Thursday, March 29, 2012

Playing Around with my new Airbrush!

I'll admit there is nothing fancy going on in this image, but there was a lot of learning that went into getting to the point where I could apply green to these Greenskins with my Badger 155 Anthem Airbrush. What did I learn?

- No dark primer. It just doesn't show the atomized micron thick layer of paint that you can place on a model with an airbrush.

- Your brush will get clogged! It's the price of using water based paints. Plan to deal with this issue! Tiny nylon brushes and airbrush cleaning solution are a must!

- I've experimented with Citadel and Vallejo paints now. 70/30 seems to be a great mix for Vallejo Game Color. I plan on ordering the Model Air base kit when someone has it back in stock.

- No brainier here, but I really flubbed this one. Don't run air through your airbrush with paint still in it. That causes the paint to dry. Then you have to strip that airbrush down to nothing and nylon brush all of its insides with a real vigor. This gets worse if you use rapidly drying medium like isopropyl or Tamiya's X20.

- Water in you lines. Good lord this one is frustrating. The hotter your compressor gets the more air gets in your lines, the longer you work the more you have to deal with this. I have a tankless compressor, which probably means mine gets hotter than those with tanks. So this is becoming a nasty issue for me. A long line helps, but I am thinking I might add an inline moisture trap.

- Bubbles in you Paint Cup. This means your brush has a blockage.
No really it does. Keep looking, you'll find it. Sight test the straight lined pieces by holding your disassembled airbrush components up to a light source.

Nothing special in the photo, but it's progress! Oh... And Empire gets announced officially on the 31st? Like I need any more distractions.