Is Airbrushing Figures the way to go?
Pax
It seems like it would reduce the effort required to paint figures. I
have bought 54mm toy soldiers by Blue-box that are airbrished to
excellent detail (i.e.,eyes are painted, lines are crisp) for $1-2.00 a
piece. Also, I've noticed the Galoob Toy Company airbrushes their
Starwars and other figures that are less than 25mm. Clearly these
companies wouldn't do it if it wasn't easy to produce high quality paint
jobs.
If anyone has any experience with this doing models or miniatures of
this size please share some of the basics like:
* Whether it significantly reduces the time/figure
* Recommended brush manufacturers and paints
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
David Ferris
> Does anyone use an airbrush to paint figures of any size 54mm or less?
I use an airbrush to do camouflage patterns on 1:300 (6mm) sci fi vehicles,
but those tend to be much larger than actual historical 1:300 or 1:285
vehicles. I've used an airbrush on 20mm WWII armour, but I can see using it
for 15mm or even 10mm.
> If anyone has any experience with this doing models or miniatures of
> this size please share some of the basics like:
>
> * Whether it significantly reduces the time/figure
I'd say no, it doesn't reduce the time. The spraying itself goes very
quickly, but the amount of preparation time before and clean-up after makes
it an all-afternoon task. What airbrushing does do for you is let you use
techniques that you couldn't do with a regular brush.
> * Recommended brush manufacturers and paints
Water-based paints are right out. I've never gotten an airbrush to work with
any water base paints. YMMV. I have had really good luck with Testors Model
Masters enamels right out of the bottle. You're supposed to thin the stuff
for airbrush use, but it seems to work really well without thinning.
The best paint I ever found for airbrushing was the old Pactra historical
series (the "brown-lid" bottles) but those have been off the market for
probably 20 years. I still have a few dozen bottles of that stuff, still
good after all this time. Some of those needed to be thinned up to 50%, some
worked fine in an airbrush without thinning.
The brush itself: frankly, for wargaming use, the $25 Testors airbrush is
perfectly suitable. My favourite airbrush was my 22-year-old Paasche, but I
haven't been able to find parts for it in a while so it's sat idle in a box
for nearly 10 years now. The el-cheapo Testors works fine for the little
airbrushing I've done recently.
If you're going to be doing more than a little airbrushing, I highly
recommend an air compressor, rather than the cans of compressed air or the
tire adaptor. I'm still using my 25-year-old compressor. It's noisy, it
weighs a ton, but it still works great. I have no idea what brand it is.
Check your local hobby store, they have compressors now that are much, much
quieter.
DLF
Ray Rangel
I am well versed in using an airbrush for modelling. I have used one for
years doing plastic models for competions.
Until the advent of arcrylic paints with extremely finely ground pigments
like Gunze Sanyo (by far the best acrylic paints on the market) oil based
enamels were the way to go.
I have airburshed with cheap hobby acrylics with success.
The most important thing to know is that you need to thin the paint to the
consistancey of water and NEVER use water to thin paint. Use alcohol.
Alcohol has much less surface tension than water so fading (from one color
into another) is possible even with the cheap paints.
The next thing that you need to realize is that airbrushing models (or
figures) is a very slow and painstaking process. An airbrush requires that
the paint be very, very thin--thus a low ratio of pigment to carrier. Areas
that are painted are slowly built up with coat after coat of this thinned
paint. If one has the paint at the right consistancey, the first strokes
might seem to do nothing more than get the model wet. This is a tedious
process because each pass needs to dry (not cure) before the next is
applied. When using oil based enamels, the carrier has an extremely high
rate of evaporation. Again, thinning acrylics with alcohol will
significantly reduce the painting time because it evaporates so much faster
than water.
The only other thing I will say is that the quality of airbrush is just as
important as the quality or traditional brushes. I have a single action
Paache and a double action Aztek. It took a lot convincing to get me to try
the Aztek (its made of plastic--uhh--polycarbonate). I am very pleased with
the Aztek and highly recommend it. I use canned air. I used to use a
compressor. But using a compressor requires that a moisture trap is
somewhere in the line. There is nothing more depressing than spending hours
on a difficult project and have a wad of water launched through the brush at
your water based work of art. Canned air is cheap, environmentally friendly,
quiet, and DRY.
"David Ferris" <d.fe...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:UuDW5.3016$T43.2...@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
J
We have an inexpensive Badger set up to prime figures/vehicles all the time.
We also use an Aztek (highly recommended) for vehicles (20mm 1/72nd).
The other posts re paint/thinner are correct. Preparation is the key - and
the lag time prior to painting can be consuming - but - you can get affects
that you could never get with a brush.
We use a compressor with a moisture trap and have never had a problem.
Regards,
Joe
--
COMBINED ARMS, INC.
5132 E. PRINCESS ANNE RD.
NORFOLK, VA 23502
Web: http://www.combinedarmsinc.com
Email: combin...@yahoo.com
Phone/Fax: 757-857-7698
"All the Reinforcements You Need!"
Tim Marshall
airbrush) is important. My adage, garnered from rec.models.scale is to
thin the paint to the consistency of milk (as opposed to water as Ray
mentioned).
Thinning of accrylics can be done very well with cheap isopropyl alcohol
(rubbing alcohol - a buck or two for a large bottle at any drugstore).
I use a cheap testors air brush and by use of cut masks I get what I
want for camouflage (German WWII AFVs, mostly).
I do WWII 20mm plastic figures and AFV models. For figures, I use my
air brush for applying the base uniform colour (field grey, khaki, etc)
on figures while they are on their sprue or glued to a popsicle stick.
After doing the uniform colour, I spray for a little using a bottle of
alcohol and then toss the nozzle and tube into a bath of the same
isopropyl alochol (in a cleaned out plastic butter tub) and don't have
any problems with nozzle clogging.
I don't airbrush my primer, when I use a primer. I prefer to brush the
primer on or use Testor's matt white or black enamel spray.
The reason I don't airbrush primer is that the thinning of the accrylic
paint makes it not bind as well. I found this to my horror after
covering 7 Stug IIIs a couple of years ago with dark yellow - the paint
came off with minimal coaxing from finger nails. To this end, I always
try to remember to dullcoate (again, a Testors spray paint).
I haven't used them, but have heard from the modelling community many
laurels of the Gunze paints that Ray mentioned.
The paint I use which I absolutely rave over is Testors Model Master
Accrylic. This is a beautiful airbrushing paint (though brushes on with
great difficulty as it is so thin) that you don't need to thin - just
fix your nozzle to the bottle and fire away!
I *do* find airbrushing *greatly* reduces painting time. two weekends
ago, our most recent wargame (http://web.t10-laba.mun.ca/~timm/berlin/)
could not have taken place as I had 4 Stug III Ds (I have a thing about
Stugs and airbrushing, I guess) that had to be completed the night
before. The Soviet troops in the same pictures mentioned above were
airbrushed with their Khaki uniform colour.
--
Tim - http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~tmarshal/
^o<
/#) "Burp-beep, burp-beep, burp-beep?" - Quaker Jake
/^^
Damon Agretto
builder, and have been doing that longer than I've been wargaming. As
such, I often use tools and techniques I use with model building. I use
an airbrush primarily for painting vehicles and the like. If you have
several ready for painting, I find that shooting them with an airbrush
tremendously saves on time, but also provides for a better base coat
(smoother, no brush marks, etc). You can also use an airbrush to achieve
certain techniques, such as airbrushing the entire lower half of a tank
with mud and drybrushing the wheels with the base color, to achieve that
"Russian Front" look.
Personally, I vastly prefer Polly Scale acrylics. At first I was
dissappointed with the line, as they were not nearly as good for
brushing, but they are the best acrylics on the market for airbrushing
(IMHO). I find the coat to be smoother, and the general spraying
qualities to be finer than Testors Acryl.
For airbrushing I use a Paasche VL double-action airbrush with a Paasche
compressor. As far as using propellant cans, I find them to be more
trouble than they're worth. They're around $10 a shot, air pressure
drops during prolonged spray sessions, and its real inconvenient to roll
out of bed on a week-end--after you left your primed figures to
cure--only to find that your propellant runs out in the middle of a
session and the hobby store doesn't open till 10 and its 30 degrees F
outside. I reccommend getting either a compressor or an air tank. Get
the air tank from Sears (or similar) and get it filled with CO2 at the
local fizzy drink distributor. I feel that these are going to be far
more cost efficient over the long run than using propel cans.
IMHO, spend the money and get a GOOD product. If you're going to spend a
lot of money in this hobby, then it should be on quality tools.
Damon.
--
------------------------------------------------------------
Damon Agretto
d...@early.com
"Si vis pacem, para bellum"
http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html
Now Building: Tamiya's PAK 40 7.5cm L/46 anti-tank gun
------------------------------------------------------------
Allan Wright
I prime all of my figures with my airbrush. for 25mm figures I glue
them onto soda screw-top caps to hold them. For 15mm popsicle sticks
in groups of 3-5 figures. After priming I sometimes put a basecoat of
the lightest color onto the figure (white for french nappies, buff for
awi, olive drab for WWII). From here put the airbrush away and go back
to the old #2 and 000 brushes. It saves time and in my case I like the
lighter coat of paint - hides less detail
Now, I have a compressor, use water based paint and use an Aztec
airbrush which doesn't require dissassembly to clean up afterwards
so your mileaga may vary.
-Al
Jpattern
using an airbrush and specially cut masks (usually of foam or rubber, I
believe). The toy is set in a jig, the mask is put in place, the paint is
applied, and the toy moves on to the next paint station for another mask and
color.
I've done the same thing for painting a lot of minis. Take micro scale tanks,
for example:
1. Paint the entire tank black, including the bottom. I sometimes use canned
Krylon flat black for this, because it's relatively cheap, covers well, and
wears tough.
2. With the tank sitting right-side-up, paint the main body color over the
entire topside. With a little practice, you can aim the paint down on the
model, preserving some of the black shadows.
2. Spray the second camo color. If your hand isn't steady enough to do this
freehand, cut or tear masks out of paper, wet them slightly, and stick them on
the mini. Paint over the masks, then remove them. For precise applications, you
can use masking tape, but that's usually overkill on minis.
3. Do the same for any additional colors.
4. For a nice "ambush" pattern, thin the paint well, dip in an old toothbrush,
and "flick" your thumb against the bristles to get tiny dots of paint on the
model. You can also use the airbrush to do this, but, again, on minis that's
probably overkill.
5. Spray the running gear and lower hull with a nice dirty brown color, to
represent both rust on the tracks and dirt in and around the gear. If you don't
think your hand is steady enough to keep the brown off the topsides, hold a
piece of index card against the topsides when you spray the gear.
Alternatively, you can brush-paint the tracks, but that usually looks too
"clean" to me.
6. Touch up as necessary with a brush, then spray on a coat of Future floor
wax. When it's dry, apply decals. When they're dry, spray on a coat of clear
flat.
7. At this point you can lightly spray on a coat of dust, sand, or dirt.
The same basic procedures apply when painting Crimson Skies planes, infantry
(especially good for rank-and-file, and especially in the smaller-than-25mm
scales), micro ships, and so on. Spray basic color, cut or tear masks for
following colors, touch up with brushes.
For starship minis, I've cut square and triangular holes in index card with an
X-Acto, and sprayed "panel colors" through that (shades of gray, shades of
primer).
One Of These Days (tm) I'm going to get around to painting my near-future
Swedish force of tanks, GEVs, and OGRES in splinter camo, and I'll *definitely*
use the airbrush and tiny masking tape masks for that. Then, after they release
me from the asylum . . .
:)
Jeff Moore
jpat...@aol.com
Tim Marshall
German camo, at least, which is feathered from actual real life use of
air sprayers, that I get a better effect when I hold the mask away about
half an inch or so from the model, rather than have it any closer. You
can see a pic of this effect on my site, specifically at
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~tmarshal/bud/gtigII.jpg (the kubel wagon is brush
painted). I'm not the world's greatest modeller, but these are the best
I've ever been able to come even close (and not very) to some of the
beautiful work I've seen done by my 1/35 scale modeller friends.
mind you,. my stuff is 20mm, so micro scale probably requires a
different approach.
I've airbrushed airplanes for a while but only this past year started
doing it to my tanks, and I really enjoy it. I'm about to do some
Heller French Somuas, but even though the three tone camo has similar
colours to the later war German, I have to make sure I have sharper
lines, so will probably use close in masks the way you've described.
Jpattern wrote:
>
> One Of These Days (tm) I'm going to get around to painting my
Er, that should be (c) Pink Floyd?
Jpattern
>> mind you,. my stuff is 20mm, so micro scale probably requires a different
approach. <<
You're exactly right. In microscale, even cranking my airbrush down to a fine
line, the "fuzziness" looks too pronounced if I airbrush freehand or with the
mask held too far away. But, because these masks aren't tight on the model,
just held down by surface tension of the small amount of water left in the
paper mask, I do get a slightly softened line - somewhat with paper, more with
paper towel, especially if I tear the mask instead of cutting it.
Jpattern wrote:
>
> One Of These Days (tm) I'm going to get around to painting my
>> Er, that should be (c) Pink Floyd? <<
Hah! You're right. :)
Jeff Moore
jpat...@aol.com
Andy O'Neill
<tmar...@morgan.ucs.mun.ca> writes
>Interesting description of your use of masks, Jeff. I've found, for
>German camo, at least, which is feathered from actual real life use of
>air sprayers, that I get a better effect when I hold the mask away about
>half an inch or so from the model, rather than have it any closer.
The spray kit was often the first thing a German tank crew binned.
The paste mix was often therefore applied by brush, mop or whatever.
If you don't fancy feathered edges, they're not necessary for historical
accuracy.
Andy O'Neill
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/index.htm
Liverpool Wargames Association
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/LWA.htm
Jpattern
<< The spray kit was often the first thing a German tank crew binned.
The paste mix was often therefore applied by brush, mop or whatever.
If you don't fancy feathered edges, they're not necessary for historical
accuracy. >>
Absolutely. And the depth of color depended on how much of the paint paste was
used, and what it was thinned with. And it could be thinned with darn near
anything, including water, turps, gasoline, alcohol (as if!). So both the
pattern applied to your tanks, the "fussiness" of the edges, the richness of
the color, and even the color itself can (and did) vary widely. And that's even
before factoring in weathering and winter camo.
Jeff Moore
jpat...@aol.com
Damon Agretto
factory applied, including the "ambush" scheme, so it would have a
"hard-edge" appearance rather than "feathered". By early 1945, the
Germans were trying to churn out as many tanks as possible so they
usually weren't camo'd. Finally, after August the base coat was supposed
to be Dk Green, and after November (again IIRCm don't have my ref's in
front of me) the base was changed to Primer Brown. Finally in early 45
it was back to Dk Yellow. All of this can affect how much of the
secondary colors would show (i.e. the base coat color should
dominate...)
nemo...@my-deja.com
Come on man, get a clue. Nothing beats time spent working on a quality
job. If you want quick results, just send your cash to out to a hired
brush. An air brush takes more time to learn than any other type of
"brush." Any fig less than 54mm...forget it.
Pax
nemo...@my-deja.com wrote:
>
> Come on man, get a clue...
What inciteful input. Either your gifted weighty brain has given you
enough money or time to follow your advice, or, more likely, your the
exception to the rule that wargamers are an intelligent bunch.
Based on this and the other response I've seen from you,(e.g.,
http://x51.deja.com/threadmsg_ct.xp?AN=703155058.1&mhitnum=16&CONTEXT=97
6500111.713555989 ) I'd invite you to save yourself the effort of
posting your stercus taurii on any of my posts.