HPIracer4

hah well first of merry christmas or happy holidays to all of you, and well i opened my presents and i got an airbrush setup. Its a Testors complete kit, with compressor, 4 nozzles and all that stuff, but max is only 35psi......but ya just wanted to get opionions on this kit, seems pretty good, and yes its a double action airbrush, but it doesnt say how to mix the paint or if i have to.....just wanted some more advice! thanks!!!!!

bdavison

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COOL.....

Now start painting!!!!

Stick with the water-based paints. Most of them you can shoot right out of the bottle. If you do have to thin them, just use a little distilled water. NO tap water. It has minerals that end up in the paint, and in the airbrush.

Normally a 1 to 1 mix of water to paint works well. If that's too thin, go down to a .5 to 1 mix.
Shake it up really well once you mix the water with it.

Make sure that you clean the airbrush out REALLY well after you use it. Never leave the airbrush dirty...EVER.

Pipecleaners, an old toothbrush and some acetone work great for cleaning them out.

Be very careful not to damage the nozzle or the needle by dropping it or banging them on anything.

HPIracer4

alright sweet, wat are some good water based paints to use??? i wanna pick up some colors today but i dont know wat to get, also....wat about the nozzle sizes what to use?

bdavison

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I use Faskolor water-based paints from Parma International. They are available at most hobby shops
Createx is also very good.

Nozzle sizes are dependant upon what size line you are trying to paint. I prefer nozzle sizes around .03"

HPIracer4

the nozzles i have are..... .50mm Acrylic (high flow nozzle), .40mm (general purpose nozzle), 50mm high flow nozzles, .40 acrylic general purpose nozzle, which one should i used??? i also ended up buyin Model Master Acryl paint, (water wash-up, non toxic)

bdavison

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The .50 is for spraying large areas with lots of paint. Like if you were painting a solid color wing for example.
The .40 is what you'll want to use to paint fine lines and detail.

Id just use the .40 all the time unless I wanted to spray something very large.


Model Master Acryls are also good thats what I started out using and they wont eat foam either, which makes them great for painting foamies. They also have a WIDE variety of colors. You may need to thin them. Test it out in your airbrush just running straight out of the bottle, if it spits or clogs up, then thin it to .5 to 1 and go at it again...if it still spits or clogs up, go to a 1 to 1 ratio and so on until you find the right mix that sprays right.

You want it to come out as a fine mist, but not watery. It should fine mist, but still be Paint, and not colored water.

HPIracer4

ya so i hooked it up right the the glass jar the paint comes in, it sprays, but takes awhile for it to start shootin paint.... and its comin out kinda light.....so should i thin it out a bit with water??? shouodl i do the whole jar or just part.........im new to this and i want it all workin rtight before i try anything crazy lol