Spraying Future?

Tools, Techniques, and Reference Materials Painting and airbrushing
1

Hi. Can Future be sprayed with out thinning?

Thanks.

John

2

YES. I airbrush right out of the bottle. I use windex to clean up.

3

[#ditto] It sprays just fine right from the bottle, and like therriman I used Windex to clean my airbrush out, and then a shot of plain old water to wash out the Windex.

When you get right down to it, you could spray motor oil right out of the bottle, it would just take a lot of pressure. Air pressure and thinning are a balancing act. Thick mediums need more pressure but they tend to cover better. Thin mediums spray at lower pressures, you will tend to have less overspray, but they don’t cover as well. Find the consistency of paint that covers well for you, then adjust your air pressure to the lowest that will allow it to spray properly and you should be in good shape.

4

Do you guys clean your airbrush by spraying windex only, or do you also disassemble the entire airbrush for thorough cleaning after using Future?

5

Sigman,

I don’t recommend you disassemble the airbrush for cleaning very often as it is unnecessary and leads to a shorter life for parts.
After spraying Future I spray some of my infamous “elixir” as some here call it, of 2 parts distilled water, 1 part Windex, and 1 part Simple Green cleaner through the airbrush. I then backflush it with a little more cleaner, and then spray a little more cleaner through it after backflushing. Then I spray some straight distilled water through it, wipe the cup with a cotton rag and put it away.
That’s all that’s necessary. [;)]

Mike

6
7

It is pretty much the same thing. I spray some cleaner through it, then fill the bowl about 1/2 way again and then use a wide 1/4" or so paint brush to wipe around inside the color cup and down around the needle area to break loose any paint there.
I turn the regulator up around 40-50 psi, then I spray out that cleaner I just used the brush in, fill it about 1/4 way again and backflush it a little, then spray that out.
I then fill it about 1/2 way again with cleaner and blast it all out, then I fill the cup with filtered water and spray all of that out, wipe the inside of the cup with a soft rag, clean off any paint that is on the outside and put it away.
I disassemble it only when I feel like I didn’t get it quite clean enough the time before or when it feels like it needs to be lubed again, which is usually every 4th or 5th painting session maybe. I always use Badger Needle Juice lube or Medea Super Lube in the airbrush as it keeps the airbrush’s action smoother and it keeps paint from adhering to the needle as it will without lube.

I hope that helps [;)]

Mike

8

Thanks for the info MikeV. Now, I can airbrush more often because I always disassemble my airbrush every session to clean everything and the next time I wanted to paint, it discourages me because of the entire cleaning process.

9

Unlike the other responses here, I have not had good results with spraying Future straight from the bottle. It leaves a pattern that is very rough on the edges and each successive pass will not “blend” into the previous pass. I tried all different pressure settings down to the lowest that would push it through my airbrush (Iwata HP-CS). I thinned it with Denatured Alcohol and finally got it to blend.
Am I doing something wrong here? Is it maybe that even though it doesn’t appear to blend at first, it will level out eventually?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

stinger

10

Just a note of intrest, i have a converted bottle assembly that fits right into a bottle of future, its a bit heavy, and the straw thing can fall out, but just spraying almost a litre of future, thats priceless

11

stinger, blending the edges is kinda tricky, but this is what works for me. first, your paint job has to be nice and smooth (as if you didnt know that). then, (and i use the hp-cs too) straight from the bottle, i “dust” the future on at about 20psi and about 2 to 4 inches from the surface and build the dust to a “wet” coat and then repeat the process on across the subject lapping my last pass. this works well for me and i get a nice glossy surface to wash and decal. hope that helped. later.

12

Thanks Salty, I’ll try that method next time.
When you say “smooth”, I assume you mean no orange peel or dust specks, etc. I’ve been spraying the Future over flat paints before decaling. This may sound stupid, but should I be doing something to the flat finish to make it “smoother” before applying the Future?

stinger