Re: Painting, Airbrush Questions

On Tue, 07 November 2000, John Fox wrote:

>   I am thinking about getting an airbrush to do some painting of my
minatures
 
> and I have a couple questions.

Rick answered with most of what I was going to mention.
   
>   1) What type of paint should one use with the airbrush?

I used Tamiya acrylic. I thin them with Tamiya thinner. I've heard that
you can
 use things like Ral Partha paint, but you have to thin them with
thinner and s
train them through women's nylons (or some similar material... no, not
with any
one still wearing them!). I also heard you could thin them with
windshield wash
er fluid, which is basically just ethyl alcohol and water, but I'm not
sure I'd
 want the blue/pink tinge.

>   3) How narrow (wide) of a area can one paint with one pass?

You have two parts to the airbrush that you can change: the nozel and
the needl
e. The better the airbrush, the more fine a spray you can use. I have a
Badger 
150 which, to be honest, just isn't good enough for very delicate work.
The air
brushes artists use is much more expensive, and can allow for much finer
detail
. 

The finest lines I've done with the airbrush are about 1/4" wide. Not
great for
 figures, but as Rick said they are good for building and vehicle
camouflage pa
tterns. It's also good for putting down a base coat, such as the blue I
use on 
my FSE starships.

>   4) The paints at the hobby store for models are expensive.	Can I
use 
> something from Home Depot or a hardware store? (related to Q#1)

Not for your airbrush. Bear in mind, though, that airbrush specific
paint is mo
re expensive than regular model paint. I did all of my FSE ships (quite
a few) 
using Tamiya paint and I didn't even go through half a jar. Not THAT
expensive.


>   5) Is it worth getting an airbrush?

I thought so. The ability to do coloured base coats of any colour makes
it wort
hwhile. My SG2 vehicles have a not bad cammo scheme that was quick to do
with t
he airbrush. It's fun. It depends on what you're after and what you plan
to pai
nt. I still haven't found a technique I like for doing a wash or
detailing over
 an airbrushed vehicle's cammo pattern that doesn't risk wrecking the
pattern, 
though.

If you will use the brush a lot, get a compressor. I don't, and just use
cans o
f compressed air. I'm only on my second, so a compressor isn't worth the
money 
for me. 

Be sure to clean it when you're done, and right away.

Oh, and don't disassemble it over the sink without making sure there is
NO way 
for anything to fall down the drain! Some of the parts are tiny...

Allan Goodall - agoodall@canada.com
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