Airbrushing .

[Sidecar Racer]

Well I have finally done it , I bought my airbrush & compressor back in Feburary ready to get to work , but it was only

this weekend that I finally managed to getr ound to buying a spray booth .

 

I wqas going to try and do a home made crate type but in the end went for the Expo fold away unit .

 

A very nice bit tof kit it is too .

 

Living in a first floor flat my options are limited when it comes to some of the things I need to do , but with this I can position it in the open widow and let it pump fumes to the garden .

 

 

 

The first loco to be done is my King build , this needs some paint to enable me to do some more work on it .

 

 

I spent some time yesterday messing around and experimenting to get the feel of things , I have in t he past as part of my job

as a mechanic done some car spraying , so I know the basics of how to use a spray gun , eg , start the gun spraying away from the job then bring it to the job .

 

Well I tried some different paint mix's and pressure settings on a piece of card and seemed to be doing okay so I

decided to go for it .

 

I am using acrylics at first and will probably move to enamels later , I decided acrylics would make cleaning up easier .

 

So today I went to work , first problem was I had an on window breeze , more coming in than getting pumped out , but I was'nt stopping now .

 

First I gave it a light coat of primer to seal the metal ,

 

 

This seemed to go on okay , so when it had dried I added a couple of coats of grey as an undercoat .

 

 

Well I thought that it was going quite well , so lets get some green on .

 

The loco body went okay and I'm pleased with the result ,

 

 

 

 

but I'm not sure what happened with the tender , it is green, but it is not an all over even green , it looks like

I have managed to achieve a weathered finish all in one go .

 

 

 

I bet Pugsley could'nt manage that and I've seen how good his work is .

 

I think I will need to waste some more paint on a piece of card , as the tender was done almost straight after the body

I cant work out why the paint did'nt flow as well .

 

Any thoughts and advice will be welcomed , I really would like to improve this area of my skill sets.

[Blackthorn]

Looks good to me Mike. It really is about practice, I've also just started airbrushing, it's a steep learning curve!

 

Could there have been a build up of moisture in the airline? I put a moisture trap on my compressor as there would be droplets in the line after it had run for a bit.

 

I really like that spray booth, I should find out if they're available here!

 

Mark.

[Pugsley]

I bet Pugsley could'nt manage that

Not consistently

 

Acrylics to have a tendency to dry on the tip of the needle and in the nozzle, so that may have been your problem with the tender. I'm not quite sure how you prevent it, it's something I have trouble with from time to time and I've not found a way to prevent it yet. Some are worse than others though - I rearely have trouble with the Tamiya acrylics, but tht doesn't help as they don't do GW green...

 

A gentle rub down with something like 1000 grit wet and dry, followed by another coat will probably sort that out.

 

That's very good for a first attempt - it's certainly better than I managed!

[Sidecar Racer]

Looks good to me Mike. It really is about practice, I've also just started airbrushing, it's a steep learning curve!

 

Could there have been a build up of moisture in the airline? I put a moisture trap on my compressor as there would be droplets in the line after it had run for a bit.

 

I really like that spray booth, I should find out if they're available here!

 

Thanks for the input , I still need lot of practice ,

 

there is a moisture trap on the compressor , and it's still bone dry .

 

I have just checked the Expo web site but sadly there are no Canadian or N.American distributors listed .

 

 

Not consistently

 

Acrylics to have a tendency to dry on the tip of the needle and in the nozzle, so that may have been your problem with the tender. I'm not quite sure how you prevent it, it's something I have trouble with from time to time and I've not found a way to prevent it yet. Some are worse than others though - I rearely have trouble with the Tamiya acrylics, but tht doesn't help as they don't do GW green...

 

A gentle rub down with something like 1000 grit wet and dry, followed by another coat will probably sort that out.

 

That's very good for a first attempt - it's certainly better than I managed!

 

Hi Martin ,

 

I think you may be right with the drying on the tip , I have noticed it when cleaning the gun , as you say it is not going to be

an easy thing to over come , I might have to do a needle clean between the two parts , I am using Railmatch paint , and I have noticed how quickly it dries , I will do some more playing around .

 

I may be wrong but I think having used a full size spraying set and done a few cars you get to know how to swing

the gun and not stay to long in one place . It will be interesting to see how it goes on a more detailed area though .

 

And I will re photo the parts in daylight , then you can really see the difference .

[Blackthorn]

 

I have just checked the Expo web site but sadly there are no Canadian or N.American distributors listed .

 

 

 

Thanks for looking, I appreciate it! I may just have to break down and mail order one.

[Guest Moria]

Thanks for looking, I appreciate it! I may just have to break down and mail order one.

 

 

Hi Blackthorn I just got one of these in Canada from Model Expo online...

 

Spray Booth

 

Delivered in a week and excellent value and ease of use.

 

 

Regards

 

Graham

[Ben Alder]

[quote name='Sidecar Racer' timestamp='1284407916' post='214714

 

Living in a first floor flat my options are limited when it comes to some of the things I need to do , but with this I can position it in the open widow

 

 

Hope she doesn't mind - Seriously though,some good work here; I have started working with an airbrush but haven't graduated beyond wagons as of yet, but have found drying in the brush a problem- I daresay it is a case of trial and error in hitting the right balance of paint consistency and air pressure, and with more practice no doubt I will find the happy balance. I like the spraybooth BTW, this should extend my spraying season beyond standing at the back door, which is OK for a few weeks in the summer but not a practical option for the rest of the year. It certainly seems to be more reasonable a price than one I looked at elsewhere- I'm still weighing up the pros and cons of this.

Richard

[Blackthorn]

Hi Blackthorn I just got one of these in Canada from Model Expo online...

 

Spray Booth

 

Delivered in a week and excellent value and ease of use.

 

 

Regards

 

Graham

 

 

Thanks for that link, Graham. I had a look and it looks like the same spray booth and 110v too.

 

Mark.

[Sidecar Racer]

Thanks for that link, Graham. I had a look and it looks like the same spray booth and 110v too.

 

Mark.

 

 

I had a look too .

 

It is the same as the one I have , a good well made bit of kit .

 

Not sure how $199 translates into £'s .

[Blackthorn]

I had a look too .

 

It is the same as the one I have , a good well made bit of kit .

 

Not sure how $199 translates into £'s .

 

 

$199 is just shy of £126 as of this morning, YIKES! It still might be cheaper than paying shipping, duty, taxes and getting it converted to 110v. I'll try and crunch some numbers today.

 

Mark.

[Sidecar Racer]

Hope she doesn't mind - There is only me to mind , and guess what , I dont .

 

Seriously though,some good work here; I have started working with an airbrush but haven't graduated beyond wagons as of yet, but have found drying in the brush a problem- I daresay it is a case of trial and error in hitting the right balance of paint consistency and air pressure, and with more practice no doubt I will find the happy balance. I like the spraybooth BTW, this should extend my spraying season beyond standing at the back door, which is OK for a few weeks in the summer but not a practical option for the rest of the year. It certainly seems to be more reasonable a price than one I looked at elsewhere- I'm still weighing up the pros and cons of this.

Richard

 

 

Hi Richard ,

 

I had to dive in at the deep end as I have no wagons on the go at the moment . Although I have only used the booth the once I

think it is a great bit if kit .

 

I am going to try and devise an exhaust system to go at the back so that I can use some pipe of some sort to take

the venting out of room altogether , it is not a problem with acrylics but I think enamels could be a different thing .

 

I think there are more pros than cons , when it is closed and folded the sizes are , 42 x 15 x 24 CM's , easy ti store under

the bench or in a cupboard .

 

I have taken a couple of photo's in natural light and the difference is quite noticable , still not perfect , butas I am not

lookling for an ex works look I think it will do .

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's time to do some more .

[artisan100]

Hi Mike,

 

I notice that you've done the same as I used to do, and that was forget to spray the GW green on the footplate valance all the way along to the buffer beam. Of course as you're using acrylic you can brush paint it later, but for consistency of colour it's better to spray there.

 

Looking good.

 

Cheers,

 

Geoff

[Sidecar Racer]

Hi Geoff ,

 

thanks for the comments , I never gave it any thought as the top of the footplate is black all along , I just green'd up as far as the

smokebox , it has had a coat of Humbrol acrylic black now , brush applied , and looks okay .

 

Hopefully another couple of days and it should be ready to make an appearance .

 

Cheers .