Help out a feller wouldja?

[Philderbeast]

Alright. I think there may be something to this whole airbrush thing. So, I think I might try my hand at it.
First thing's first, I will need an airbrush. I looked around at tower and saw a few things I like. But y'alls the pro's. I will need something user friendly for the beginner. My budget will be around the $100.00 mark, give or take a few pennies.
Secondly, what is the difference between a medium brush as opposed to a regular brush? I will hopefully be painting on 1/18th bodies as well as 1/10th. So I will need something that will give me a fine line(ish) for fine(ish) lines around say flames or black back dropps behind stripes or something.
This is where I REALLY need your help. I have a 15 gallon air compressor, with a regulator. It shuts off at 125 psi. I can regulate down close to 1-2 psi. Is this something I can use on a Hobby grade air brush? Will I need to get a hobby grade compressor?
Fourthly, I know that mixing the paint will depend on brand, but is there a method to mixing the paint prior to putting it in the brush? Will it need to be super thin, or what? I guess that may also depend on the airbrush too. Gravity fed or pressure fed.
Last, but not least, thanx in advance for reading my big ol' post. Any help will be aprieciated(spelled wrong I am sure, but hey, I's a rednec').

[dale_gribble]

I use my regular garage air compressor, but I use an external adjustable pressure regulator, filter and dryer. It works perfectly fine. I usually set the external regulator to ~50-60psi for airbrushing.

In my experience, Faskolors and Pactra paints come thinned properly for general airbrushing. When I mix colors, I use one of the airbrushes spare paint bottles, pour two or three colors in and mix it with a thin stick.

Finally, for an airbrush, Parma has a good one, the F-1. That should be in your budget.

http://www.shopatron.com/img/product_images/137/a23aee263b24a8341b0886edd11ebfe3.jpg

I use the Paasche VL and have had reasonable luck with it.

[Philderbeast]

wow, that much air pressure. I would have thought it would have been much less, like in the single digets up to at most 25 psi. See, told yall i needed help. i would have given up right there and went back to rattle cans. Thanx Dale, and tips and other gun suggestions will be apriciated. I want more than just one brush to compair.

[DaveC]

Phil,

Maybe the best budget all-around AB is the Iwata Revolution CR, gravity fed, for around $65. It's perfect for thicker paints like Faskolors, right from the bottles, or thinned it can shoot at lower pressures for finer details and drop shading. It can spray at pressures down to 10-15psi. Iwata quality is very high. Their top of the line tools can cost $300 or more.

If you want to spend a little more than the Revolutioon CR, the Iwata Eclipse HP-CS (also gravity fed) is a very nice tool that will handle all paints, but it has a smaller nozzle/needle so proper paint reduction and air pressure will take some experimenting to learn.

I use an HP-CS with no more than 35 PSI and I can spray just about any brand and type of paint, with proper thinning.

I also have a siphon feed Badger that will do an excellent job shooting wide areas for fast converage, and it was only $50 or so.

[NLRCMD]

My Iwata HP-CS (I think, I am not at home) says it works best at 35psi.

I would go gravity feed if I were you. I always seem to have problems with the bottom feeder on my other airbrush.

[OldSchoolRC]

i bought a cheap Testors $30 job from Wal-mart for static models and it works great for large coverage areas. i bought it to see if i'd like airbrushing before dropping more coin on a better one.

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/tes/tes8821.htm

it is adjustable to a fine (ish) point, but not the best for real detail work. Works great for what it is, allows me to mix up custom colors, and it cleans up very easily since it is external mix. I also picked up a testors compressor along the way as i do not have one and the air cans work terrible.

I did end up buying a Paache, but i have been having a heck of a time getting it to work right - in fact, the last 3 bodies were all back to rattle cans. My fastcolor paint has not been sticking to the plastic too well, no matter how clean the body is or which brush i shoot with. For the life of me I cannot figure out why.

[TMAXX JUNKIES]

wow, that much air pressure. I would have thought it would have been much less, like in the single digets up to at most 25 psi. See, told yall i needed help. I would have given up right there and went back to rattle cans. Thanx dale, and tips and other gun suggestions will be apriciated. I want more than just one brush to compair.

pressure can vary with the paint i don't use any one pressure when painting depends on what i am doing .

[LSD-LST2]

Phil,

Maybe the best budget all-around AB is the Iwata Revolution CR, gravity fed, for around $65. It's perfect for thicker paints like Faskolors, right from the bottles, or thinned it can shoot at lower pressures for finer details and drop shading. It can spray at pressures down to 10-15psi. Iwata quality is very high. Their top of the line tools can cost $300 or more.

Listen too Dave he knows his stuff , he recommended the Iwata to me and I couldnt be happier . The nice thing about the Iwata is its safe to use lacquer based paint in it , some other brushes the seals will fail if you use them with lacquer , the Iwata uses teflon seals which are un affected by solvents .

[Evil3]

Yeah the Iwata, HR-CR is one of the best brushes you can get for the money, and there are a lot of pro's who will use it as there main brush. Even I tend to use it about 95% of the time, but then again I am also only spraying water based paints.

[Philderbeast]

Thanx for all the tips guys. OldSchool, I got that same airbrush from wal-mart. I hate it. I cannot get a decent spray with it. it golps the paint rather than spraying. And heven forbit I tip it a little, the paint will run out of the cap. I tryed everything with it, down to regulators/dryers. Nothing really worked with it. Maybe I got a crappy one, who knows. I have been eyeballing the Iwata's, and I am liking what I see. I am glad to hear about the teflon. I think this will go into my arsonal SOON. Get ready for questions, cause soon as I do get one, I am sure I will have a gazillion ?'s. Thanx for all the help guys, I am glad there are good folk on here to help feller's out.

[Evil3]

Ask away, as I might have a gazillion answers or one of the other guys might beat me to it.

[Philderbeast]

I do got one "off the batt" ?....How do you shadow? I assume you mask off for the shadow area, then use a light layer of the perfured color to "shadow" the chosen stripe or area. But I am not sure how light to spray the shadow area, or if that is even right.

[Evil3]

Normaly when you shadow under something it is done all free hand, by spraying really light layers of paint to bulid up the shade you want for the shadow. Just move the trigger back ever so slightly (always keep the air on, and only turn on or of the paint) so only a small amount of paint comes out, and then go on to spray a fine line to bulid up your shadow.

Most guys will use a transparent black, and over reduce it to the point that there is more thinner then paint. The reason for that is, it is easier to bulid up layers so they are not too heavy, and being that the paint is transparnet it sill allows for some of the color to show through as shadows after all are not black. I use Parma's window tint, and have it reduced to about 70/30 (thinner/paint) and I am able to spary shadows at around 3 psi (at that psi setting 1 pound of air makes a huge differnce so I need to be sure I have the air dailed in before I start sparying).


However you could cut them out, but it would look a little funny. Which ever you do it the lighter you keep the shadow the better they will look.