New to Airbrushing

[knewsom]

I am about to use my new airbrush for the first time, however I have a question on how to mix the paints for the best results. I plan on using acrylic paints and I have read in some MRR articles about mixing it with water, detergent, etc.

I plan on trying it out on an old caboose that I have, and I would like to paint in N&W caboose colors. I have already removed all of the old paint to get to the plastic. Any suggestions on the best way to mix the paints?

Thanks,
Kevin

[AntonioFP45]

Way to go!

Quick run down:

Badger ModelFlex Acrylics: Don't thin it. It's ready to spray right out of the bottle!

Polly Scale: Just my opinion, but thin it 20% with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol. Test the paint on a scrap car or piece of plastic first to make sure it's not too thick or thin.

For mixing measuring cups a poster suggested a while back that pharmacies usually have small, marked mixing cups that people use when mixing their own medications.

Hope this helps!!

[jwar]

Hi Kevin.
It might well be worth the time to experment with your air brush before you tackle your first job. Reread the instructions and follow the painting techniques in your owners manual.

What I did was disasemble the brush when new so that I knew what went where and how it worked following the MFG instructions. This helped greatley as I would have lost a small seal if I hadent seen it before.

My next step was using the instruction guidlines practicing with the brush, by making small to large dots and keeping them uniform and in alignment., lines of variying widths, to learn and prevent paint blobs at the end of strokes, flaired ends on lines, splattering and grainey spray. Sounds like a lot but was only a ounce of paint and was a half hour or so, was fun to do. This will give you techniques and instantly give you great results latter as you will know not only how to do it, as well as great results.

Then followed the excercises using techniques to make cones, cubes clyinders and spheres using one color in a three diminsion effect, and that my friend was awsome to me, just using one color.

Now back to your question as I degressed a tad.

I use Badger Model flex paints as per AntionioFP45 above. When you clean the brush in warm soapy water, put the plug in the sink to capture those ity bity parts.

I have also used the cheap 44 cent acy paints at Walmart, delute with warm water untill thin. works great for scenery, blending various colors in a camo effect, also river bottoms. Buying a color wheel greatly helped me get the colors I wanted mixed. You can also experiment with Badger mixing of colors, DONT MIX DIFFERENT BRANDS TOGATHER, No ....I wasent yelling guys LOL, but inadvertley did this and what a mess to clean out of the gun.

I hope the above helps and wi***he you the best. You might notice I didnt say Best of luck, as luck does not have anything to do with it, its technique and practice...and you will have a fantastic caboooose.Take care...John

[davekelly]

Kevin,

I echo those above - follow their advice and you'll get up to speed faster than I did! It took me about forever to learn the hard way what you'll you learn in a short time followingt John's method (John where were you when I started airbrushing!). I'm sure in a short while you'll marvel at your ability to put down great looking coats of paint and wonder how you survived without an airbrush!

[jwar]

davekelly.

I guess I sound professional huh...I have only been at it about a month or so and yes I love it. I also have one of those lousey GM pickups that the paint flakes off (1998),air brushed a tad on it and as you said, once into airbrushing, its fantastic...Take care John

[knewsom]

Thanks for all of the advice. I have some old scrap shells that I will test on before I tackle my caboose. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Thanks again,
Kevin

[davekelly]

Kevin,

Good idea using the scrap shells to practice on. My first several attempts at airbrushing weren't all that great, but each one was better than the one before. Don't get discouraged - play with the air pressure, the thinner mix, distance from the model, speed of moving the brush across the model etc. Using these variables will soon become second nature.

Have fun!!

Dave