Airbrushing: Time to step up my game

Bill Newcomer
After seeing such great paint jobs from others, I decided to dive into airbrushing with both feet (and my wallet). I watched a bunch of Youtube videos and observed some of the handy items other guys have to make things easier. Now that I have everything, tomorrow will be my first flight. Wish me luck. 🙂

JD
Piece of cake Bill, just be sure you have adequate ventilation. You're already an expert, decanting your own paints and all. I use mineral spirits to thin my enamels, and lacquer thinner for lacquers, although they do sometimes cross over. Mineral spirits seems to be the most styrene friendly to me, and I use it for enamels, oils, and some lacquers. 🙂

Bill Newcomer
JD, Good to know. I see a lot of Youtube guys use lacquer thinner with enamels. I have heard some other thinners turn unused enamels into jello.

JD
Good idea to keep a log. I'm always experimenting, and taking notes, and that while most Testors enamels thin well with MS, some metallics very much pref LT. ie Silver Metallic. I find that above all, MS based mediums perform well, over acrylic base coats/underpainting, and vice/versa 🙂. (wow, I finally have something to offer) 😭 😄

Bill Newcomer
Hi all, I got to use 2 of my airbrushes today. I definitely like the results. WAY better than rattle cans.

Stephan H.
All the best of luck with the airbrush. The "test" pieces look like you start at a very high level😉 . I own a very similar compressor but with a tank. This gives you a way more uniform airflow if spraying for a longer period of time. I test sprayed without the tank connected a few years ago and had the feeling I could feel the air flow coming out of the brush oscillating with the frequency of the compressor. Never tried it with paint though. Looking forward to see whats coming after the tests 👍

JD
I'm curious about your custom decanting piercer... how did you dream that up? I glue a straw to the rattlecan nozzle, and decant that way, but found out the hard way that you definitely need glass jars with metal lids, because plastic lids can explode on you...literally ALL OVER 😛
Great first results, btw. 🙂

Bill Newcomer
JD, I went looking for a can piercer after seen a Youtube video of some one poking a can with an icepick. That looked potentially messy to me. I first started looking for water valves that pierce copper pipes for refrigerator ice makers. None of them were big enough to grab a small can let alone a big one. I then remembered I had a R134a injector tool in my garage. It modified it to work on cans. I have learned not to rush the process on full cans.

JD
I'm fascinated. Question, why pierce the can at all? Does more product come out vs. decanting using just the nozzle? Also, do you just drain the paint out like you're doing an oil change? Here's how I do it. I just decant do it. | Album by Mithran’dir

Bill Newcomer
JD, When the can is very old and/or used. SOMETIMES there is not enough pressure left to get all of the paint out. It also lets you see the inside of the can to determine if you got all the pigment out of it.

JD
Ah, now I see. That's very innovative! 😎

Chaz Gordon
I started with one of the cheap kits from Amazon, results were good for the double action I got, but the trigger one is not so great. Christmas 2018 delivered an Iwata TR0, which is like painting with your mind, Soo smooth, and it does exactly what you want it to, as soon as you think about it. The only thing I will say is that Varnish is nots o great through it, the 0.2 needle is too small for Varnish finishing, and clogs quickly. But basecoat painting is a breeze and Vallejo or Tamiya goes on in one or two coats depending on the opacity of the colour.
This last last birthday brought a Paashe Talon Gravity set with all three needles and nozzles. I'll mainly use the .63 for Varnishes, but I'm looking forward to trying the different options and the Fan Air cap.
Vallejo acrylics spray nicely without extraction, with barely any odour, at least they do for me, maybe I should say "don't try this at home". I love the no mix, straight out of the bottle of the Model Air range, and a tiny amount of paint goes a very long way
Tamiya acrylics spray nicely, but you'll use a lot.
Whatever brand you go for, I cannot emphasise enough that you should buy the thinner and airbrush cleaner or that Brand to keep your brush in tip top condition. I spray through a couple of ml of thinner after stirring in the cup with a pipe cleaner, then when that is empty, I spray another couple of ml through, then a spray through with airbrush cleaner.
Tamiya Acrylics don't have an airbrush cleaner in the range, but 99.9% Isopropanol is the perfect cleaner. (don't ever use that with Vallejo though)

JD
I have the Paasche Talon too! It's very different from the Iwata Neo, which is what I started with and is still my main weapon of choice, mainly because It works for me, and replacement needles and parts are sold at Hobby Lobby at 40% off. I use Vallejo air too, airbrush ready to go. I can get good results from cheap acrylics like Apple barrel too, thinned with Vallejo airbrush thinner plus a couple drops of flow improver. I've just recently began spraying enamels and lacquers although my current spray booth can't handle the fumes.

Bill Newcomer
Thanks guys. I have a pretty good inventory of enamels and lacquers to go through before I start buying acrylics. My paint booth handles open jars of lacquer thinner no problem.

Bill Newcomer
I noticed that if I ran my air compressor for awhile that the body gets finger-blister hot. I bought a 120v complete muffin fan kit off ebay for $16.99 (free shipping). Took the factory grille off, scrounged up some slightly longer screws and attached the fan with no issues. The air blows both into and across the motor body. It runs MUCH cooler now.

JD
I now see that your can piercing rig is ingenious. I just had a need to decant some rattlecans and went about it caveman style, with a sharp screw and hammer. And that cooling fan upgrade to your air compressor is an elegant solution. I have a compressor with a tank, which is good for acrylics, at 20-30 psi, but gets hot when I spray lacquers and enamels around 40-50 psi.

Bill Newcomer
I have heard many recommendations to have a tank with the compressor under the premise that without one the air supply pulses. I have not actually experienced said pulsing. Then again, I am painting bodies for good coverage not fine artistic lines or camouflage. I am surprised you need so much pressure for solvent based paint. It sounds like you need to thin the paint more unless you have a siphon airbrush.

Rui S
Genius compressor treatment 👍 do you conect the fan via USB?

Tom ...
Wow impressive, Bill!

Bill Newcomer
Rui, No it is 120vac. It makes powering is so much simpler. Though I do now need a 6 way power strip. Between this and the paint booth, I am officially out of receptacles.

Rui S
Thx Bill.
Can you show photos of the other side of the fan and the power conections?

Bill Newcomer
The other side of the fan looks the same. The fan has its own 120vac power cord. While I could have gone to the effort to wire it into the compressor's internal harness, I wanted the privilege to be able to run the fan even with the compressor off.

Gary Dahlström
Bill - good thinking! I have that same HF compressor and, yes, it will shut down when it gets too hot. I had to run it longer than usual to paint my BoP base, and when it wouldn't keep pressure it freaked me out because that had never happened before. I salute your ingenuity, sir. I will be duplicating your mod.

Bill Newcomer
Gary, Cheap and easy. Just need slightly longer screws and small washers to hold the 1st grille to the body. After that, just assemble the fan kit normally.

Chaz Gordon
I keep toying with the idea of getting a small tank compressor with auto shut off, but we're planning to move in the next couple of years, and I plan to hook up to my workshop compressor then, so I don't get one. The trouble is the auto shutoff compressors only run up to about 40psi, which doesn't really store much reservoir between shutoffs, where a workshop compressor could run an airbrush all day on a single tank at 150 psi.

Bill Newcomer
Chaz, The compressor I have above runs continuously because the regulator bleeds off to my desired pressure. It only shuts off if I crank the pressure setting high enough to actually trigger the pressure shut off switch assuming I am not using any air.

Treehugger
Some tips from a novice like me:
1) If you mix colors with thinner or whatever in a color cup on your table, you can use a large soft brush to siphon the liquid onto the brush and "wipe" off the paint into your airbrush cup, that way you don't have to use a mixing jar for very small paint jobs.
2) A substitute to using an airbrush for fixing things, I recommend Tamiya's tiny tiny brushes.
3) Vallejo primer paint, may/will flake off and clog your airbrush, so I always sift the primer paint into my mixing jar. Previous problem of clogging was theb 100% solved after that. 🙂
4) Best result when airbrushing, and to avoid orange skin effect, is to airbrush on thin layers of paint, such that the paint dries, as opposed to staying wet and deforming when putting on too much paint onto the surface when airbrushing.
5) Always a good idea to test your spray on a scrap model, especially varnish which may or may not be what you expected (e.g matte/satin).
6) Maybe a good idea to keep a tidy and somewhat clean table, and go easy with arm/hand movements or risk knocking something off the table, or bumping your model or whatever.

7) Basic rule = lower pressure for close up work, may require thinning the paint a little more perhaps
8) Maybe avoid airbrushing at high psi. I get good results it seems with 20-25 psi.
9) Always use an effective air extractor, or risk the paint being blown back at your face/room. And always make sure your filter in the extractor isn't clogged, else the machine won't suck out enough air. Mine clogged up 98% after airbrushing a lot in one sitting, with higher psi, that was scary. If you light an incense stick, you can get an idea how the extractor sucks out air, if it works or not.
10) For airbrushing on a gloss coat, I use Humbrol Clear liquid (acrylic) and I make sure to keep psi at low setting 7-8 psi. I also make sure to NEVER contaminate the bottle of gloss coat, or risk being all annoying never knowing if your liquid is clean or not. Also, any pipette used must be dust free obviously. I keep mine in a bag, and I throw it in the bin if I accidentally drop a clean pipette onto the floor, as I will assume it has become contaminated with dust.
11) I like using acrylic paint, just Vallejo, and it is totall ok, despite what other's say. If airbrushing on a gloss coat, you might want to let all the layers get time to dry, or risk some paint layer at the bottom end up with tiny cracking patterns. Unsure if this is because of primer paint layer, color layer or any of the gloss coat layers cracking up.

Bill Newcomer
1) Have not done any "small" jobs yet. Good tip.
2) Have not painted enough to try fix anything. If I get a 98% result, I quit while I am ahead.
3) Sifting, hmmm...
4) I have gotten better results with the longer, dryer continuous method.
5) I always shoot the (protected) floor of my booth on the 1st shot.
6) I plan well and have lots of elbow room.
7) Still experimenting with pressure. 20-25 for gravity feed guns. 30-35 with siphon feed.
8) Ditto
9) I have LOTS of cfm and a pretty big filter. It would last through 7-8 rattle cans before it looked bad.
10) I have not shot ANY clear yet. Though, clear acrylics (Future) have much, much lower risk of issues.
11) I have a lot of lacquers and enamels to decant and consume before I make the switch to acrylics.

René "Lord Bilbo" Bartholemy
I'll try the sifting idea. Big fan of Vallejo Air and primers, but sometimes it does get clogged.

Bill Newcomer
I bought a couple of $11 airbrushes from Harbor Freight this weekend. I saw a video on YouTube and liked what I viewed well enough to give them a try. I used some stale decanted solvent based paint thinned with more lacquer thinner. The airbrush shot well enough for what I wanted to do. The quick change jars are a big plus. The best parts is that no paint actually goes through the gun so it never needs cleaning. Just the jars. It is so cheap that you could almost consider them disposable. I was fortunate that I had an adapter to connect the kit's tiny hose to my regular airbrush with a quick disconnect. There is an adapter with the airbrush but the male threads are undersized and the tubing would not tighten.

Robert W Martel
Bill,
I watched that video too. If I ever get near Harbor Freight I'm going to pick up one [or internet?] It did seem to work pretty well for the price. Might be great for laying on primer or other bigger jobs.

Łukasz Gliński
Thanks for sharing and inspiration, never thought of wrapping my booth. I have to give it a try asap. 👍

Spanjaard
i am planning on building my own booth, and wrapping seems a really good idea.
you decanting tool is great. clean and ingenious

Robert W Martel
Press & Seal. Hey that's a great idea. I was trying to think how to cover the booth inside. That will keep it looking good for a long time.
By "sifting' I think Treehugger means straining. I always strain the paint into the AB cup. If you use brand new bottle of paint and mix up a batch you could probably get away without straining. We all know what happens with a Used bottles of paint. You always seem to get dried paint on the threads and on the insides of the jar/bottle and invariably it gets onto the paint mix. I don't know about everybody else, but every time I DONT strain the paint, the gun ALWAYS gets clogged up or spits our chunks of nasty dried paint, especially with a small needle. I use the nylon mesh from an automotive paint strainer. using a pipette to fill the cup. Takes a bit more time, but it never gives me trouble.

Peppy
@ Robert W Martel
I never thought of using an automotive paint strainer, I just assumed the mesh was larger than what we use for hobby paints.
What I am using now is, one of those funnels they used to sell for straining the fuel that goes into a Coleman latern. The fuel is ethanol or denatured alcohol, so acrylics don't faze it in the slightest and I can attest, Tamiya with
Mr. Self Leveling works like a charm too.
As kinky as it may sound, you can strain paint with nylon panty hose. Yeah, I know, real Cheech and Chong here, but it works. Always have a stack of squares ready for emergencies.
Does anyone here use C02 to spray with? I bought a setup 20+ years ago and haven't looked back. Quiet. 20lbs. tank lasts for quite a while. You can get it filled any place that refills soda machine gas. Pharmaceutical grade. No H20, no oils.
Did I mention quite?

Robert W Martel
Ah ha, the nylons probably works great, and I could stretch it over the little funnel I use. I'll be getting some.!!

Peppy
Learned that from an old school automotive painter. That is a No Shi++er right there.
I have always bought Nude. I'm not sure about other colors like Mocha or Tawny.
Just assumed, they would have a color that might activate when hit with a thinner.
Probably wouldn't faze it with alcohol based though.
You adjust the 'weave' and strain down to just about any viscosity of paint. Thick paint from the bottom, thinner stuff premixed. Getting the gremblies out of your paint makes for a Happy Airbrush.

Peppy
What kind JD?
I'm a old paper filter Mr. Coffee, recent convert to the Keürig coffee maker kinda' Boomer.
It's a real dog fight to get me outta' house.

Peppy
Oh copy, yeah I've seen those before.
Gives me an idea for the screens.

Bill Newcomer
I have thought about using CO2 back when I used carry it onboard my work van. My air compressor doesn't make enough noise to bother anyone. In fact, my four paint booth fans make more noise. I have little funnels but have not strained any paint yet. I'll hit the Dollar Store one of these days.

Peppy
That's funny, the booth makes more noise.
Four fans? Your own design? Do tell.

When my 1/3hp compressor went, it had been overheated
several times, maybe a contributing factor? I figured it
might be time for a change. The mood or muse, may
strike at any time and I didn't want noise to be a determining
factor to play time. Seems to work out.

Bill Newcomer
Peppy, Here is the paint booth album and thread. Check out pic 15 above to see how I keep my air compressor cool.
Paint booth | Album by musclecarfan (1:25)

Peppy
I get the noise now. Awesome.
A Buddy of mine has been running two PC cooling fans for years with nary the let down. Swears by it.
What I did was use one fan in a paint drying booth blowing across a 40 watt bulb. Basically a 2ft.X2ft. box from cut offs at Home Depot. 2 layers of aluminum foil all a round inside and it heats to 100°F in less than 10 minutes. The foil is easily wiped with a tack cloth before I start it. Works the trick.
I have to figure out how to post pictures here so I can give some help or ideas.
Now for the spray booth, I'll save that one. Still planning, it's a Jenn-Aire exhaust blower I got from a friend's remodeling job. Should be enough, right. Hehe.

Bill Newcomer
Jenn-Aire blower might be a bit much. Unless you are good with sucking half the dust in the room across you paint jobs. LOL.

Peppy
It's quite the contraption. I thought it was a major score.
There is no markings of any kind on it, so I have no idea the CFM's RPM's or anything really. I was looking to mounting it on a filing cabinet, two drawer, w/like a tote bin of some sort for the painting chamber, but I'm not good with electricity and could not guarantee myself I wouldn't ground it out and have me feel the power of Uncle Ben Franklin's discovery as it shocked my posterior across the sun room. So, we are currently...regrouping.

Bill Newcomer
Electrical is my specialty. You will need to know what voltage it is. The motor will usually have a data plate on it. If it says 208-230v on it, powering it will be a challenge. If it has more than two wires plus a green ground, it may be multi speed. That will complicate wiring it up unless you know what you are doing.

Bill Newcomer
After killing the O-rings in my two cheap Chinese air brushes, it was time to step up. I watched quite a number of youtube videos and read forum posts of what airbrushes other modelers use. I only plan on painting single color parts and car and semi bodies. No camo or fine lines in my repertoire. After awhile, I knew I wanted gravity feed, dual action and 0.5mm nozzle. I then worked on narrowing it down to what mfg and model. My budget was $200 which gave me a lot of options. The Iwata HP-CS was towards the top of the list. But after learning that one of the modelers I admire the most uses a Creo PS-290, I went for it on Amazon. I got the optional hand grip for comfort. I cannot wait to try it out.

Tom ...
Nice one, Bill! I'm going to pull the trigger on this one too. Been looking for something with a good fan pattern and this one looks perfect, particularly for clear coating. I have the Iwata HR-CP which has great coverage but still struggle with being even over large areas to avoid sagging. Saw a youtube video where someone was using a fan pattern gun and knew right away that was the answer.

And good timing too as I have a 1/16 scale Citroën DS 19 coming up that will really benefit, and priming/clear coating in general should be a lot simpler. Excited. Thanks for posting!

Bill Newcomer
That is one of the reasons I picked it. Even coverage over large areas avoiding "Tiger stripes"

Martin Oostrom
I have the same gun. It takes some getting used to the grip style trigger, but you'll never forget to end with air.
She does use quite some air though, especially with the fan cap.

Bill Newcomer
Martin, I have very limited time using a regular airbrush anyway. I did have some concern about air volume requirements. I guess I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Tom ...
I've decided to upgrade my cheap'o tankless compressor after seeing the PS-290 in action. Getting a cheap'o 1 gallon shop compressor that seems relatively quiet. I'm interested to see if it makes enough of a difference.

Łukasz Gliński
Tom, as a user of similar combo (290 & small tank compressor) I'm sure it will 👍

Bill Newcomer
I have seen kits that add a tank to our generic Chinese air compressors.
amazon.com/OPHIR-Ada..B081FS11FK&psc=1

Tom ...
(sorry for the long post)

The PS-290 came today and I've been learning up on compressors and tanks and CFM so I did a simple test that I've not done before and for some reason never thought to: I tried running my airbrushes at the highest pressure possible. I set the regulator to 40 PSI.

With the Revolution and Eclipse brushes the PSI dropped to 30 PSI. The PS-290 dropped to 25 PSI.

I've never brushed higher that 25 PSI and am mostly down at the 20 to 15 PSI range so it's not been a problem at all. However I do see recommendations to use the PS-290 in the 30 PSI range and my initial attempts to use it at 20 PSI were not good at all so I'm guessing 30 is the minimum.

However, there is some technical problem with the PS-290 I need to fix first: as the trigger gets pulled back the airflow drops till nearly fully off when pressed all the way. The mechanism must be blocking the airflow some how. Need to disassemble it and figure that out why.

Get the new compressor on Friday so I'll be able to do some proper testing over the weekend...

Bill Newcomer
Keep me posted. 🙂

Tom ...
Got the new compressor (it's this one: amazon.com/gp/product/B01LYHYHEA) and figured out the problem with the airbrush (had to do with the quick release adaptor).

Very happy with the compressor. It's about the same loudness as the tankless and can handle the PS-290 easily at 60 PSI (probably higher but I doubt I'll ever be above 40 or 50).

However, it feels like the PS-290 works well even at 20 PSI so probably didn't really need to upgrade the compressor but happy to have the extra horse power and extra headroom.

Bill Newcomer
I just set up my temporary paint booth to tryout my PS-290 tomorrow. I will see if my existing auxiliary fan-cooled air compressor can keep up.

The air compressor in your link looks perfect if I need to step up as well. My Capital One rewards program found it for less than $96. I have the budget for that. It is the space I am running out of.

What exactly did you find was the trouble with the airbrush? Because I have a quick release adapter I want to use on mine too.

Tom ...
The rubber gasket in the adapter is a bit too thick. If I screw the adapter fairly tight the gasket interferes with the air flow. With plenty of teflon tape I can get a good fitting without tightening too much. Not a perfect solution but good enough for now.

If you can get that compressor at that price then do, assuming space is not too much a problem. You can also place the compressor nicely away somewhere and run a line to a regulator, with a water trap, and connect your airbrush hose to it. That is my plan. I want to be able to quick release the compressor and use it for other jobs.

Bill Newcomer
It turns out the compressor was NOT actually being sold at that price. (one of those best deal links to old info).

Anyway, I set up my paint booth last night for some new airbrush practice today. My PS-290 seems to like 30 psi at the compressor for good results with some Testors gloss enamel decanted last year. I like the feel and control of having a handle and a trigger. The huge cup is a plus for preventing spillage. I can do color changes in less than two minutes too. Just have to have all my cleaning supplies at hand.

I did a rattle can primer test on some spoons between Tamiya white, Mr Surfacer 1000 and Duplicolor automotive grey. Mr Surfacer is the smoothest almost glossy. The Duplicolor has orange peel which makes it no good for bodies. The Tamiya is not to far off from Mr Surfacer but the can does not cover as much area per ounce.

Tom ...
Bill, are you decanting the primer and spraying it with the airbrush or just spraying straight from the can?

Jv
Looking promising
Love to hear how you go whed it
I am looking forward to make that step myself

Bill Newcomer
Tom, Primer is rattle cans for now.
Jv, Airbrushing is definitely a set up in quality and expense.

Jv
Yes agree but guess you put some builds of for a bit ontill you can airbrush them

Bill Newcomer
Jv, My paint booth is a set-up/teardown affair in the spare bedroom. It is enough of a hassle that I do wait until I have builds backing up waiting for paint.

Jv
Ok looking forward to see