Airbrushing Crash Course pt. 2
Time for part 2 in my Crash Course for Airbrushing. If you missed out on Part 1, it’s worth checking out to help this part in the series make sense: so check out Part 1 here.
So, I’ve had my airbrush for a few weeks now, and each time I’ve picked it up, I’ve learned something new! This second part in the series will be to advise you on useful tutorials I found helpful in my early ventures, and the earliest lessons I discovered after starting out.
THE 6 P’S:
As most of us will know, proper preparation prevents piss poor performance! So I proactively went about ensuring everything I could have ready was so. This included decanting my paints not in dropper bottles, in to dropper bottles. I would add a touch of flow improver to the paints/varnishes/whatever and gave them a good rattle. I then carefully poured them in to my dropper bottles. This utilizes the paint from being wasted, and allows careful administrating in to the Airbrush bowl when I’m getting set to paint. Moving the labels over or sharpie-ing the contents in the bottle keeps them from getting mixed up.
Up next was preparing my squirty bottles for flow improver and cleaner, for the same reason I moved the paints in to droppers, to administer drop by drop amounts of the required liquid and to reduce wastage. This is a lot less finite, just squirt them all up in there and label appropriately!
Simple! Although I may spray the bottom of each bottle so that I stop picking up the wrong one before reading the label. Hobby Hindsight strikes again!
Now comes the bits I can’t show you. It’s time to play around with your airbrush and setup your compressor. With your airbrush, it should come with instructions on how to disassemble and reassemble for the purposes of cleaning. Make sure your work space is CLEAR, CLEAN AND IDEALLY YOU HAVE A BOX/CONTAINER TO WORK IN/OVER. I stress this, because you do NOT want to drop some components of that brush. If your nozzle hits the carpet which is messy and cluttered, you’re delayed from painting until you get a new one. Likewise, have clean kitchen towel at hand on the base of your area to rest your components on. Be very careful with the needle, don’t stab yourself, don’t ding or drop it and bend it as again, you’ll be out of action until it can be replaced.
Keep taking apart and rebuilding your airbrush carefully with patience, until you’re confident in doing it without terror of dropping or breaking it. With that, it’s time for the compressor!
LET THE PAINT FLY:
When deciding on your PSI, the best thing you can do is experiment with it. Different paints at a different consistency will showcase different results. Between 20-25 is good for priming and basing, then between 10 – 15 will enable you to practice some fine line work. Get yourself some plasticard or cardboard, or better yet an old tester model and have a play. Try different PSI’s, distances, techniques, colours and you’ll find what works for you! I started out with priming some stuff:
So after getting the knack of priming, I moved on to basing some models, working the PSI to see how it turns out based on the consistency of the paints and the size of the model I was painting. The higher the PSI, the larger the spread and coverage, the Lower it is, the more focus and control you’ll have, as long as you’re not gunning the trigger. Gently working the dual action of the Airbrush will enable you to work to the degree you’re after:
From here, I went on to trying some techniques such as pre shading (building up a gradient of a lighter colour over a dark layer to give the illusion of shadow), gradients (Building a smooth transition between two or more colours) and also helpful tips like varnishing and masking off models for clean flat lines between colours:
NO ONE LIKES A GUNKED UP NOZZLE…:
In between colours, short intense bursts of cleaning will help keep your colours fresh, your brush clean and your projects moving! using your cleaning station mentioned on the previous article, drop some cleaner in to the bowl of your airbrush when you want to change colours (Or after any prolonged usage, around 30 minutes to play it safe). Back flow it in to the bowl by pressing the nozzle in to the palm of your hand, stopping the air from escaping and VERY gently work the trigger until you see the cleaner back feeding in to the bowl, causing it to bubble. Dump this mixture in to your waste pot (I use an old whiskey tumbler), and then blast the rest in to your cleaning pot. do this until the colour is virtually gone from the bowl. You may want to use an old soft brush with a drop of cleaner on to clean inside the front of the nozzle as this can get quite caked in paint after a good session. do this again until it is clean enough (no visible colour) for you to continue. This is a great and quick way to quickly clean out your brush when painting to avoid having to disassemble and ‘full clean’ the brush as I mentioned earlier. Note, metallics and varnishes may require the more thorough method of cleaning due to their consistency and properties.
Cheap soft brush, cleaning pot and dump glass, all inches away from each other and within arms reach of my painting station.
Once you’re clean and ready to blast some more paint out, always do a test blast either on your spray booth, a piece of paper or your gloved hand to ensure the paint is coming out clean and smooth, before you go straight on to the model. If it doesn’t look right, try some more cleaning.
THE MOST IMPORTANT LEARNING POINTS:
Spray metallics first! When you spray metallics over other colours or alongside, unless you’re PERFECTLY PRECISE AND ADEPT WITH THE BRUSH, you will get metallic particles that show up on parts you don’t want them to. To avoid this, spray the metallic segments first and work around them.
Empty your Compressor when you’re done: This is purely precautionary. To avoid moisture build up and rust/wear on your tank, ensure you empty the air by spraying your clean and empty airbrush to empty the compressor tank while it is switched off.
Cleaning your brush! After you’re comfortable with handling the separate components of your airbrush, ensure you gently, carefully and regularly clean your brush. I used my Ultrasonic Cleaner in intervals to get my brush thoroughly clean by filling it half and half with clean cold water and Airbrush Cleaner, ensuring your brush components will be submerged. A couple of cycles will see it pristine, afterwards leave the components to dry on a paper towel.
Risk it! Don’t be afraid of trying techniques or something new when painting. If it doesn’t work, you learn from a mistake. If it works you learn a valuable new technique to apply to your hobby!
LET IT DRY! Warm radiators will enable your sprayed models to dry in no time. This will help those like me with limited patience.
THIN IT! When in doubt, add a couple more drops of thinner/flow Improver.
Finger Tight: when adjusting or reassembling your brush, finger tight is sufficient for the components. Any tighter and you risk damaging it or wearing through the threads.
And with that, part two is done. If you have any questions or would like to know more about this article or others in this series, I am here to help! Please just get in touch or drop a comment with your thoughts.
The 3rd and final part of this series will be a showcase of what I’ve learned from a month of airbrushing with some lovely finished models to show for it. Until then, keep in touch and show me what you’re working on!
Have a wicked week, all!
