Marbling and post/pre shading with acrylics and a Grex

[KUROK]

I have had my eye on a Grex trigger style airbrush for a while now and, recently, took the plunge.

It's a well made instrument.  Mine came with a 0.3mm setup but I wanted to get the smallest available so I installed the 0.2mm parts.

My experiments on a paint mule model are looking good for just laying down a nice coat of color.

What I want to do now is to paint very fine, faint lines and do the "marbling" people do for pre-shading or even post-shading.

So far it has been difficult with acrylics.

Even at low air pressures, I cannot get fine lines for more than a few seconds.

Today, I took some Andrea Color acrylic and thinned it to the consistency of milk.  Straining was mandatory due to the age of the paint...it had particles.

Just could not consistently put down a small amount of paint even at 10psi and the 0.2mm tip.

I tried to over-thin but that didn't work either.

Now, perhaps I chose the wrong paint as Andrea is designed for brushing.

What are your recommendations on this?

Are oil based paints better for fine airbrush work?

What can be done with acrylic in this case?

TIA

 

Vince

[Woody V]

8 hours ago, KUROK said:

Are oil based paints better for fine airbrush work?

 

Lacquer based paints will solve all your problems.

But that's just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions.

[quang]

I agree. IMO lacquers are the most forgiving modelling paints of all… if you get past the smell and the fumes.

[themongoose]

Vince, for acrylics thinning and retarder are your friends  1st note tho, try your experiment with a fresh bottle. If the paint is chunky then it won’t dilute right and you’ll probably still have pieces big enough to cause problems in the .2 needle. That’s about as small as you can go with acrylics (although I’ve only done mission models and vallejo).

thinning - for thin lines you want 10-20% paint, the rest thinner and retarder, and some flow improver for fine lines. Retarder is like 5%, if you use flow improver start with the same percentage as the retarder. Low air pressure, 1-2cm from model at most when spraying.

let us know how it goes!