Airbrushing for the Beginner #4: Basic Usage and Some Airbrushing Techniques

[Firespyer]

Wow thanks for making these, my airbrush comes in tonight, can't wait to get started

[DetectorOCD]

Much respect, man. Thanks for sharing this with us!

[tmccann1876]

Hey thank you so much for the cleaning video. I never thought about using pipe brush for my airbrush! I had a question about using resin based paint. Is there a universal reducer for these paints? Or does it vary by paints?

[PreOAP]

Hi, thanks for this tutorial and the first one about the different compressors and brushes, very helpful indeed. However number two and three are not up. Whats happened to them? Im wanting get into airbrushing and hoped they would be up.

Thanks for these vids Ive seen

[dickaldor]

Great series on how to start airbrushing! Thanks for sharing brother! Mabye now I´ll finish the models I bought 20 years ago.. :)

Dave

[sgtnick09]

would you recomend the testors basic airbrush with propelent and make a vid so i can see it in action? tanks!  The Sarge

[Aarynisaballer]

Hello,

I was wanting to get into airbrushing but im not sure what to get. I am wanting to do drawings and t-shirts & tags, stuff like that but im not sure what kind of airbrush to get or what kind of air source or what paint is the best to use for that. If you could get back to me on this it would be great.

P.S. Im not looking to spend a large amount of money i just want something thats good quality dual action but not incredibly expensive, just something to use for fun and draw with.

Thanks

[WGConsortium]

@Aarynisaballer Check out the Badger Patriot! :)

[ravagevii]

Hey Chung, don't know if I ever thanked you for the awesome tutorials, but it was nice to get the basics down once again before I started painting again. As you know I got the Iwata neo, till big money rolls in, and it works great for what I want to do. I'm a total noob to gravity feed style airbrushes and working at lower psi's. Can't wait to hook up for some games bro.

[streetgangtm]

The pre shading has done wonders for a lot of the stuff I do. I play dark angels and with DA green I'm actually able to shade models with DA green, simply by going heavier in the recesses with it. Great stuff man.

[Boomsheka1]

Liked the ideas of using the airbrush for pre-shading, what would be your thought or experience in using ink washes as a pre-shade then doing the base coat? Would that even work?

[ARodriguez258]

About how big do you recommend when you're getting a compressor with an air tank? I have a 2 gal. one that I use for my air tools. Will this suffice, or do you suggest getting one that's specifically designed for airbrushing?

[SMConsortium]

@ARodriguez258 That's fine, are you hooking it up to a compressor you have already?

[ARodriguez258]

@SMConsortium Yes. I have a compressor that I use for my air ratchet, so all I really need is the brush. I double checked, and it's oil-free, and all that, so as far as I can tell it's good to go.

[SMConsortium]

@ARodriguez258 Sounds like it'll work fine. :) You might have to mess with it a little to get everything connected right (adaptors and stuff) but it should be ok!

[chancerNW]

Never considered using an airbrush for pre shaidng a 28mm figure, excellent video.

[Generalsplatton]

That was a wonderful tutorial! Thanks for doing them.

[WGConsortium]

@Generalsplatton Welcome!

[DaisZX]

Thanks for making these videos. I want to get into airbrushing early next year but I do have a simple question: what makes a paint suitable to be a primer in an airbrush? I've seen brush on primers that are a little more flat than normal paint but they don't work as well as normal aerosol spray cans, Are these better suited for airbrushing? are there special airbrush primer paints? can I just use normal acrylics and have them stick to metal or resin models?

[WGConsortium]

@DaisZX You welcome! :) Primer... it's used to give paints the surface to stick. It's made in a way to go on the surface and cling to it so you other paints won't just chip off. Alternately you can give the surface of the model some sanding to "rough" up the surface was well but that's just more work. With Metal or Resin models, you definitely should use primer (or sand the surface). Brush on primers problem is it's thicker and it might obscure details on your mini's.

[WGConsortium]

@Catachan1brainleaf Understood. I'm not disagreeing with you. I've been getting questions about airbrushing tshirts and other stuff and I'm like... "Uhhh... I dunno man. I don't do that stuff!" lol

[WGConsortium]

@WGConsortium Those airbrushing free hand guys are a breed of their own though. I've checked out some vids on some of those guys on here and it's amazing how they do it.

[YeahMF]

Can't wait to get a set up and start practicing!

Thanks for the vids!

[WGConsortium]

@YeahMF Haha! Right on! :)

[WGConsortium]

@Catachan1brainleaf I used to just pick up boxes and practice on. lol But that's a good idea. I'll stick it in the next RR.

[TheRealMythril]

Extremely useful vid. I am keeping all of these in a playlist so I can refer back to them easily when I get an airbrush. But thanks to you I now have a much better idea what to look for and some techniques to get me started. Thanks for all your time and effort on this series.

[WGConsortium]

@TheRealMythril YAY! :)

[BB666ification]

how much of a pain is it to switch between colours with an airbrush?im thinking of getting one but worried it might stop the fluidity of painting. i don't really do many large models wich is the obvious gain of an airbrush so it would be good to see how long it takes to switch from one colour to the next. great series of vids mate!

[WGConsortium]

@BB666ification Hmmm, check out the lst video (#3) and I show ya how I do it. It's pretty quick once you get it down. Glad you like it! :)

[TheSeasonman1]

Great video very informative and really great tips thanks .

[WGConsortium]

@TheSeasonman1 You are very welcome :)

[ooftaZone]

Thinner applications helps the paint dry faster.

For a permanent application can use a hair dryer on acrylic paints. This will harden the paint. Just make sure to keep the model from getting warm and from warping.

[WGConsortium]

@ooftaZone AH! The hair dryer! I forgot about that! :)

[ooftaZone]

That dread is cool.

[vanhammer73]

keep em comming my friend,,, like the round robin idea,, get more of the communtity commenting ;)

[WGConsortium]

@vanhammer73 I love when they get involved and I love highlighting that involvement when I can. :)

[PaintwithTrash]

What if I was painting a shade? where do you shade a shade?

[WGConsortium]

@PaintwithTrash Well, you shade where the shade would be! Duh!

[RetributionAngel]

very very good tutorial... great youre doing these

[WGConsortium]

@RetributionAngel Thanks Ret.

[falknerblitz]

This was very useful. Would a tutorial showing how to get those smooth gradient with the airbrush be possible - that would be really helpful for painting tanks.

[WGConsortium]

@falknerblitz I'll definately try and put up a more details video on pre shading and post shading. There's also using a technique call colour modulation. It's over at ScaleModelMedic. It's a video called Colour Modulation Part 1: Airbrushing Basecoats and it's two part but very well worth checking out.

[falknerblitz]

@WGConsortium OK sounds good I'll check it out. I went out and got an airbrush after watching some of Les' vids but haven't really figured out how to do much with it - only painted a few models with it so far (either tanks or larger monsters)

[WGConsortium]

@falknerblitz No problem! I'm working on a vid to do mass troop production with an airbrush for ya and a couple of other peeps that asked for it. I just did a test run 6 and it seems to cut down the work. But doing it with space wolves is a pain. There's so much icons on these guys that brush detailing is still 1/2 of the time spent working on them.

[Number1GamerAsh]

I think the most important way of using an airbrush is recognising it’s another tool to your arsenal and you have to use it similarly to a paintbrush. You have to work your way fluently through the tedious stages until you feel far more at ease then you did. I think practice is key but also realising that the airbrush is like a paintbrush and although they have their personal pro’s and cons. Both are incredibly useful to try and master :).

[WGConsortium]

@Number1GamerAsh Very well said Ash!

[CatTehBus]

what do you solute your paint in to thin it out before shooting in through an airbrush?

[WGConsortium]

@CatTehBus Usually Windex. I also use a Vallejo airbrush cleaner/thinner mix (10 to 2 Mix).