Kind of off subject but your Groundwork is amazing could you give me a short rundown of what you use to get that little base I love it , since I work in that scale only this is perfect for my little tanks.
Maeatro, I think I’m in agreement with you to an extent. While I don’t think I will get one, I do think it opens up more possibilities. I spray paint the larger surfaces of my models. Not all colors come in spray which I find frustrating.
To avoid the risk of sounding a bit dim, but what is the difference between a single and double action AB and apart from the blinding obvious what is a moisture trap.
I’m thinking about getting a Badger 250, Evilbay has them for £14 and a little compresser for £45, is it worth asking Santa???
Mark
Single action means that the trigger only controls the air with the paint flow adjustment being separate ex. Paasche H, Badger 250, Bager200. Double action means that the trriger controls both the air and the paint flow ex. Paasche VL, Badger 150, etc.
Single action are generally easier to learn and use because your doing only one thing with your trigger finger.
Double action offers some greater flexibilty of paint effects, although for the most part these are more useful when doing artwork such as murals on cars than models.
I don’t think that I would bother with a Badger 250. It’s essentially a miniaturized garden sprayer and lacks any real paint control, being little better than a rattle can in that respect. I had a similar Testor’s airbrush, my first one actually, and although it put down a perfectly good coat of paint, any camo, whether soft-edge or not, required masking.
The abovementioned Paasche H is fairly inexpensive, but using it’s #1 tip has the control to do free hand camo on things as small as 1/72 tanks. The Badger 200NH is a bit more money and offers similar capability.
Andy
If I can add something to Andy’s description of the Paashe H. I agree that it could give fine results. My unabashed LOVE of my Iwata comes from 1) great results and 2) EASE OF USE AND CLEAN UP.
My Badgers and Paasche just required too much work between colors. My Iwata: if I’m using acrylics, I dump any excess paint, swab the inside of the resevoir, and then shoot a couple of shots of windex, swirl it around, shoot it out. Wipe the inside. If the needle or nozzle needs wiping down, I’ll do that too. Voila. Ready for the next color.
To sort of move this subject back on track. Maestro, please post some pics of your work. I don’t ask so that I can critique you ( I am in no position to bust anyones balls). I am sincerly curious on your tecniques. I use my AB on all but the smallest parts and quite frankly, I don’t always want to go through the whole rigamarole of opening windows, setting up the ventilation, putting on the resperator, clean up, etc.
You have completed 300 builds using your methods. I for one am always looking for a different way to do things. So, once again, please post some pics and explain your methods so that some of us can benefit from them. We are always looking for ways to improve.
The worse that can happen is that someone will say “I’ll pass”
Give it a shot. Hell, I’m most likely the worst ever and I’ve posted pics. What have you got to lose?
Regards,
Jeff
Well i agree, airbrush can’t be beat. About theonly thing i still use rttle cans on are carbodies when buildingmodel cars. Everything else gets the AB treatment. As forexpensive?I started with a kit from walmart I paid 4 bucks for it. There was an airbrush, a compressor, a buncha paint, and even a video. Since then I’ve slowly upgraded. I got a decent compressor from harbor freight that works beautifully. Sure my airbrush i currently use is rather on the pricey side(PRecisionaire XFS Pro) but it’s an artists airbrush, which explains the price butthen i can spray a hairline width line at 5 PSI, try doing that with a rattle can.
Howdy Rick didn’t know you were on these forums. I’m the one who brought the orange AAR Cuda tothe OHMS meeting for the October meeting. Also the guy who brought the Russian Rifle. Good to see you here.
I dunno… Even with complicated German camo schemes, I’d still spray the base coat of dark yellow with a rattle-can… No point in cleaning the AB more than I have to… And with US, Afrika Korps, and early German armor, I get better milelage outta rattle-cans… No mixing, no clean-up, just shoot & scoot…
The only thing about using a rattle can, is that you cannot cut your color to get a “scale effect”, or lighten your colors by cutting them with white to get a more true color for the scale that you are building in.
I hand brused, sprayed and airbrushed kits in my short model building life. I have found that things it would take me DAYS to do with a hand brush, like pre shading, layering colors to get a depth in it, that kind of thing, takes hours of dry brushing, watching it dry, then doing it again, andhoping you dont overdo it, as opposed to a quick hit with the AB at a distance on low pressure.
I think that it’s important to keep in mind that these tools are NOT mutually exclusive. I do my base painting with the airbrush (base, pre/post shade, camo, etc.), then afterwords I break out the brushes and go over the entire kit serveral more times adding subtle washes, filters, etc.
Each tool has its strengths and limitations…when combined, then the Force is With You!
Rick
Exactly, apart they are weak, together they are strong!
I do that in the weathering stage…
I’m a rattle-can guy simply because I like them. I know, it’s lazy on my part, but that’s just me. And I have blended colors with a rattle-can. No tinting or mixing, just blending…
I think its the cost of rattle cans that will get to me eventually. At $10 a pop, I’m ready to finally drag out the airbrush and start experimenting. Is an A/B more cost effective in terms of paint used ?
Some types of camo patterns can’t be done with rattle can. Additionally the airbrush is a great weathering tool. You can produce weathering effects with an airbrush that you can’t get with a rattle can or pastels.
Hans as for using a rattle canfor basecoat npt a thing wrong with that. heck if yer not gonna go camo evenbetter. The only reason i personallydon’t do that is twofold. One, because of the way I built. With the exception of stowage and road wheels, and tracks, pretty much everything goes on before painting. Rattle can can’t get into thosetight spaces like an airbrush can. The other and perhaps most important reason I only use rattle canson carbodies is, I like to build alot. I don’t have the luxzery of having a garage or good weather very much. I also have a 2 year oldand a 7 month old, and I don’t want to clog their lungs up with the heavy solvents hanging around in the air for hours on end even with goodventilation. So i use acrylics, through my airbrush. I turn on the bathroom fan which is a nice high volume fan, i close the bathroom doors, andopen the bathroom window(which is 12 inchestall by 24 inches wide I might add, and has a 100% open area instead of just 50%, and then Ipaint. The fumes dissipate enough while spraying that I can’t even smel anything when spraying just 6 inches away from my face.
I’ve tried rattle can in there, but the fumes just leave that stench, and they get overspray all over the bathroom where the airbrush does not.
Airbrush or rattle cans completely amatterof choice and preference, and thereis nothing wrong with it. However stating that a rattle can, iscapable of doing every single thing anairbrush can and do itjust aswell, isnot only anignorant statement, but borders on quetionable inteligence, and totaly destroys any credability you may have.
Please pardon the typos, I’m using a new keyboard that is alot different in size and configuration then I’m usedto.
Hey, how are you - it’s hard to put an face to a name here!!! Nice presentation the other evening. I’ve just kinda begun hanging here the past couple of weeks.
See you on build night?
later,
Rick
whether or not he uses an airbrush or not seems to have sparked the best thing about this forum… the passing of knowledge and tecniques.enjoyed the thread.
It certainly can be more efficient, more so with a gravity feed (having a shorter paint path, so less loss “in the system”) brush than a siphon feed.
You would be surprised how much coverage is possible when you mix a single drop of paint with two drops of thinner and dump it in the well.
I hate to throw my 2 cents in, but I can’t stand model paint in the spray can(namely testors or model masters)Simply because with my work schedule and evrything else that goes on I can’t paint a peice and wait 2 days for it to dry… But I do love the larger version you can find at any wally world for around 6 bucks, it’s 3 times the size, lays out better, and dries within minutes. I only use the airbrush when it comes to camo, because in my opion you just can’t find the right texture with spray can when you adding the camo, but the base is always out of a can. I actually spray everything that i can.