Hi from Texas!!

[Christi]

Hi my name is Christi and I live in The Woodlands TX, right outside of Houston. I started airbrushing about 8 months ago after finally deciding to give it a try to make things easier on myself. I am a stay at home mom (3 daughters), but I do a lot of crafting and woodworking. In the recent years I started building and painting kids room decor such as step stools, wall letters, table sets, and even holiday yard decorations. The yard deco’s are what got me into airbrushing. I was hand painting all the details on, and realized airbrushing would be much faster. So I gave it a try. I will admit that it took me a while to get the hang of it, after wanting to give up a million times, LOL, but stuck with it and now I am much more comfortable picking up the airbrush and...well let’s just say it’s my favorite part of making the yard deco’s. And they look so much more realistic than hand painted ones do!
I use an Iwata Eclipse gravity feed and createx paints, thinners and cleaners. I’ve never tried anything else so I will stick with those for now. My next gift to myself will be the Micron!
I am using a 25gal compressor that my husband has had in our garage for years. It’s a craftsman 5.5HP (single cylinder/oil free). I have hooked up an inline water filter and an extra regulator. I am not sure if this compressor is the best to be using but it’s worked so far with no issues.
I will post pics of my work very soon.
Until then, just wanted to say hi and thank you to all of you who take the time away from what you love doing to help all of us newbies out here! I truly appreciate your help and feedback, and I have learned the most from this forum just from reading different issues from others. Again, THANK YOU!

 

[crazyvet]

welcome

 

[huskystafford]

Hey Christi

 

[SiRoxx]

Welcome Christi! You’ve made a great choice with the Eclipse airbrush. That’s a great tool for all kinds of work. If you’re painting craft objects the Wicked Paint line from Createx have some great metallics and pearls as well as regular solid colours. Great to have you as part of our community.


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[LadyCharlie]

Welcome Christi! Looking forward to seeing your work!

 

[markjthomson]

Welcome from New Zealand

 

[pshit]

Welcome from Canada.

 

[Wishbone]

Hi christi and welcome

 

[Franc Kaiser]

Welcome to the forum from China!

 

[jord001]

Welcome to the forum Christi, we have a great airbrush family here. Hope you enjoy your stay.

 

[Christi]

Welcome Christi! You’ve made a great choice with the Eclipse airbrush. That’s a great tool for all kinds of work. If you’re painting craft objects the Wicked Paint line from Createx have some great metallics and pearls as well as regular solid colours. Great to have you as part of our community.


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Thank you...I do have a few colors in the wicked paint and love them but I am confused on what reducer I should be using with those. The Createx videos say 4011 in one video, 4012 in another, and then 4012 with 4030 in another video. So not sure if it’s just personal preference?? Hmmm.
For some reason I like the 4011 better than the 4012 but have never used 4030. Let me know if you recommend this for hot humid days that we have plenty of here in Houston. Lol.

 

[JackEb]

Sorry I'm late, *slaps my own wrist*
WELCOME from Australia
the compressor you have will be absolutely fine, a bit noisy but if your neighbours aren't bothered then use it !
As for the paints/ reducer question.
Createx currently has two reducers. 4011 and 4013. the 4012 is being discontinued and suppliers are just getting rid of what stock is out there.
the 4013 has isopropyl in it (unless you are here in Australia because we get it without the iso due to freight limitations) so it will dry a bit quicker so may be of use to you when its humid. they also have a 4020 that has acetone in it, also for humid locations but with both the 4020 & 4013 make sure you mask up and lock the kids away. acetone and isopropyl are both nasty things when you inhale them.

4030 is a love hate relationship and don't buy more than you plan on using in a month. I've had two unopened 16oz bottles go hard and had to be binned. It will produce a harder end product but my go to now is their UVLS clear.

If you are doing yard art then it will be subjected to sunlight /UV so find a good UV clear coat (auto store, rattle can acrylic will be fine, no need to go all out with a 2K product)
The eclipse won't fail you unless you drop it but make sure you are cleaning it properly (we are happy to give guidance if you need it ) it comes standard with a .35 needle which may struggle a bit with some pearls and metallics so don't say you weren't warned

We would all love to see some of your work and if you want it there can be suggestions on how to tackle certain images.

this is a great place for inspiration and help and incase you missed it there will likely be the odd thread-jacking and some humor thrown in randomly

 

[Ttxela]

Hello

I would have thought a 5.5hp compressor would have no issues keeping up with your airbrush, you could probably run a full size spray gun if you needed to.

 

[Christi]

Hello

I would have thought a 5.5hp compressor would have no issues keeping up with your airbrush, you could probably run a full size spray gun if you needed to.

Yes the compressor works great with full size spray gun...we’ve used one many times painting interior doors, trim work, etc. Just a pain in the ass to clean up so I only use it if it’s a large project.

 

[Christi]

Sorry I'm late, *slaps my own wrist*
WELCOME from Australia
4013. the 4012 is being discontinued and suppliers are just getting rid of what stock is out there.
the 4013 has isopropyl in it (unless you are here in Australia because we get it without the iso due to freight limitations) so it will dry a bit quicker so may be of use to you when its humid. they also have a 4020 that has acetone in it, also for humid locations but with both the 4020 & 4013 make sure you mask up and lock the kids away. acetone and isopropyl are both nasty things when you inhale them.

4030 is a love hate relationship and don't buy more than you plan on using in a month. I've had two unopened 16oz bottles go hard and had to be binned. It will produce a harder end product but my go to now is their UVLS clear.

If you are doing yard art then it will be subjected to sunlight /UV so find a good UV clear coat (auto store, rattle can acrylic will be fine, no need to go all out with a 2K product)
The eclipse won't fail you unless you drop it but make sure you are cleaning it properly (we are happy to give guidance if you need it ) it comes standard with a .35 needle which may struggle a bit with some pearls and metallics so don't say you weren't warned

We would all love to see some of your work and if you want it there can be suggestions on how to tackle certain images.

this is a great place for inspiration and help and incase you missed it there will likely be the odd thread-jacking and some humor thrown in randomly

No worries on the late response...I’m always late looking at the forum anyways. Oops!
Thank you for all the info, and especially on Createx reducers. Very helpful!!! I only bought a 2oz bottle of the 4030 to try it out so I’m glad I didn’t buy the big bottle and have it harden up like you said. And thanks for the warning on metallics... I do use a gold metallic for a few details but maybe I’ll just hand paint those in and save myself the trouble trying to push it through the AB.
I do have a question though. I’ve always sealed my yard signs with the normal polyurethane (triple thick for exterior -any weather usage) and I will put 2-3 coats of this on it. Will this still seal good for airbrushing? Or do I need to use something specific for AB paints? (Is the UV clear you mentioned for AB or for any paints?)

 

[JackEb]

Here is the tech sheet for the UVLS
https://storage.googleapis.com/createx-tech/pdf/tds/UVLS-Clears-TDS.pdf
Yes it can be used outside but not for automotive purposes. It can be applied with a brush rather than go out and buy a .5 brush so early in your journey
You can add more reducer (up to 1:1) with the wicked and it often behaves better if you can let it sit for 10 min after mixing, it’s the same with the UVLS and the reducer. Let it sit for 10 min. I wouldn’t go mush higher than 20-25% reducer though