I’m new here, and new to airbrushing. I’ve read some of the excellent articles and FAQs posted here, but still have some fundamental question.
Overall, it seems the process of changing colours throughout a model build involves a lot of wastage of paint and cleaner/thinner. What’s the besy way to minimse that so I can concentrate on painting itslef and not measuring-out and cleaning-up.
Typically, I build Model cars (single flat body colour) , but also have some WW2 aircraft which call for either camouflage or a silver/alu finish.
Perhaps I’m just being too cautious and should just j.f.d.i but the following points are bugging me.
I’ll probably use Tamiya acrylics as I have a lot already acquired. I’ve read about stirring and thinning, but what’s the best way to get the correct amount out of the Tamiya jar and into the mixing jar. Do you pour, measure with a syringe, a teaspoon ???, or it it not too impartant ?. Ditto for the thinner (tho’ I understand that it sort of depends on the paint consistency I need)
Once I’ve mixed it in my airbrush jar and used what I need, do I store that paint or discard it. I often find that I will need to ‘touch-up’ or reuse that colour at some point later in the model build sequence (ie maybe days later) and ideally I don’t want to measure/mix and new load for this.
If I store it, I’ve read that I could use 35mm film canisters (now a dying breed - I’ve gone fully digital photos) or find spare airbrush mxing bottles. Any tips where I could find these in the UK (I have a very basic, in fact probably the most basic/cheapest), Badger brush), or what other alternates are (I guess it just needs to be a small airtight container)
If I discard it - I obviouly have to clean everything out before I change over to the next colour, and am then faced with remixing later in the model build.
I use an eyedropper. I always mix more paint than I need for a project. I’ll store this paint in an empty jar. You buy empty jars from Testors: http://www.testors.com/catalog_item.asp?itemNbr=1170 . If I need to thin for airbrushing, I’ll transfer some paint from the mixing jar to my airbrush jar and thin it there.
I’ll discard the thinned paint after I’m done with it unless I’m going to paint more within a day. The thinned paint begins to break down rather quickly.
For storage of custom colors, I use the Testors bottles mention above.
here’s my answers to your 4 questions. Obviously everyone does things slightly differently:
Most of the time I just guess the right mix, aiming for about 3 parts paint to one of thinner as I pour straight from the bottle. Sometimes if I have to get it exactly right I use a dropper to measure it.
I usually only have very little left in the cup, if any. If it’s next to nothing I just blow it through the brush and then some thinner to clean the brush. If there is a significant amount left I often just put it straight back in the pain pot. Compared to the amount of paint in the pot I am only adding a tiny amount of thinner, even if I do this several times during the life of that jar.
I tend not to store. If I need an exact mix later to match somethign I have alread done then I use droppers so I can accurately duplicate the colours again later.
Not me, I’ll keep it for several months as long as it still blends properly when I’m ready to use it. Most of my builds take 4 to 6 months to complete, and I like having “Pre-Thinned” paint around especially if it’s some custom-blended color. I just hang onto empty paint bottles, clean them out, and use them to store thinned paint in. Self-adhesive labels from OfficeMax work well for sticking on the bottle tops to let me know it’s already thinned.
As to what I use to dispense paint, I also use a plain old eyedropper. Thinning paint isn’t rocket science, and “That’s About Right” is always close enough. If it’s too thin add a little more paint. If it’s too thick add a little more thinner.