluid would be a great deal cheaper.

Anyways, for a quick way to thin your paint, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6LVub0j_3Y It has made my life so much easier when thinning paint. Before, it was always a hassle to get the viscosity just right, without having to crank the air up to 40psi. I really like this method, and you can get the proper viscosity in just a few minutes.

Ted
 
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