practice airbrushing

I think you ought to practice with the same paint that you're gonna use on your models. Ink may not behave the same way in your airbrush as acrylic paint.

Just for practice food coloring and a color book are good. Practicing with paint is good but all bottles are not the same consistency. Try the food coloring to get the feel of the airbrush and then a cheap model to learn paint consistency.

Jose,

I believe I read in another one of your e-mails that you are working with a Paasche H brush. I started with this one as well. It's a very good single action brush but like all others, requires practice. I agree with the others about practicing with the paint you're going to use but some preliminary practice with ink will serve you well. Acrylics act very differently than ink. I've used a good deal of ink in my brushes and acrylics are actually more difficult to deal with.

However, if you've never sprayed the brush at all, I would go ahead and either get some airbrushable ink or mix some food coloring in water. Get some water color paper or stock card at an art or arts and crafts store. Begin with this setup to just get the feel of spraying. Adjust your pressure, paint flow, etc. just to see what happens. Practice making lines, circles, etc. This is how airbrush artists are first trained in the tool.

After you feel comfortable with that, get a couple of sheets of styrene plastic from the hobby store, load your brush with properly thinned acrylic (the stuff you'll use) and practice on the plastic sheets. The styrene sheets will simulate the plastic surfaces of the model. This part is a lot fun as well. It lets you try all kinds of things with the brush that you wouldn't want to do on a model.

Finally, when you are more comfortable, go ahead and get that inexpensive model and go to it. A couple of practice sessions on the paper and styrene sheet and you should be ready for this. From this point on, you learn as you go. I've been airbrushing for many years and I'm still learning. Develop your skill and above all, have fun.

Mike

Here I come to save the Day! Go to Hobby Lobby or Michaels or Wal Mart or Menards and buy the Acrylic paint that is on sale that given week for about 65 cents a bottle. Wal Mart doesn't put their paint on sale but it still is around 60 cents a bottle or less. Get this and thin it with distilled water or auto window washer solvent (also available by the gallon at Wal Mart). Then get a cheap model or even grab some of your computer copier paper and practice away. You will notice that if you place the airbrush right on top of the work and pull down quickly and steadily that ol Passche H is capable of a pretty thin line. Of course further away gives broad coverage and you must practice with needle adjustments and airflow.

Cheers, Max Bryant