Glad I found you all. New from Kansas City Missouri

T

tljbcrew

Guest
Hey guys, Todd here 38 from Kansas City. I bought an RC Car for my son at Christmas. Reading about them I came across people who paint them. I thought that was pretty neat but when I came across airbrushing them I was hooked. Not necessarily for the RC cars but just a learning it in general. That's when my hobby hunt began. I have spent hours over the last month online researching first and watching many videos. Thanks to some youtube searches I found Airbrush Tutor.

I had a shop setup years ago that I was able to convert into what I needed for airbrushing. shop.jpg
I take a large 1/2 poster board and clamp it to the bench then I tape my practice sheets to it. So far it seems to work. And following AT's advice I made it pretty comfortable.

After tons of research and of course watching AT's video's I went ahead and purchased an iWata gravity fed, Revolution CS. I felt with wanting to attack smaller projects I didn't want a siphon fed. So far this seems to work good I guess, hard to tell given I have never touched one before. I also very much appreciated AT's video about how to break one down, have the diagram handy, and oil the pieces. At first, I was pretty intimidated due to the small pieces but after watching the video and doing the breakdown it was very simple.
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The paints I started with are all water based. Following some advice I went with Createx because of cost and one from Badger (Air-Opaque Airbrush Ready).

I also, thanks to the AT video's installed a regulator from my main compressor in the garage and ran a separate line to my work space. The compressor had one on it already but man I am glad I went this route. I can easily control everything right where I am working.
regulator.jpg


I just kicked off my first practice today after downloading your FREE worksheets woohoo. Got to love free stuff!!! Needless to say practicing seemed to create a ton of questions, all of which I found on this forum and am working out the kinks. The sheets look a little crazy because I was contending with some issues and just kept flowing paint to figure them out.
paper.jpg

Sorry for such a long post but I am pretty damn excited to be doing this and being part of this forum to help along the way. Some of the things I am working through after today are basic over spray problems. There are a lot of variables so it is hard to ask the right question until I pin down which ones might be causing problems.

1. My work space is about 62 degrees so maybe the paint is too cold, so I got a heater down there to raise the temp, now it's 72 so it cozier but still had over spray.

2. Ahhh the dreaded PSI debate, I found a load of info here on that topic. I started with 40 PSI, so I tested many practice sheets with adjusting it to 35, 30, 25 and so on down to 5 psi. Still had overspray but it did give me a great feel for the range of options depending on what I will be working on. The best seemed to be 25 until I got to the really fine circles on the practice sheets, then I did good at 15.

3. Then I read about thinning the paint but am still somewhat confused. I read somewhere that Createx didn't need to be thinned but others said to do so. The ratios I hear are all over the place but the one constant I hear of course is just make it a consistency of milk. So I think I am there. I tried different thinning ratios and even switched from Createx to badger but still had over spray.

3. Movement, I might have to post a video of me airbrushing, I could have too slow of a speed. But I did some practice with various speeds. I only got good clean lines when I went really fast. I can't imagine airbrushing like this, kind of made my head spin.

4. I think I have narrowed it down to my airbrush itself. I disassembled all of the parts and wiped them down so there was no excess oil, looked for any drying on the tip which I did find. That might have been it. I also think I made a rookie mistake and pulled the needle out with paint still in the cup. Oops, yeah that cleanup took a bit of time. I drew paint into the back end and allowed paint to drip out of the front.

Everything is dry, cleaned, oiled, and put back together. This week I'll keep trying different things. If you guys have any tips after reading all of this let me know.

I guess I do have two questions.

1. I didn't feel I painted very long so I was surprised I did find paint dried on the needle point. It was an ever so fine spec of paint. Can even the smallest piece of dry paint cause that much over spray? Or maybe I am beating myself up and that amount of over spray is A-OK.

2. At what angle do most artists hold their airbrush? I have noticed I got in the habit of holding it almost completely horizontal. I lowed my practice sheets so my airbrush was at a slight angle (almost exactly how it is pictured). I made sure I kept the cup level, that seems to be the right way to hold it. Not sure.


Again, sorry for the long point. I can't wait to get going.
 
Welcome Home Todd, You picked out a very good airbrush.
1 If you are getting a lot of overspray turn your air pressure down a bit , You may find yourself having to reduce you paint a bit more to get good flow but that comes down to Practice and learnign they paint system you pick.
Watch Airbrush Tutor video. as far as how to hold it and angle that is up to you. Airbrush Tutor - YouTube
 
Awesome, thanks Mr. Micron. Great to know that brush was a good one. And yes AT's youtube channel, I know it well. It was those videos that convinced me to make the leap into this world. I'll check it out again to see if I can get a good idea on angle. I figured it was all about practice practice so I wasn't going to make it too complicated for myself. These threads really help.
 
Welcome Todd! Unfortunately, tip dry is a factor we all must deal with frequently. Regardless of what paint you spray, some will dry on the tip and waterbased paint tends to be worse than others. Tip dry probably created some of the extra overspray you described above. It won't take long before you're instictively cleaning the needle tip and/or you'll become aware of tip dry simply by the sound your airbrush makes as you spray. In terms of overspray, you'll also get more overspray the farther you are from your canvas. Might try moving a little closer. Moving faster, as you observed, also creates less overspray. This won't make your head spin so much as you gain experience and more control.

As far as the angle goes, you'll learn the angle also controls overspray to a degree. Example: If you're holding the brush as you said with the cup level (needle will be pointed down) and you're painting a horizontal line across the canvas, the top of the line should be relatively clean (depending on the distance between the brush and the canvas) and a gradated overspray fade will be created on the lower part of the line. Hope all of this makes sense and feel free to ask more questions...
 
Welcome on board Todd, post up pic/vid of your Practice sheets dot daggers etc.; someone will point you in the right direction

Tony
 
woah we got a live one here folks hehe.....welcome todd its great to have another injection of positive energy and enthusiasm round this place!
many people mask off areas they want kept clean and this reduces the over spray issue, however it does create a very definite line......when doing stuff like portraiture this is not really desirable, so some people use there hand as a shield which creates a nice soft line but still gets rid of the over spray......there is a member on here who is a master of this technique, named rebelair , ill have a quick scout around and see if I can find the video in question as it could be a good technique for you on future
 
here you go, its a time lapse video so speeded up a bit but it (quickly) demonstrates the technique excellently.....for a more in depth instructional have a look at his eye tutorial or the bogart series that he has done, these 2 pieces alone he has been good enough to film something like 6 hours of led instruction..(rebelair on here, acekustoms on youtube)


Airbrushed Indian - YouTube
 
Hi Todd from the UK, welcome to the airbrushing family, seems like you,'re hooked already, so just follow the advice already given and then post some pics to show us how you got on.
 
Thanks wickedart, can't wait to keep practicing and it's funny because I watched a video the other day where the guy looked like he had a nervous twitch, he picked and picked at the needle while he talked. It all makes sense now, he just got in the habit to try and clear that needle every few seconds. And I hear what you are saying about the noise. I recall now hearing a very faint gurgle noise. I am going to hit the canvas toinight and get more practice. Thanks again..... BTW great video's on youtube.
 
Now that's impressive. I loved how he kept rotating the artwork to keep his hand in the most natural position or optimum position for what he was doing. Great stuff. It is good to know there is some expected overspray and techniques to get around it. Off to practice!! thanks again for all of the info. greatly appreciated. Next post will be 400 words or less, I promise. haha
 
Welcome to the site Todd! We actually see quite a few come across from RC equipment and discover there's actually a much bigger airbrush world than wat they previously new:) so welcome aboard! Please treat this site like your guide and ask plenty of questions!
 
Thanks a ton Mitch! I have been watching all of your tutorials. You my friend are the one that gave me the confidence to jump in with both feet. Very much appreciate all you do.
 
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