Hello all, I recieved an airbrush for Christmas and have for the most part figured it out. The trouble is that when I attempt camo (on test kits) I get this annoying dusty overspray look around the edges of the lines. What am I doing wrong and how do I solve it? If it helps, I mostly use Tamiya acrylics.
Acrylics dry fast, often before the paint hits the surface! This is especially bad with high air pressures. The lower pressure you can spray with, the better.
Turn your air pressure down, thin the paint a bit using a 50-50 mix of water and IPA, and turn your spray nozzle down to a tiny fine line. Get in close and line in the edges first and then work AWAY from them towards the middle of the painted area.
Should help.
I have tried the low pressure but I somewhat get it. Will try the 50/50 ratio
Further the distance, more time for paint to dry before reaching the surface. This can result in rugged finish (dusty).
At closer distances, paint will build up faster and it’s easy to overspray patches, this is why we must thin our paint before airbrushing.
Generally, thinner paint have higher flow. This is countered by reducing airflow / lower pressure.
another way to gain more controll of thinned paint is using airbrush with action limiters.
Can you tell us what model and make your airbrush is? The very inexpensive ones just can’t do tight lines.
I treated myself to an Iwata HPC. When I need to do tight squiggly lines, I thin my acyrlics to about milky consistency (about 40-50% Windex to paint), crank my pressure down to about 8-10PSI, and spray about 2cm from the model’s surface.
I love the Iwata because of its precision and SUPER EASY cleanup and quick paint switching ability. HTH
It is an Iwata HP-BCS, you are right on the clean up, I love it
Cool. One other thing to do is to spray at about a 45 degreee angle with the “bottom” of your paint stream being the demarcation line btn the colors. The dusty overspray is bigger at the “top” of your paint signature. Experimenting will help a lot. Enjoy
I’m going to practice more tommorow so I will write back and tell you guys how it worked out Thanks for your help T26E4, Dahut, and Rios
The BCS is not only bottom feed, it’s 0.5mm so you can’t spray real lines with it.
His HP-C is an good AB, especially since he can switch to 0.2mm nozzle. You need 0.3mm (0.2 better) nozzle to really get your lines down, or the edges will look misty (small drops scattered).
Iwata airbrushes are made by Richpen. They’re cheaper if they don’t carry the Iwata tag. Gunze’s PS-270 for example, also made by Richpen, as good as Iwata CM C plus, at 1/4 of its price. .
Now there is some REALLY useful information, right there. Thanks!
What compressor and pressure settings?
thinner paint need lower pressure. Also have to be more delicate with the trigger.
I use ~15 psi for 1:1.5 thinned tamiya acrylic and down to ~ 10 psi for 1:5.
What would the Richpen equivalent be to an Iwata HPC? I need a new AB and was thinking about an Iwata.
Thanks…Stacy
PS-269, the nozzles are interchangable with HP-C. Tamiya HG SF is also in the HP family, different setups.
I like the Gunze ABs, they have the right kinds of setups for modelers. Big paint cups with lids, all gravity fed, most have both air and paint mixture limiters… To get the same setups on Iwata you have to go for the CM series, that are virtually the samething (maybe a little better but I couldn’t notice any differences) and way more expansive.
Bottomline, they’re all made by the same company anyway, qualities are on the same level.
Check: You use Windex to thin?
Check: You use Windex to clean?
Stop Check, over
Svenne
for lacquer? you can use lacquer thinner to both thin and clean.
for tamiya acrylic I like 91+ % alcohol. For some reason industrial alcohol is hard to find here so rubbing alcohol is ok.
hey, all these stuff are poisonous to certain degrees in mist form. make sure you have good ventilation and use an aspirator man.
Oh i got the windex part now. it has ammonia, good for cleaning true acrylic. The tamiya stuff isn’t though, their componds vary from color to color. If you spray future, windex will clean that well.
Thanks for all the help everyone. I will just pick up another nozzle for painting finer lines.