Airbrushing Crash Course pt. 1

Written By Chris Wildman

Airbrushing has always been something of an exotic mythos to myself, it enables a lot of effects and techniques that although I can appreciate and admire, I have no desire to emulate. But seeing as I’ve becoming increasingly busy in my Commission Painting, and I’m always striving to quickly succeed and improve in my own and professional hobby, it was time to bite the bullet! This blog will be a 3 part series in how I acquired my Airbrush and the array of items alongside it, how I developed techniques and followed guides to get me started, and also some end results of my efforts in to this venture!

I) WHAT DID I NEED:

I have an array of friends and fellow hobbyists who are adept with airbrushing, so I approached as many as possible to find out what they’d all recommend and what to look out for as I went along. After compiling some helpful insight from these ‘scions of propelled paint’ , my list of purchases looked like this:

  • Airbrush – (Iwata Neo)

  • Compressor

  • Spray booth

  • Airbrush flow improver and/or thinner

  • Airbrush cleaner

  • Cleaning pot w/brush set

  • Respirator

  • Air Paints (Citadel, Scale 75, Air Game etc)

  • Stainless Steel BB’s

  • Dropper bottles

  • Primers

  • Varnishes

  • Sonic cleaner

  • Masking tapes

    The items in bold are what I considered at this stage to be the bare essentials. The other items are useful and helpful to have from the get go, but while you’re learning you can get by without for now.

    I scoured the Internet and looked for all of the items above. I managed to get an airbrush as a gift from my brother (but the compressor came with one too, so I have two to switch between, should I need to!), and the spray booth was gifted by a friend who no longer needs it for where he airbrushes, Result!

    So, parts ordered! Now I waited for the post man.

    All in all, I spent just over £200 on the the remainder of the items I listed above. Again, you can get by with the essentials for now, provided you’ve already got some paints to thin and use, but I’ll cover that in part 2.

My starting Setup!

After just under a week, all of my order had arrived! From left to right, we have:

  • Ultrasonic cleaner (VGT-800)

  • Medea 907ml Airbrush Cleaner 32oz

  • Wadoy Airbrush Cleaner Kit

  • Mini Airbrush Compressor Kit – AS18-2 Kit 1

  • Force 8 Half Mask Respirator Complete

  • 5 pcs 6/10/12/18/24mm Masking Tape

  • Acrylicos Vallejo 200 ml”Varnish Gloss” Polyurethane

  • Acrylicos Vallejo 200 ml”Varnish matte” Polyurethane

  • Dealglad® Plastic Dropping Bottles,15ml, 50 Pcs

  • Vallejo 200 ml Flow Improve

  • AMMO MIG-8003 Stainless Steel Paint Mixers, Multi-Colour

  • ABEST Airbrush quick disconnect coupler release fitting Adapter

  • Ultimate 60ml Grey, white and black Primer – Badger Stynylrez

A copy and paste of those items listed in to Amazon should take you to exactly what I purchased.

So with all this stuff now loitering about on my desk, I’ll be taking a few days to check out some Tutorials, have a practice on some old and new models, and take the next steps in providing a better service as a commission painter, and upping my hobby ambitions and performance! So stay tuned for the next article, coming soon.

If you’ve got any recommendations, hints, tips or stories about your own airbrushing experience, do please comment on our social media and tell us! If you also have any questions regarding my setup, I’ll be more than happy to accommodate if I can.

Have a good’un!

Chris Wildman
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Airbrushing Crash Course pt. 2