Miniature Painting

Citadel and Vallejo for the most part. I'm starting to convert over to more Tamiya for the airbrush.
I have a fair amount of Scale 75 paints now too, but most of my go to paints are Citadel or Vallejo.

Been trying to improve my airbrush control but fine lines just does not work out. Sometimes they are fine and sometimes they just splash and push the paint away.

I'm running at 17-20PSI with the Ammo paints. I guess one should also regulate the pressure with the trigger as well and not just push it all the way down? I find it hard to balance the amount of paint and air pressure. Go from no line at all to too thick line in a hearbeat. Tried watching some videos but got no wiser as of yet.

Hateyou said:

Not sure what you mean by fine lines but have you been doing masking techniques before you spray? Masking tape, masking putty, liquid masking, templates? Seems like it would be ideal for model painting jets which have very stark/sharp lines. I see a lot of people that will cut the shape they want out on a piece of thin cardboard, put it on the model, then spray with whatever pressure they want. Makes perfectly stark lines.

Click to expand...

Yea I've been masking a lot but when people preshade and fill in the panel lines they go freehand. I've just been practicing on a piece of paper to make different lines and try get familiar with the airbrush.

One guide showed making small to big dots, when I do a small dot it just smears all over, I must be giving it too much paint I think. But you should regulate the air with trigger as well? Or just smash it down to the bottom and only regulate paint?

Hateyou said:

The amount of paint you have in the cup should not be effecting your output from the nozzle. That’s all done via thinness of the paint, nozzle size, air pressure, how far back you’re pulling your trigger.

Im not experienced enough to really assist with that specific problem you are having but maybe Khalan has some advice? He does some extremely fine 3-5psi painting with his.

Click to expand...

I think I found some info in youtube comments and I think it's the paint itself thats the problem when trying to do small and thin stuff. The paint is 100% water based I think and it seems its hard to do the small stuff, on the other hand it's a bit "safer" to use. Will try to get some other brand of paints for the panel line stuff, maybe Tamiya or something else. I think Vallejo is the same as Ammo Mig, but maybe someone here knows if thats true.

Aazrael said:

Yea I've been masking a lot but when people preshade and fill in the panel lines they go freehand. I've just been practicing on a piece of paper to make different lines and try get familiar with the airbrush.

One guide showed making small to big dots, when I do a small dot it just smears all over, I must be giving it too much paint I think. But you should regulate the air with trigger as well? Or just smash it down to the bottom and only regulate paint?

Click to expand...

You are spraying too high of PSI. You probably want to lower the psi some to around 14ish I believe. For what you are describing you want to regulate both air and paint. Remember pushing the button down releases paint and pulling it back gives you more air, so in the small to big dot you describe they are starting with little paint/air and then pushing the button and pulling the trigger back at the same time to get the bigger dot

Gankak said:

You are spraying too high of PSI. You probably want to lower the psi some to around 14ish I believe. For what you are describing you want to regulate both air and paint. Remember pushing the button down releases paint and pulling it back gives you more air, so in the small to big dot you describe they are starting with little paint/air and then pushing the button and pulling the trigger back at the same time to get the bigger dot

Click to expand...

Thanks will try turning down the psi even lower. I did try around 17 and it still wasnt great. I think the paint can be a culprit also.

I got the hang of painting surfaces though. My only enemy now is dust/cat hair finding the newly painted areas. The trick is many really thin layers with the Ammo paint.

Started up the F-14a this weekend. Painted underside and upper wings white. The back fins black and yellow. Following the "Jolly Roger" paint scheme. Waiting for the correct gray to arrive before I do the main body, only primer on it right now.

Hateyou said:

17 seems really high, I paint around 9-10 and even go lower sometimes.

Click to expand...

17 is the recommended for these paints, they are ready to go out of the bottle. But I guess thats only for coating large areas.

Hateyou said:

Ahh, maybe lowering the PSI and thinning the base paint would be worth trying. If it's so thick that it needs that high of PSI maybe it's building up then blasting out once your needle gets pulled back to a certain point. The thinner it is, the less you'd have to pull back.

I know for me that correct thinness and consistency is the biggest challenge of airbrushing.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. Thinned it down a bit and dropped to 10ish psi. Worked much better now! It happened just as you said, building up and blasting out. But thinned down it was much easier but will still take practice. And to find a good mix of thinner and paint.

Hateyou said:

Ahh, maybe lowering the PSI and thinning the base paint would be worth trying. If it's so thick that it needs that high of PSI maybe it's building up then blasting out once your needle gets pulled back to a certain point. The thinner it is, the less you'd have to pull back.

I know for me that correct thinness and consistency is the biggest challenge of airbrushing.

Click to expand...

Aazrael said:

Thanks for the tip. Thinned it down a bit and dropped to 10ish psi. Worked much better now! It happened just as you said, building up and blasting out. But thinned down it was much easier but will still take practice. And to find a good mix of thinner and paint.

Click to expand...

Yeah so few basics/points.

1) Ready to use airbrush paints should still be thinned based on the application. (See below)
2) Paint thick/thinness is directly related to PSI.
3) Lower PSI allows smaller/finer detail and to bring the brush super close but also needs super thin paint
4) High PSI you can use thicker paint.
5) Diff paint brands might need diff thicknesses even at the same PSI so getting to know how your paints flow is important as some are pigment heavy and some have more medium

I use my airbrush between 5-30psi, there is no single PSI that is always correct, for heavy basecoating I might go 25, for medium level I might go 15, for brunt of blending I will range between 8-15 depending on the specific paint. For very close detail I go down to 5.

the key to airbrushing is understanding the relationship between Paint Thickness, PSI and Distance from the model. All 3 of these you need to adjust based on the application.

I use Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver to thin my paints, find it works best but there are other products out there. YMMV. Here is something I just finished:

They look incredible, how many hours have you put in to get to that standard?

I both love and hate reading this thread. Beautiful work on the models, but boy does it make me feel retarded looking at my stuff.

Almost done with my F14 project. Just the missiles to paint and fit and Matt varnish on the underside.

I finally found a varnish that works for me, Vallejo Acrylic in Aerosol cans. They have the same thing for airbrush and will probably get that instead on the next build. More control with the airbrush compared to rhe aerosol cans.

Anyone tried the Vallejo Acrylic Varnish? Do they need to be thinned at all or just pour and spray?

Maul said:

They look incredible, how many hours have you put in to get to that standard?

Click to expand...

these actually didn't take too long, as my technique for painting my Death Guard is pretty fast/messy. I would say maybe 30 hours for the 3?