Practice medium

[Digitalflyer]

Hi
I've read posts saying about using metal panels and glass to practice on, and even clay panels and canvases.
I mainly use bog standard printer paper to test bits out and practice effects ect.
I was wondering what people thought about using water colour paper as a general medium to paint on, as I've never actually tried it to airbrush on only used a bristle brush

 

[J000seph]

I like to practice on glass for basic strokes, etc. I use a picture frame and start over with windex & paper towels. Poster board is cheap for doing pics. Cut it to different sizes. I got watercolor paper for practice & found it not smooth enough & soaks in paint making it nearly impossible to erase. Hope this helps.

 

[basepaint]

Watercolor paper sucks up the paint,the smooth hot press paper/board works the best as the paint won't soak in as much on it ,to practice on just use a coloring book it will work just fine and you will learn how to control the brush with over spray,blending and colors

 

[Digitalflyer]

Thanks that answered my quest, I'll leave it in the cupboard.
I have a sheet of glass and keep meaning to try it. Might give it a try later when I get into the den

 

[jord001]

I found the same issue with watercolour paper. Its made to absorb the watercolour paints and does the same with thebairbrush paints. Printer paper is ok to practise on but is usually poor quality for painting. Have you tried photo paper? Thats not bad. But clayboard and bristol board are pretty decent as is the yupo synthetic paper. Glass is good because you can scrape the paint off afterwards but takes more skill to paint as its smooth and does not absorb the paint.

Lee

 

[Digitalflyer]

I did.try photo paper awhile ago and found it to be pretty.good, but starts getting costly after a while and only a few sheets to the pack it certainly gets pricey. I have a stack of over two reams of A3 printer paper and card.

The plan is to get some detailed designs on some of my models, and not.just flames like everyone else, but something alittle more special ;-)

 

[Malky]

I did.try photo paper awhile ago and found it to be pretty.good, but starts getting costly after a while and only a few sheets to the pack it certainly gets pricey. I have a stack of over two reams of A3 printer paper and card.

The plan is to get some detailed designs on some of my models, and not.just flames like everyone else, but something a little more special ;-)

Can I assume form your avatar that your models are planes?,there is no harm at all in practicing on any kid of paper that takes your fancy, however, if airbrushing your planes/models is your main goal I would recommend practicing on a similar material to what your models are made of, when I was flying myself my models were made either Fiberglass, balsa and Oracover or foam, I'll go out on a limb and say the glider in your avatar is mostly fiberglass?, I'm sure some of your buddies at the field will have crashed models they intend to do nothing with so if could get hols of them or at least left over wings, fuselage and whatever else that remained whole made all of these materials, you would get a good idea of your paints will behave on each type of surface, if you were to practice on paper alone, even if you became very proficient, you would shock yourself the first time you hit one of your fiberglass models and instantly get spidering and skating, so please just be aware that paints being propelled by pressure behave differently on every type of substrate, glass is actually probably the hardest to airbrush on but if you could get your head around that, the other materials would be a piece of cake since you would find them easier

I started airbrushing to repair fiberglass helicopter canopies after crashes but fond art more fun and did that instead, which turned out be a good thing since I gave up flying to care for my wife so I have a hobby I can do at home.

And welcome to the forum

P.S. Is that glider in your Avatar the "Last Down"?

 

[Digitalflyer]

Thanks, for the direction, yep most of my models are fg gliders (not keen on foamies ;-) ) and few are covered in Solarfilm (simular to Ocracover), the biggest problem with film covers is getting paints to adhere, it splits, flakes and scrapes very easily, but Ive been trying different Clearcoats to create a bash to work on and now got it sorted
I heard glass could be awkward but easy to clear and reuse :-D (easier on the pocket ;-) )

In reply to your PS Question... It's a Discus CS 3mtr scale glider

 

[Malky]

Thanks, for the direction, yep most of my models are fg gliders (not keen on foamies ;-) ) and few are covered in Solarfilm (simular to Ocracover), the biggest problem with film covers is getting paints to adhere, it splits, flakes and scrapes very easily, but Ive been trying different Clearcoats to create a bash to work on and now got it sorted
I heard glass could be awkward but easy to clear and reuse :-D (easier on the pocket ;-) )

In reply to your PS Question... It's a Discus CS 3mtr scale glider

The last down is very similar to it, also 3 meter, I started with helicopters and became afraid of them after problems with with a flybarless computer, then moved over to planes, mostly stunt planes like the S-342, I liked to prop hand and keep the planes close to me, I only flew faomies indoors doing aero-musical acrobatics.

As far as I know auto air adheres good to just about everything, but I used to use a multi primer that I also use at my work as painter and decorator, I don't know if you can find it in England, if you can you'll find at decorators suppliers, the stuff is called Sudwest- All grund, it's primer we use to ensure good adhesion on plastic drain pipes an powder coated items, we also use it to prime epoxy wood repairs but it acan be used on everything including polyester which the covering on your planes is, you can't spray it on though, it goes on very easy with throw away brush or roller, but you would need to mask off areas you don't wan to paint, but you would do that with any paint you put on

 

[Digitalflyer]

I have a little 450 3D heli still trying to get past hover :-D :-D

Fg if clean isn't much of a problem but the films are a pain, the manufacturer recommended one of there products then in the next sentence told I could probably just us their Clearcoat as a Base as is just the same as.another product they produce, without pigment but different name... (would you Adam and Eve it.. :-D :-D well I.suspose they need to keep the money coming in) :-D

 

[Malky]

I have a little 450 3D heli still trying to get past hover :-D :-D

Fg if clean isn't much of a problem but the films are a pain, the manufacturer recommended one of there products then in the next sentence told I could probably just us their Clearcoat as a Base as is just the same as.another product they produce, without pigment but different name... (would you Adam and Eve it.. :-D :-D well I.suspose they need to keep the money coming in) :-D

If you go to any proper Decorators supplier or auto body shop, they will tell you that there are primers for absolutely every type of surface in existence, any supplier or company has to promote their own stuff so obviously they won't send you elsewhere because they know you can find what you need cheaper.

I had two T-rex 600 esp's one was intended for a scale air-wolf fuselage, that one because of a fault with it's computer decided to take off on it's own as soon as the battery was inserted, I manged to control it and get it down but it was hairy and there were other pilots on the field at the time, in the same year I stopped because of that incident two professional tournament pilots were beheaded with their own helicopters, one from America and another from Germany who was on holiday in Switzerland at the time, those little 450's are harder to fly than the bigger ones are.

 

[AndreZA]

Practice on the surface you'll be painting on. Now you spend all this time trying to get your paint not to spider when working on a hard surface when all you'll be working on is paper and canvas.

 

[Digitalflyer]

I'm currently trying a hard surface as that will be the main medium.... So guess what we're on? Might as well jump in with both feet and see how it goes.. Glass.. A small bit of spidering but not bad considering first shot on it 8-}

 

[Digitalflyer]

If you go to any proper Decorators supplier or auto body shop, they will tell you that there are primers for absolutely every type of surface in existence, any supplier or company has to promote their own stuff so obviously they won't send you elsewhere because they know you can find what you need cheaper.

I had two T-rex 600 esp's one was intended for a scale air-wolf fuselage, that one because of a fault with it's computer decided to take off on it's own as soon as the battery was inserted, I manged to control it and get it down but it was hairy and there were other pilots on the field at the time, in the same year I stopped because of that incident two professional tournament pilots were beheaded with their own helicopters, one from America and another from Germany who was on holiday in Switzerland at the time, those little 450's are harder to fly than the bigger ones are.

Yeah was a shame when that happened last year wasn't it? The American guy was in the local park if I recall, I'm not over keen on 3D it always looks like the pilot has lost control (and I'm sure that's where it grew from ;-) ) I prefer scale make look like it's meant to. The 450 is a little twitching and prefers low winds, but this is the UK we don't have low winds... So forces you to be a bit on the ball :-D

 

[markjthomson]

If you are painting on a hard surface glass is great - especially for mimicking spider splatter... IMHO leave the higher quality papers for pretty pictures. Standard printer paper if great for practice, newsprint, anything you want.

Nicely jacked @Malky

 

[AndreZA]

The problem with glass is that it does not mimic metal. You will obviously give the metal a scuff and this will help with adhesion and spidering.

 

[Digitalflyer]

The problem with glass is that it does not mimic metal. You will obviously give the metal a scuff and this will help with adhesion and spidering.

I'm not planning on spraying on metal, it'll be plastic film and/or Fiberglass mainly. But thanks for.the input I'll keep it in mind incase a metal sheet needs doing