Airbrush advice needed!!

[Adrian A.]

Hi Guy's,

Just had my first disaster (er..experience) with an airbrush. Need some advice!!

I bought a cheap Testers airbrush (all I could afford right now!) to test airbrushing and it didn't turn out to well.

I experimented with water for a bit to get the pattern down, then tried my hand at painting.

I mixed the paint (acrylic) 4 to 1 with alcohol (91%) then sprayed.

It wasn't very pretty!!

The paint seemed to melt down the sides of the Wildcats fuse. & that was after a light coat on two passes.

The Surface of the Wildcat had been painted with aluminum & had cured for 3 days.

What did I do wrong?

Or do I have H.U.T.A. (Head Up the A_ _ itis)?

I've included a shot of the Wildcats finish.

Hope you guy's can steer me in the right direction!!

 

Adrian A.

[LSP_Mike]

Adrian, I always test my mix into the box top- just to get a feel for my paint. crude ,yes. what is your base paint? runny paint sounds like too thin... but I use enamels. was your base coat ruined?The box top always allows for fine tuning before paint- #1 viscosity,#2 air pressure, #3 volume of paint delivered. those are my thoughts but there are I'm sure more ways to paint a 'cat.

[Adrian A.]

Hi Mike,

I used Model Master Acrylic thinned 4 to 1 with alcohol (91%).

The base paint is Krylon RTA 9213 Aluminum spray enamel. I let this cure for a little over 3 days.

Is it a no-no to spray acrylics over enamels?

The base coat came out of it just fine. As a matter of fact, after I saw the results, I grabbed some of the wifes babywipes (For the grandbaby!) and wiped the Wildcat down.

99% of the acrylic wiped right off, it had only been on for about 4-5 minutes.

I guess the alcohol impeded the drying time because when I brush on the acrylic, it dries pretty quick.

I tested the paint spray on the wall of my homemade spray booth & it seemed to spray just fine. Of course the booth is wood & it probably sucked up the paint.

The spray pattern was about 2" at a distance of 6-8".

Was the pattern to tight?

This is all new to me so if I'm not doing it right, please let me know!

Any & all help is appreciated.

 

Adrian A.

[LSP_Matt]

Yeah..I basically agree with Mike. I practice first. I use the box tops just to check the 'fan' of paint is coming out even and gentle. I then tend to try and practice on a piece of plastic though. I find an old ice-cream container lid is really smooth...If I've got my mixes too thin, then it shows up by running in much the same way you described happened with the Wildcat.

Another thing worth practicing is your speed of traverse across the plastic. Its something unique to our own personal settings ( mix,pressure, density of fan) but helps me control how much paint I'm laying down.

 

HTH...but in saying all that I'm no officianardo...I think I'm laying down too much paint at the moment so am hiding all my preshading efforts. But, its always a model so its not like I loose sleep at night over it.

 

Good luck...keep having fun

[Adrian A.]

I used much the same traverse speed that I use when I spray from a can. (My aluminum finishes)

I think my speed was pretty consistant. I've developed a decent coverage from the spray cans - which is why I decided to try the airbrush.

The first thing I thought of was the paint was too thin, but I had followed the mixing ration closely.

Could it be the 91% alcohol? Or should I use the lower % alcohol?

Also, the humidity here is kinda high, would that affect the way it covered?

Or does it all boil down to - the mix was just too thin?

I guess I should try mixtures of 5-1 or 6-1 just to see if the other mixture ratio's are better & practice a bit more.

Thanks.

 

Adrian A.

[Bails]

Hi Adrian. I just gotta tell you......4 parts thinner to 1 part paint really does seem like a super-duper thinned paint. Most folks recommend even parts thinner and paint.....a 50-50 ratio. This usually thins the paint to a skim milk "thiness". For doing German camo patterns, a ratio of 65% to 70% thinner to paint often works well......with the pressure turned down and the airbrush in a tight pattern.

I suggest you start with the 50-50 ratio and go from there.....practicing a lot on pieces of copy paper or small sheets of styrene. Practice, practice, practice......then practice some more. As you are discovering, there are a bunch of variables involved in using the airbrush......paint to thinner ratio, air pressure, airbrush adjustment, distance from subject, humidity, and so on. Next to practice, patience is critical. With time and experience you will get a "feel" for what works for you, but it will take a number of models to get you on your way to being pleased with results. All good luck to you.

bails

[Adrian A.]

Hi bails,

Thanks for the response.

However, I think you (and maybe others) may have gotten the wrong impression of my thinning ratio. It was 4 parts paint to 1 part thinner. I used the mixture ration from the Testers instruction sheet.

That is the reason I didn't think it would be to thin before I sprayed it on.

As I had mentioned , the first thing I thought was that the paint was too thin. But, when I looked a little closer, it appeared the paint was reacting to something. It looked like it kinda mottled(?) on the aluminum paint.

Could it have been the aluminum enamel? And/or, should I have sanded the enamel before applying the acrylic?

I didn't sand thnking that the rougher surface (?) of the unsanded enamel would be better for the acrylic to adhere to. Or is that just another case of me having H.U.T.A.?

 

Adrian A.

[Bails]

Thanks, Adrian, for the followup. Man, I have NO idea of what to tell you at this point. Since you have yet to get a response that will seem to work for you, suggest you hit HyperScale and Modeling Madness with your issue. It seems like someone out there should have an answer for you.....if the right person sees your comment. Again, all good luck to you.

bails

[Bails]

P.S. Also, hit ARC's "Tools-n-Tips" forum.

bails

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

Hi Adrian,

 

I use mostly Gunze Acrylics and thin them with destilled water in a mixture of 60% paint & 40% water. My airbrush instruction says, that i should use a pressure about 1.8 - 2 bar pressure. Less pressure works well too for me.

Sounds like your color is waaaay to thin. Acrylic paints need more thin coats to get a powerful shining shade. So, too thin is not good.

You have to find the optimal mixture with your paint and your thining medium.

I realy recomment destilled water for acrylics, because its a water based color.

 

Give it a try and go slow. I always drive good with it

 

HTH,

 

Cheers,

 

Chris K.

[Adrian A.]

Thanks for the input guy's, I appreciate it.

 

Chris, I'll try the distilled water, hopefully that will help out. I'll pick some up tomorrow.

I guess I just try a variety of mixtures to get the right consistancy.

 

Matter of fact I may put together a quick OOB build on one of my Hurricanes (Western Desert scheme?) just to test the mixtures on an actually model before I commit to spraying the Wildcat again.

 

I'll post a few shots of the Wildcat when I finally get it right.

 

Adrian A.

[Chris Hannover - Germany]

Hi Adrian,

 

i´m anxious to see the pics. For the Gunze Acrylics should a 60/40 mixture be ok. Just watch if you have splattering on the outlines of the color or not. If yes, add a bit of water. Regular water out of the **** should be ok too.

 

Cheers mate,

 

Chris K.

[tigger]

Hi Adrian

Sounds to me like the sheer ammount of alcohol actually lifted the fine pigment from the metalic paint you used. I like some of the guys here use Gunze paints with alcohol to thin but you need to be cautious when spraying over enamels with this mix. I regularly spray a barrier coat of Humbrol matt coat thinned with cellulose thinners between different types of paint before the next colour. The worst thing is if you put matt poly scale over gloss tamiya, it crazes and leaves a mess. The moral here is as has been said practice practice practice! It took me quite some time before I was competent with the airbrush to be at a stage where I could say I was happy.

Good luck

 

Tigger

[MikeMaben]

There's no way 4 parts paint to 1 part thinner is too thin. If anything it's not thin enough, although the symptoms you describe sound like 'too thin paint'. The mottling you mentioned sounds like fish eye which is a chemical reaction (no I'm not a chemist), the acrylic is obviously not bonding to the enamel at all.

I usually use Gunze like Chris, but I thin it with 91% alcohol. However I've found that Model Master works better with distillled water. If it's the alcohol that's causing the problem then switching to distilled water should fix the problem. Like Bails said, a 50/50 mix is a good starting point.

Mike

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...good luck Adrian.