more advanced airbrushing ?

[monica]

hello all call on your advice and help ,plus your expert ways with moving on from just using

an AB for primers and base coats, have that one sorted

I would like to be able to try doing panel, on tanks and other armed vehicle,

and lighting of base coat and that type off thing,

about all i know is to use like a size 2 or so needle and a lower psi, but what ?

or can you still use your .3 needle with lower psi and adjust how far the trigger moves backwards ?

so any help greatly appreciated

[Ian M]

If you are aiming for fine cover and lines, I would still suggest practice, practice, practice.

You don't have to have a über fine needle to spray fine lines, it just helps. The most important is the medium you are blowing through it.

Try this:

Mix up some paint and thinner as you normally do and see how fine a line you can get with that. If it proves to be difficult, add thinner until you can spray a fine line. Dont worry if you start getting spiders and centipede like runs. Now you can start to turn down the air pressure a little bit at a time until you can still spray a line and no longer get the squiggly bits. Write down the air pressure so you can go back to it the next time.

Common problems:

The spray pattern is grainy and splattery; the paint is to thick of the air pressure to low. Thin the paint or raise the pressure. (or a bit of both).

Creapy crawlies; the paint is to thin or the pressure is to high. The 'legs' are caused by the paint being blown across the target before it dries. Turn down the pressure and maybe add a drop more paint.

If the paint bubbles in the cup, it can be a sign that the nozzle is blocked or that the paint is to thick or the pressure to low. Start with a drop of thinners in the mix, Or turn up the air.

It might be necessary to give the AB a good blast through to gat things moving again. If that does not help: Time to clean the nozzle!

When playing like this always try one thing at a time and if that does not work, try the next. Always note down what pressure you arrive at for a given mix. dont forget to note the ratios down.

After a while you will get a feel for things, and you will be able to splosh paint and thinners in a cup, turn the air up or down, purely on 'instinct'.

Ian M

[stona]

Hi Monica.

You can spray a pencil thin line with a 0.3-0.35 needle. That's the sizes I typically use for freehand demarcations between camouflage colours.



I'm not sure why you want to drop your pressure. I do almost all my spraying at around 35 psi, including post shading and the infamous Luftwaffe mottling. If you lower the pressure too much you risk the paint not 'atomising' properly and you will end up with a finish you didn't intend

I'm assuming that you have a dual action airbrush. You should always depress the trigger fully, don't attempt to control the airflow with it. It sounds obvious but I've seen people doing it. You can control the flow of paint with the trigger by pulling it further or less far back. Sometimes I barely have any paint at all introduced into the airflow as I build up the shading.

[Guest]

I think Monica, you mean how do you lighten separate panels - such as the top of the turret of a tank to provide greater contrast between the colours between that & the turret sides?

If so, an easy way is to add a 'lightening' colour to your base coat. If the base is a green shade, use a touch of yellow (not white!) & then use the Verlinden technique of 'blooming'. This

is spraying from a greater distance to get the paint on just the flat surfaces.

I did this on my T-34, firstly laying down a coat of Olive Drab, followed by a lighter coat, using Desert Yellow to change the shade :

[ATTACH]81400.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]81393.IPB[/ATTACH]


A more advanced technique is colour modulation. Again you would lighten the base coat by no more than 1 or 2 tones (subtle is best) and then spray this either at an angle or just in the centre of a panel, avoiding the edges. I do this at low pressure, maybe 12-15 psi.

Here's a few shots of my Panzer II to illustrate the effect:

Basecoat

[ATTACH]81394.IPB[/ATTACH]


First highlight colour

[ATTACH]81401.IPB[/ATTACH]


Second highlight colour

[ATTACH]81395.IPB[/ATTACH]


And then the last one:

[ATTACH]81396.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]81397.IPB[/ATTACH]


Which after the filter & weathering, looks like this :

[ATTACH]81398.IPB[/ATTACH]


[ATTACH]81399.IPB[/ATTACH]


Hopefully this has helped

[monica]

oh wow all overwhelming at 1st read , but all very good points to keep in mind Ian ta,

yes i do have a dual action airbrush Steve , so as Ian said practice, practice, practice is what i need to do ,

well it dose have an adjustment screw , so the needle can only go back so far, so that should help to keep it at a constant ,

stream off air and paint ? then its just moment speed ?

yes thats what i was trying to get at as well Patrick but did not know what it was called, im just a goof

" A more advanced technique is colour modulation."

this is real the type i wont to try on my half track, as the inner parts of the panel are always liter ,

than the outer parts as were the light hits more, the thing im after is in Patrick pic, would be the last 2, with

the over all paint done in the staggers above, to get to that point, and the rust and chipping by hand ?

but these blends off color form a lighter center moving to a shade or 2 darker on the outer panels

[Ian M]

The needle stop will only restrict the paint flow. I think.

Ian M

[stona]

The needle stop will only restrict the paint flow. I think.Ian M

Exactly. You can set that at a suitable point for a particular job, but I think with experience and practice you will be able to regulate the amount of paint without using it. I've never had an airbrush with that feature so I suppose I've learnt to do without it!

You should always depress the 'trigger' fully, allowing air to flow at the pressure set on your air supply.

Steve

[Guest]

Monica

In my last 2 pictures, all the chipping & rust etc was done by hand. As to the exact way to do colour modulation, have a look at the article that guided me

http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/other/modulationmr_1.html

Also, for an actual demonstration, you on YouTube & search for ScaleModelMedic, he does a few CM tutorials which are very helpful.

Cheers

Patrick

[monica]

hi all,thank you for the help,

thats one thing Ian i have not played around with,I was thinking that as the needle slide back lets it has more off a faning to how the paint come out,

good points to remember Steve, and maybe in time and practice will just know how far back to pull the trigger,

will have a look at these you tube ones, Patrick, i did see some but they dont explain it for beginners which setting and and how to start it off ,so you dont

get alot off paint all at once in that center part were you start, if you get what im meaning,

so realy i need to drop the air presser down it sounds like about half , to 12/15 psi and try it at ,that with a lighter and maybe thinner paint mix and about half or less

pull back on the trigger , but with full air flow , for a summery

[Guest]

Moni I would not get to hung up about numbers.

The most important thing is to practice. The paint you use, how much it is thinned, the temperature, the humidity all take their toll. As Ian said earlier just practice practice and I would add experiment. Spend a couple of hours just messing about it pays dividends. You will find which and what works for you and I bet it is different formulae to any body else on this forum.

Like driving a car you just forget all about press this pedal steer this way it all just becomes second nature and is performed without thought. To get to that level-- practice.

Laurie

[monica]

hi Laurie,so true are your words ,and what Ian has said practice practice , and not just jump in .like im most likely to do

but wont i wont to try and do in time is what Patrick has shown,as it just adds so much to a model, and we all wont to get better at them o_O

[Guest]

Monica, practice is so important - just like what Steve, Ian & Laurie said.

However, as any sportsperson would say, there's nothing better than a competitive event to hone your skills & that means doing an actual model, rather than a scrap piece of card etc.

The P2 I did was my first attempt at colour modulation & looking back, there's a lot I could have done better.

So I'd say, give it a go - the experience will only help you in future builds.

Cheers

Patrick

[BarryW]

Hi Monica, there is a lot of sense in what people are saying.

For me the best thing I did to learn how to use the airbrush was to join Flory Models (£3 per month - no contract or tie in) where there are some great tutorials. I found it far better than just searching u-tube. Their forum is good too but I do prefer this one.

http://www.florymodels.co.uk/today/?SSLoginOk=true

[Guest]

Second Barry. There are some great tutorials that Phil Flory has produced they include taking you through the construction of aircraft with loads of ideas.

They are a motivation to use an idea which I then found leads you to your own way of doing things.

Laurie

[monica]

hi all,thank you, for the advice,

Monica, practice is so important - just like what Steve, Ian & Laurie said.However, as any sportsperson would say, there's nothing better than a competitive event to hone your skills & that means doing an actual model, rather than a scrap piece of card etc.

The P2 I did was my first attempt at colour modulation & looking back, there's a lot I could have done better.

So I'd say, give it a go - the experience will only help you in future builds.

Cheers

Patrick

i do see why you need to practice, on card, or bottles to get your setting right in the first place or you will just make a mess of, it all

as said by all the above, Steve, Ian & Laurie, and once thats kind off sorted, as Patrick said, just try it ,the best way to lean

I will have a look Flory Models, Barry/ Laurie, thank you, as with you-tube dose not show ,real the step by step , one would like to see

they show them doing it but not the go around what you need to do the step by step,

just haven't had much time to sit down and try the last few,days so doing the research first so i do know were to start o_O