Paint for Airbrushes

I haven't used spirit based paint in a long time, its far to nasty and messy !

Yes, use the recomended thinners and it works a treat and will deliver great looking results.

For weathering I have tried all sorts of water based paints including watercolours and artists acrylics, usually thinned with surgical spirit with good results.

Chris

Eddie Bray said the following on 31/01/2006 11:26:

Most definitely enamels - preferably Precision Paints. Cleaning isn't a problem as I just use those aerosol cleaning cans, squirted through during a session, then at the end of the session I use the same cans to clean the dismantled parts.

preferences

Has to be enamels, humbrol, rail match, or whatever other makes there are.

I have tried to spray acrylics but never had any success. Even tried adding Iso Propyl Alcohol to the spray mix (as recommended on this group) and it makes no difference, the finish is always uneven and blotchy at best, and the brush always seems to get clogged.

When I last asked about this here I was spraying a model of DS9 for my son. Did the stand in Humbrol matt black and ring of the station in Acrylic Desert Sand. I took both parts into Wicor Models and asked Dave for an opinion. Apparently there is nothing wrong with my technique (judged from the stand) so the c**p finish on the ring must be due to the paint (so he said). It must be possible to spray acrylics because son now does warhammer and he uses an acrylic black spray in an aerosol to undercoat the models before he finishes them, but what the secret ingredient is that makes it work I have no idea.

If anyone does spray acrylics successfully I would be interested to hear about how they do it.

Elliott

On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 13:02:40 GMT, "Elliott Cowton" wrote:

Give the acrylics one more go, and try this:

Instead of using alcohol which is no good at all as a thinner for airbrushing, find a shop that sells art supplies and get a small quantity of a substance called "Air Brush Medium". Here in the US it is manufactured under several brand names including "Liquitex" and "Golden". Liquitex is my favorite, but you will find that they all pretty much do the same. You may have to experiment just a bit to find the proper ratio of medium-to-paint that suits your environmental situation as well as your personal taste. Start with a 30-60 mix of medium-to-paint. Unlike alcohol, which is nothing more than a fast evaporating solvent, and may even aggravate the blotching and clogging problem, airbrush medium is specifically engineered to facilitate the use of acrylic paints in airbrushing applications. It retards curing time ever so slightly, adds lubrication to the abrasive paint, allows the paint to level and flow before curing and, unlike alcohol, does not reduce the vehicle-to-pigment ratio, nor does it reduce the adhesion of the paint to the substrate. With some paints, the addition of alcohol will cause the pigment to precipitate out of suspension in the vehicle such that recovery is not possible. At that point the model may appear to have been painted, but the paint will not adhere. A clue that the paint is ruined is that it will require frequent or constant agitation to stay "mixed", which it isn't any more. When you attempt to mask and paint an adjoining color, the masking removes the paint. Very frustrating, to say the least. Now, some folk may tell you that alcohol is just the ticket, and that it works like a treat. This is rubbish. These individuals either have very poor standards for their finished work, or they have been very lucky so far. So now, you can trust to alchemy and luck, or you can use the product that is engineered to do the job. Acrylic paints are super when properly applied Happy airbrushing.

snipped-for-privacy@noisp.com said the following on 31/01/2006 15:21:

Thanks for this - I've also had problems spraying acrylics, so this is something new I can try.

Cheapest place I could find the Liquitex Airbrush Medium in UK 273ml @ £5.55

• £3.25 shipping.
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  Eddie. I'm going to have a go.

vehicle-to-pigment

Provided the paint is clean, and it is appropriately thinned, I've never had a problem spraying water-based acrylics. Preferred medium used to be cellulose (smooth surface takes decals better) followed by a satin or matt varnish. Contrary to rumour, cellulose is fine on (styrene) plastics provided it is sprayed a such a distance that most of the solvent evaporates.

Now that cellulose has been replaced by acrylics, I am conserving existing stocks!

wrote

Damn. The shops have just closed. I'll have to go to town in the morning and see if the art shop is still running.

Thanks for the advice

Elliott

Elliot,

I do not know where you live, but I tried 6 art supply shops within 40 miles of Plymouth and 4 had not even heard of Acylic airbrush medium, said they diluted acrylics with water and the other 2 did not stock it. I ended up googling and after visiting half a dozen sites found the one previously stated. Two of the sites visited wanted £6 and £6.95 for shipping a 273ml bottle.

Good luck in your town though.

Eddie

"Eddie Bray" wrote in news:7QHDf.224254$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

...

Suitably thinned enamels tend to give a more consistant and better finish ... but your airbush takes a little longer to clean. You know what you're getting with an enamel and although airbrushing takes a bit of practice, both getting the paint right and the technique right once you've got the hang of it, it's a doddle.

Acrylics ... if standard model paints are thined can give a poor finish, the "colour" in the paint can be made up of quite large flakes and clog the brush - Tamiya acrylics can be quite poor in that respect - although they make a very good "brush paint". IOW the formulation of acrylic paint is much more varied than enamels.

Having said that, there are now acrylics that are now supposedly formulated for airbrush use ... they should be fine but I've never used them.

Cleanliness of paint (and thinners) is critical. I keep a complete range of paints and thinner only for airbrushing. No brush ever gets dipped in it; and the thinners are never used quickly to wet a rag to wipe up paint. Keep everything covered when not in immediate use.

"Eddie Bray" wrote

Fareham Art Gallery (yes, its a shop) didn't have any airbrush medium but they did have a range of Daler Rowney acrylic ink (Note: INK) that claims to be OK for airbrushing. See

I have a project to do in a month or so that requires a loco body to be painted black, I will get some, try it and post the results here. I thought about doing a couple of wagons but the colour range is a bit limited and my colour sense is likewise restricted so I don't want to try mixing it for myself.

I also will go down to Portsmouth later in the week, there is a specialist airbrush art shop there and I will try to get some medium from them. Results will also appear here.

In the meantime, anyone know what you have to do to prime whitemetal for acrylic paint? Does the usual grey primer work?

Regards

Elliott