Airbrush for Large and Small Areas

A

Atomic_Sheep

Young Tutorling
Hi,

Looking at prices of airbrushes, looks like I need some advice rather than picking one and hoping it suits.

I need to paint small and large areas... the key word there is paint. I'm not after fine detail art work.

By small areas I'm talking about something the size of a large watch (which is why I don't think a spray gun is right for me) and
By large areas, I'm talking about something no larger than say a car bonnet (I don't really want to buy a spray gun also, so hopefully this requirement isn't too unrealistic).

If I start painting a part, it will be of the same colour throughout.

In terms of volumes of work, I would be doing 33% smaller stuff, 33% larger stuff and 33% something in the middle. So I need an all rounder.

My initial reaction to airbrushes was that the most common mechanism - with the lever/button at the top - actuated by your index finger seemed very fiddly and unnecessary so when I found airbrushes with a trigger mechanism, I thought they would be perfect, but then the prices for the Iwata ones I found were around $400 which is nothing to sneeze at. I'm not against paying this much if it's right for me, but I need to be sure about what I'm doing if I'm going to go for something this expensive.

Basically, I'm looking for advice on what I should be focusing on given my circumstances?
 
Ok, let’s get the formalities over and done with. It’s polite when joining a forum to head to the introduction section and let us know:
where on the globe you call home- it helps us suggest local suppliers.
What you end goal is eg: T-shirt’s/artwork/vehicles/models/craft
What paints you are/planning on using.

As far as your query above.
Are you painting the large and small items the same colour at the same time ?
Or do you paint multiple small items at once- are they all the same colour.
Are you in need of a high quality finish like vehicles?
Are you currently painting the items by hand?
With a little more info I’m sure we can get you some quality suggestions

My first thoughts are eithe an iwata TH or one of the Grey trigger airbushes and a cheaper spraygun for the large items, you will of course need a compressor capable of handling the spraygun, any of the cheap workshop compressor should be capable
 
Got the formalities out the way :).

Answering your questions and elaborating a bit:

The small pieces will be something like this (disregard all the white lettering and markings):
220FFAC7-D0B1-427A-AB0E-3125CEFE22ED.jpeg
Average pieces will be something like this:29B7094E-489C-42AB-825F-97A00E116F8A.jpeg

and large pieces will be something like this:
21CAC19F-A757-4A0A-9737-4144D85628C3.jpeg

I think I'll be painting the things one by one (I doubt I'll be painting more than one object at a time), although small batches of the smaller stuff isn't out of the question.

Judging by the video:


Large areas would be tedious but doable?

Paints, not 100% sure but my basic background research suggests automotive paints because the paint needs to be quite robust and stand up to wear and tear.

What is your definition of a high quality finish?

I haven't started painting yet. By hand would mean using brushes which leave streaks or rollers which leave lint, both are out of the question which is why I'm looking for something a bit more professional.
 
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Hope you don’t mind but I’ve embedded the pictures rather than links, it makes viewing a lot easier :)

Is this for game play ?

My first thought is where are you planning on spraying this ? In the back yard - in the shed. Yes it’s relevant :). If you’re going to go down the ‘automotive paint’ road and you’re not doing this as a commercial venture then I’d suggest heading outside and use rattle can for base colors for the large area and then use the airbrush for detailing areas like the black (on red) in the video, then a rattle can clear over the top once you’ve hand painted in the gauge details. If you are going to make these on a commercial venture then look for someone that can laser cut some Mylar stencils for you.
Spray cans and enamels will require the appropriate respirator (available from Bunnings) and consideration toward neighbors, pets and wildlife.
 
In terms of where I'm going to paint this - I'm looking into paint booths at the moment, might make a small one for small and medium pieces and a large one for the larger parts. So I'm going to have exhaust of fumes. But I might be missing your point here.

I'm not too excited about the prospect of spray cans. I've had bad experiences in the past, would prefer to steer clear of them completely which is why I'm looking down this airbrush route.

I don't think there's going to be any clear coats. It's just going to be base/primer and paint.

I don't think there's going to be much of an issue in terms of causing a nuisance to neighbors since I'll be doing one piece at a time.
 
I would use a normal airbrush ( iwata nozzle size 0.23 or 0,30) for those smaller items ,
And a minigun 1.2 nozzle size for bigger items.
These 2 can run on a smaller thus cheaper compressor too.

"Large areas would be tedious but doable?"
A minigun or a spraygun is simply a bigger version of a airbrush , it all comes down to the nozzle and needle sizes.
So the bigger the object the bigger the nozzle size , but u can however paint a entire car with a 0.18 nozzle if u wish and have alot of free time.

What is your definition of a high quality finish?

First good preparation.. clean the objects , get dust / silicone off
Throw a primer coat on the object (this wil make a safe bridge between the object and the paints
put paint coats on your object (try to keep the surface as flat as possible all the way down)
Clearcoat your object to SEAL/PROTECT your paints , this is called the"Holy Jacket".

Then if your"Holy Jacket" is dry you can sand it , buff it , and even taste it to confirm "high quality"
 
One question we haven’t asked is what will they be made of. MDF, steel, aluminum ?

And is this a one of, or are you hoping to produce multiple complete units?
 
A mini spray gun has peaked my interest although they don't look much smaller than regular spray guns or am I missing something? I'm guessing ergonomically big and small paint guns will all be similarly sized and just differ in the amount of paint they can chew through? An in between an airbrush as a regular spray gun sounds ideal.

I'll be painting plastics and metals, but I'll be using relevant primer on both.

At the moment it's a one off, but if I make more than one it won't be a factory setting where I'll be pumping out 100s of units.
 
There are two ways to look at this - Me, personally, I would buy two brushes - one for small work, one for the larger stuff.

So, that is one way of looking at it. The other is to look at the largest piece you think you may need to paint, and buy what it suitable for that - it will give you the best finish, and least hassles. You can gang bunches of smaller parts up, and shoot them all at once with the same gun.

In the past, I had an Iwata T3 spray gun that I would have easily used for what you are describing. I used it to paint quite a few larger wall murals, as well as laying base coats on smaller work pieces, maybe as small as 8"x10". Shoot, I even painted the soffets on the house using it ;). It would pull some rather fine lines, but I never used it like that... I had other brushes for that.

Today I have this - Procon GSI PS 290 (@$110.00us)
GSI-Creos-PS290-1.jpg

Comes with both a conventional nozzle cap, and fan cap for covering larger areas. The standard cup would be on the very small side for tackling larger work areas, but there is a larger cup option available. I am fairly sure many of the parts are common between it and the Iwata TH. I am looking at adding the custom handle available for the Iwata... Or even adding a moisture trap to the air valve would offer a better hand hold on the thing.
 
I'm with Erwin De Pan and DaveG. I have an Iwata HP-TH, which is basically the Iwata version of the brushes they're suggesting, and IMO it's exactly the sort of thing your use case wants.
 
You need the airbrush daveg posted and a mini spray gun.

Doing something the size of a bonnet with that 290 is gonna be kind of ridiculous.
Which is im sure why he suggested 2 guns
A 5-6 inch pattern would be minimal

Technically a compact or midi spray gun, as in not a tiny .6 or something. Id suggest a 1.0
Tiny one wont spray any larger pattern than the gun dave posted.
Yes you can spray a large item with a small pattern...eventually...it's 1. slow 2. very difficult to get an excellent finish.

A high quality finish with no clear coat is often incongruous.

Not sure what your bad experience with cans was but
For a one off, high quality spray cans would be perfectly acceptable. If you get a bad finish with a high quality spray can it's not the can and buying guns wont make a huge difference.
 
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One other thing to mention.... Spraying certain paints it will actually be impossible to do a large area with a little gun, parts of it dry before your finished and then you end up with gritty overspray, Which you will chase and then create more gritty overspray to chase and so on and so forth.

@JackEb gets perfectly good finishes from a can and for a one off I'm with her.
 
Atomic_Sheep said:
Got the formalities out the way :).

What is your definition of a high quality finish?

I haven't started painting yet. By hand would mean using brushes which leave streaks or rollers which leave lint, both are out of the question which is why I'm looking for something a bit more professional.
Click to expand...

My end suggestion based on this statement leading me to believe that all you really need is one step up from brushing or what most people get with cans is this

https://www.rustoleum.com/product-c...auto/premixed-diy-bulk-paint/auto-body-paint/
Or whatever the equivalent would be in Oz......Just be sure its a consumer geared auto body acrylic lacquer.
This is slow enough to not be real critical of smaller guns and brushes.

and this
https://www.harborfreight.com/adjustable-detail-spray-gun-92126.html
Or whatever its equivalent is there.
It can spray about a 3-4mm pinpoint , up to a 7cm fan
However it can dump paint much faster than the TH or 290 Which means it wont be impossible to do a larger area with only a 7cm pattern even if the paint is a little fast. It still wont let you do a bonnet with 2k
Most of them spray shockingly well.
I know I said not a tiny gun like this but I immediately was thinking of 2k
 
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Or if you want to cover all bases for base coats/sealer and if they have stock near you or can order it in, try this set up. I have this set up they're handy for all sorts of stuff. Just make sure you get the relevant cleaners for what ever paint you are using.

the larger gun is 1.4mm and the smaller is .8mm

upload_2018-1-29_11-4-37.png
 
JackEb said:
Or if you want to cover all bases for base coats/sealer and if they have stock near you or can order it in, try this set up. I have this set up they're handy for all sorts of stuff. Just make sure you get the relevant cleaners for what ever paint you are using.

the larger gun is 1.4mm and the smaller is .8mm

View attachment 52149
Click to expand...
That little .8 is probably closest. The one I linked is a little detail gun with a .6
Im not sure why exactly but the tiny china specials with the side cup are pretty good, Ive not had one of the larger ones work for much more than a couple jobs and they want a crapload of air to spray OK
If you can find one that has k-3 on the side, theyre all pretty decent.
That second setup seems cool. I have no experience with those particular guns though so ill take your word for it.

They should all be ok if hes not trying to get better than a factory car finish.

Thanks for adding those Jackie
 
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