Finished a MarderIIIM camoflage and am un-happy with the final spray.
Base coat was the dark yellow. Second was dark green blotches. Last, I wanted a fine line red brown, and just couldn’t get it to a fine line.
Am using Tamiya acrylics. Thinned about 1:1 with 93 alcohol. have Badger 150 fine head and needle. Pressure about 12. I think the problem is my inexperience with the amount of air and “pull” with my finger on the brush for paint regulation. Any other help would be greatly appreciated.
I hate to sound simplistic but practice is the greatest teacher of all.
It sounds like you are spraying at a thin enough mixture although 12 psi may be a bit low for a siphon-feed airbrush. Try it at 20 psi and see if there is a difference. Push the airbrush trigger down and practice teaching that finger how far to pull back to get that line you want.
I think Mike is right, the finest lines I ever got were with my Badger 350 siphon feed, external mix, WAY back in the early 90’s… I had time to get used to it and learned to do the blotches (the right way) on a Bf109 in 1/72 scale with it… Now I have a 155 but haven’t yet got it down to do them in 1/48!
All a matter of practice…
—edit—
I guess I should have mentioned there has been a 14 yr gap in my modelling and AB’ing… hence the lack of practice… I can’t wait till I get a little more time in with this new brush! It should do wonders!!!
I did an A-10 camo-scheme with the Badger 150 years ago with very good results with the compressor set at approx. between 15 and 20 psi. Your mix sounds about right, so your half way there.
I think in other post it was recommended to thin the Tamyia paint with their own thinner as it has some flow aids or retarders in it to help the paint flow better. That might help you out a little bit but it does come down to practice in the end as your airbrush is capable of spraying some nice thin lines.
John
true… I have used both but prefer the Tamiya thinner (over alcohol) and the 750ml bottle is economical at about $6.00, vs. the 30ml or so bottle for $3.00… mine is still over half full and I bought it in spring… AND I use it to spray out the airbrush the first go round in cleaning…
You guys are so helpful. I suspected I could increase the pressure a bit, although I’m not quite sure of the logic. And you are all so right…I need more and more time on the brush. Since I made a good living as a designer/illustrator (obviously not airbrush) Maybe I thought it would come naturally. I learned that is not so. I’ll try the Tamiya thinner also. Again, many thanks for your thoughts. Happy Sunday,
The logic is that a siphon-feed airbrush needs more pressure than a gravity-feed model because some of that pressure is used to siphon the paint out of the jar and into the airbrush where it is atomized. If the pressure is too low the airbrush may spray fine but it can have intermittent times where it skips because the pressure is not quite high enough to feed the paint reliably into the airbrush.
I thought that “logic” bit would inlist an answer…Thanks Mike. Should have thought of that. Have ordered an ultrasonic cleaner (ebay). Also emailed Badger for their opinion on using the cleaner for airbrushes. Want to make sure the sound waves won’t attack the washers. But if the cleaner can be used for watches, shouldn’t be a problem. Of course they don’t say that the watch will b clean, but never to work again! Am i pessimistic, or what?
I wonder if abutt2 ever got a response from Badger about whole-airbrush ultrasonic cleaning?
I have a Badger 155, and I would like to remove the air hose, back the needle off the seat, and just drop the entire AB into the ultrasonic cleaner for 5-15 minutes. If the air valve is OK with this, it seems like a good way to keep the AB guts clean without field stripping each session.
[:I] Sorry, it looks like I messed up my first post by putting it in the wrong subject area. I started to try again, but I figured I’d only make it worse, so here’s my apology and a plea for mercy and guidence. I’m not at all new to the internet and hobby info exchanges, just new to this site.
So, anyone have any feedback on:
a) how to get this to the right area
and/or
b) what I was asking about dunking the whole AB into the ultrasonic?
As far as you put only plain water or soap (or dedicated washing solution ) there should not be any problem since the danger comes from the rubber valves being eaten by lacquer thinner and other hard liquids.