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xIGetUm posted an update in the group
Airbrush and Gunpla! 9 years, 4 months ago So I decided to step up my game and finally wandered into the realm of airbrushing. I went on a cheap budget and bought an Paasche DA300 air compressor (comes with regulator) and a Badger OMNI 6000 airbrush and took advantage of the 50% off prices that my nearest hobby shop was doing and bought quite a bit of acrylic paint (Tamiya). I just want to know what’s everyones opinions on acrylic paints, heck, I’d like to hear your thoughts on lacquer and enamel paints as well! Also, if it’s not much to ask, did I start off on the right path with my compressor/airbrush choices?
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Airbrush and Gunpla!
I like acrylics – they go on quite nicely, there’s lots of colour choice and they’re quite affordable and almost everywhere. That said, I don’t find them as durable.
I like the Alclad lacquer metallics, but they’re smelly and need strong clean-up chemicals. I’ve not yet put enamels through my airbrush.
The Tamiya acrylics work fine with a bit of thinner or even neat too. You’ll certainly get good results there and you can then experiment with other kinds.
Thanks for replying! By chance would you recommend using acrylics for reverse panel washing? Most comments I read on YouTube say enamel is best suited for that kind of technique but I want to try to keep acrylics as my main use/choice of paint.
For that technique you need to make sure the various thinners interact predictably to leave the base layer alone and only remove the top layer. Good article here on the subject: http://majorwilliams.blogspot.ca/2011/04/gundam-building-101-reverse-wash-and.html
Sorry for the late reply, but many thanks for providing me with that link! I actually summed up the courage and used my airbrush and I ended up with semi-disastrous results. The airbrush and compressor performed wonderfully but I believe the paint thinning procedure ended up being the downfall of the ‘test’. I tried doing the 50/50 ratio but while I was spraying the paint onto the model, it was runny so I tried doing a 25/75 ratio instead. The results ended up better but the paint was having a hard time staying onto the plastic. I guess the reason being was because I didn’t primer the parts? Let’s not forget, I came from using spray cans and with those, I NEVER have primed my parts so I’m going to assume with airbrushing, primering the parts is considered MANDATORY.
Anyways, thank you for the help! ^^
Which paint and thinners did you use? Some paints will indeed react as you described and just not adhere to the plastic as they don’t dry fast enough. For them ensure it’s an alcohol based thinner (for acrylic) and keep the air pressure low so you’re just tickling the paint on.
Paint: The Tamiya acrylic paint that comes in those little bottles.
Thinner: Tamiya Color Acrylic Paint X-20A Thinner.
As for the air pressure, it was set at 20PSI (as recommended in the manual that my airbrush came with), but I’ll lower it to 15PSI the next time.
Tamiya is usually pretty good at sticking to the plastic, but you’ve got to be careful not to “blast” it onto the plastic as the force of the air could be enough to blow off what you’ve just put on. Also, try working with distance of brush to model. When you’re up close only allow out a small bit of paint (only pull back slightly) and when you’re at a distance you can pull back more. Also I find getting a thin layer of the paint down first and letting it dry will allow you to go a bit more “full on” with subsequent layers.
Ahhh I see.
There was a big difference though when I applied the paint unto non-primered/primered parts. I noticed the non-primered parts gave off a very glossy whereas the primered parts gave me more of an matte finish (the finish I was originally going for). So for future references, I’ll just prime the parts from now on to avoid future headaches.
Aside from Tamiya, would you recommend any other acrylic paints? Like say I could go to an hardware store or etc to pick up acrylics?
I always prime before putting paint on the kit, haven’t had any troubles with that method, or with one part thinner, to two parts paint.
I haven’t tinkered with enamel paints beyond using primer in the airbrush, but yeah that stuff stinks.
I’ve painted over 60 kits, 59 of them very well done, the rest were me training into a pro I became. j/k Anyway, from What I can can say is that I’ve never primed a kit. It’s a cost I don’t want to make and it doesn’t do that much. It’s one more thing you have to do while painting and after you’ve done as many kits as I did you’ll want to cut corners as much as you can. So I never botheres with priming. On to the other subject, lacquer paints = lung cancer. However they stick the best and are most durable. They dry the moment you lay them down. Enamel paints, poison level, so – so. They’re not harmless, you can know that for sure. They don’t work the same way like lacquer do. Lacquer paints partly melt into the plastic hence making it the strongest and most durable, enamels don’t. Acrylic paints are the least durable. In most cases you can rub them off or scratch it with a fingernail if you’re not careful. Low poison level. Water based acrylics are the weakest of the lot but are more or less harmless tou you or the environment. Wash and reverse wash is more or less the same thing, just done a bit differently. I’d recommend enamels for this because you’d use the most recommended thing to achieve this, lighter fluid. I think doing wash/reverse wash with an acrylic would make it more prone to screwing up the kit. Of course, reverse washing should be done in this order:
1. Paint the base color;
2. Protect it with a varnish or a topcoat;
3. Paint the overcoat color you’ll remove later on for the wanted effect;
4. Use a lighter fluid soaked cotton bud to get what you want off;
5. Protect everything;
6. Enjoy your work and post pics on hobbylink.tv.
When you do it the first time you’ll be amazed of how easy it is.
P.S. This is a smelly hobby. Some parts of it will stink and be messy but we’re not into flower business anyway. Just practice, practice, practice. It’s a developing skill, just like painting etc.
PPS NEVER use paints that aren’t intended for model building. Formula for plastic and for other materials isn’t the same and it may end in transforming your beloved kit into a colorful puddle of goo. 🙂
Sorry for the very late reply but thank you so much for your help/comment! I do agree that the Tamiya acrylic paint that I’m using can scrape off pretty easily when you’re not careful but I still want to keep them as my main choice of paints to use. As for the wash and reverse wash, I’ll give enamels a shot but I just dislike how long they take to dry. =.=p As for varnish/topcoat, what would you recommend? Over here in Hawaii we only have ONE hobby shop (as for as I know) and unfortunately they overcharge for everything in their store, so I’ve been wondering if there’s an substitute that I could use. I had this can of topcoat that I was using and I LOVED the nice sheen it gave my kits but I’m looking for an alternative for a flat coat.
Once again, thank you for you help! Oh, I’ve been following your advice of skipping primering the kit and I’ve noticed that some acrylic colors stick well to the plastic while other colors seem to have problems doing so, but then again the problem could be me not doing the mixing ratio properly. >_<