I'm the idiot in question.
This is my hard-earned airbrush advice for newbs. I suck at anything requiring a delicate hand. I always have. I can build practically anything but it won’t look like what a true craftsman can produce. That’s my lot in life and I have learned to accept it. However, there are certain activities that require my best effort at approximating craftmanship and model building is certainly one of them.I have used the isolation of 2020 to finally get comfortable with airbrushing and I’d like to share my experience with newbs or people who have until now kinda sucked at it. Airbrushing is invaluable in creating nice looking kits. It’s actually fun once you get the hang of it and I now actually look forward to painting sessions! Prior to 2020, I went through a large number of airbrush and air source options and sucked at all of them. Naturally, I blamed the devices and kept searching for the Holy Grail of a brush that would make me look good.
What finally turned the tide for me was switching to military model kits for about a year. It turns out that water-based acrylics geared towards military models are stupid easy to spray and look good without really trying. Besides, tanks and planes are supposed to look less than pristine so if there’s a little glitch here and there just call it battle damage and move on.
My growing confidence brought me back to auto kits and I decided to jump into the deep end and attempt the MFH Bentley Speed8 2003 LeMans kit. I’m about ¾ of the way through and so far, so good with the painting. Not even close to the perfection that graces these pages but far better than the **** shows I produced in the past! Enough of the preamble, here is my actual advice:
Choose your paint wisely, Grasshopper:
- I don’t like airbrushing any of the Tamiya jar paints. I’m sure others are plenty successful with them but I find that they are picky about proper thinning.
- Ditto for Gunze Sangyo acrylics (solvent-based, I haven’t tried the water-based ones since they came back to the US). Using their thinner and only their thinner I have gotten some great results but this post is for newbs so save them for later when you are comfortable with airbrushing.
- Auto lacquers, like Zero and Splash, are a breeze to use but don’t start with them. You need to develop a light hand or you’ll use an entire jar in one session. And they are toxic. And expensive.
- Start with a semi-gloss or satin black by Vallejo, AMMO of Mig Jimenez (032 is by far my favorite non-gloss black), AK Interactive, or similar brand. If the paint is fresh you can usually spray straight from the bottle. You’ll be amazed at how good a simple black looks when airbrushed!
Technique: Being a heavy-handed klutz, my natural impulse is to push down hard on the trigger and pull it back like I’m going to launch an arrow instead of a delicate mist of paint. Therefore, I spent lots of time learning to press and pull gently on the trigger, working in layers until I got a result I liked. Most of the kits we build have a ton of flat or satin black parts and those are great to practice with. They generally can’t get screwed up to the point where runs or overspray will ruin the part. Practicing with styrene sheets is OK but it is parts painting that will teach you so go grab a sprue of black parts and make them pretty!
Get a disposable kit: For me, it was military kits that I knew I couldn’t screw up. Maybe you don't have an interest in those and if so get a cheap car kit and practice with it. Hell, get a snap together kit and give it the best damn paint job ever! My point is that building a nice looking model is the ultimate teacher but if you don’t want to learn the hard way with a $800 kit (trust me, you don’t) then spend $20 on a kid’s model and make it look cherry.
The starter airbrush: Edit: I'm walking back my full endorsement of the cordless airbrush. Mine has progressively lost pumping ability to the point where anything other than short bursts of spray result in splatters. The psi is low to begin with but when it was new it could comfortably paint something the size of a 1/12th wing. Now it can't. I will still use it for small parts (it's handy to have when I realize that I forgot one tiny part out of many that is supposed to be semi-gloss black!) but my new recommendation is to get a small hobby compressor with a tank. Another caveat! I still like the airbrush that came with the cordless compressor and use it interchangeably with my Iwata. Here I will commit blasphemy! Start with a cordless airbrush. I got mine from spraygunner.com because they test them before they sell them. You’ll see the same thing on Amazon, eBay, and anywhere else that sells cheap Chinese airbrushes but I liked the fact that the unit I bought had actually been tested. And that it worked. Yes, these are pieces of ****, won’t last forever, and barely put out enough air pressure to spray a fingernail (which is generally what they are intended for). However, it is incredibly convenient to grab the hand-held brush and compressor and just use it without set up or noise. The comparative lack of air pressure works for learning because you have to work to get good coverage and don’t have to worry about runs or blobs of paint coming out by accident. I found mine to be perfect for the black paint exercise. Honestly, the airbrush isn’t too shabby and it is sufficient for painting small parts. The practice you’ll get is the same as with a $200 brush but if you lose a part or get pissed off and smash it you won’t feel bad about losing the money. I still use the El Cheapo airbrush that came with the compressor because I actually like it!
Cleanliness is next to Godliness: I can’t stress this enough but a clean airbrush is a happy airbrush. You don’t have to completely field strip it every time you use it but I found that getting in the habit of removing the needle and thoroughly flushing the brush does wonders for performance.
- Put your finger over the tip and use backflow to give it a good cleansing. I didn’t know about this technique until recently but it works great! Note that it only works if there’s a crown around the needle and you can get a seal with your finger. And don’t fill the bowl with too much water or cleaner because it is going to bubble up and over if too full. It probably goes without saying that you don’t want to put your finger on the sharp end of the needle but I’ve done it multiple times so odds are someone else is equally absent minded. Yes, it hurts it like hell.
- Most of the water-based acrylics clean up fine with water but some rubbing alcohol usually gets things pristine. For solvent paints or stubborn goo you’ll need a solvent cleaning solution. But we are trying to avoid those since this is for newbs and you don’t want to be messing with toxic paint just yet.
- Don’t soak your airbrush. There are usually plastic bushings inside that will last a long time with regular use but if you soak them in a cleaning solvent they will rot away on you.
Now graduate to a better airbrush: I recommend without hesitation the Iwata Eclipse HP-CS.
- It isn’t cheap but it isn’t crazy expensive, either.
- Ham-handed people like me won’t break it. It is solidly built and the trigger action gives you great tactile feedback, which is very important as you learn to paint in layers.
- It is very easy to clean and there aren’t any really small bits you will be routinely removing. That’s not to say that I haven’t lost every piece at one point or another but that’s also an advantage for the brush: replacement parts are plentiful and relatively affordable.
- You can use it for delicate work or spraying a big ass MFH kit.
- Badger Sotar 2020 – This is very much a niche brush. Its only job in life is to paint fine detail. I got it for painting camouflage on military models and because I love gadgets. The parts are dainty and delicate so I wouldn’t recommend it for everyday use but it does its specific job very well.
- Master G222 – Some people will tell you that the Master brand is the equivalent of an Iwata. I strongly disagree and if you can only afford one brush then get the Iwata. However, the Master isn’t bad considering it is a cheap Chinese knock-off. The G222 comes with three different nozzles/needles so you can get fine detail and broad coverage with just one brush. I think it is a pain in the ass to clean but if I have a lot of stuff to paint (like priming parts) then I’ll use it instead of one of my more expensive brushes. Besides, if I break it or lose parts I won’t feel bad about it.
- Harder & Steenbeck Hansa Topline 381 – This airbrush is so sexy and sweet that I hate to use it. In reality it is about the same in quality as the Iwata Eclipse but it looks so good in black and paints so well that it is my favorite. And that’s why I save it for acrylic lacquers or 2K clear on auto kits where I am trying to achieve perfection.
That’s it for my newb advice! Get out there and spill some expensive paint all over your workbench! Yes, my clumsiness extends to routinely knocking over jars of the most expensive paint. It’s never the cheap stuff that I spill. But seriously, any responses from the true artisans on this site absolutely trump what I have to say!
