Beginner need help

Hi Gumiflex,
Acrylics need to be thinned with either Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol), available at chemists (in the UK), or water (preferably distilled water). Some acrylics may need a mix of water and alcohol. When I paint with acrylics I also add a few drops of retarder (available in art supply stores, I use Windsor & Newton, but any make will do). The reason for this is that acrylics dry fast and tend to dry on the tip of the airbrush and therefor clog it.
Practice with different pressure settings and paint mixes. Humidity, heat and cold can affect things aswell. HTH.
Mal

I also found that 10 psi was a bit low. I've gone as high as 55 psi with no problem. I use the different settings for different applications - The finer the area, the lower the psi to reduce splatter and overspray. Good luck

Holdfast, great tip on the retarder! I'll have to give that a try.

I shoot paint between 20 and 45 psi. Mostly around the lower end. It all depends on the paint, humidity, and such. I find acrylics need more than something like a floquil paint or ink.

You need to be careful and not thin paint too much. I'm not a chemist, but I can tell you that too much thinning screws the paint up. I experienced this with Model Shipways paint. By the way, forget about that stuff for an airbrush. It's way too thick and you'll probably never get it thin enough. I digress. Anyway, practice on some scrap before you put it on your finished subject. You'll use more paint this way and it will add to the cost a little, but you'll be glad you didn't ruin it.

One last tip. Keep a journal. Log in what worked. I find that I use the same paints over and over and this will help your memory.

#304;f you are using thick paint , use 30-40 psi

if you are using thin paint , use 10-15 psi

use Acriylic thinner for best result.

also check air brush nozzle is it suitable for acrylic paints, because my aztek has different nozzles for enamel and acrylic.

Thank you all for you input.


Mladen

Gumiflex,

If you're using a Badger 150 airbrush you need to have the right nozzle, make sure it's cleaned and inspected each time you use it.

THE RIGHT NOZZLE
I think the Badger 150 has three sizes of nozzle, fine, medium (ML), and large. The medium is a good place to start, and is most likely the one that came on the airbrush. If you get the other sizes make sure you get the nozzle/head/needle as a kit.

CLEANING
To clean the airbrush right you'll need rubber gloves, laquer thinner, paper napkins or paper towels, cotton swabs, with paper shafts, pipe cleaners, to clean inside the cup tube, and plastic eye droppers to flush everything out. When you change colors take the color cup out, drain the paint, and swab out the paint with a cotton swab or two. Put a couple eye droppers full of laquer thinner in the color cup, use the pipe cleaners (cut them about 2" long) to clean out the tube on the color cup. Use the cotton swabs to clean the cup out. Repeat this untill the cup is clean. The easiest, and healthiest way to clean out the airbrush is to disconnet the airbrush from the air. Get a container, fill an eyedropper with laquer thinner. Pull the paint lever back, push the eye dropper into the tube that the paint cup goes in until it seals against the sides of the tube and squirt the laquer thinner through the tube. The laquer thinner will come out the paint nozzle in a fine stream. Do this several times until the laquer thinner runs clear. I do this instead of using air pressure because we only have so many brain cells, and spraying anything but water into the air can cause the chemicals to get into your lungs and that goes to you brain. Clean off the body of the airbrush with the paper napkins and you're ready for your next color.

INSPECTION
To clean the airbrush at the end of the session do the same thing I explained to do when you change colors then take everything apart and clean every part thoroughly. The biggest things you need to inspect are the needle to make sure it's not bent. If the needle gets bent you can try and straighten it out or replace it. The packing seal between the nozzle and the main body need to be checked. If there are bubbles coming out between the nozzle and the main body or the airbrush isn't spraying smoothly try tightening the nozzle if that doesn't work replace the packing seal. Its a good idea to keep a couple extra packing seals on hand.

I only addressed the care of the Badger 150. You still need to follow all the other stuff these guys are telling you about paint mixing and pressure. After reading all this a plain old paint brush doesn't seam so bad.

Gumiflex,

try to mix everytime the same ratio. They told me airbrush paint should be as thin as milk, When I ask how thin is milk I go no useful reply. So now I use the methode of trail and error and take great care in measuring the amounts. by doing this you get the feeling for mixing airbrushpaint.
One thing I know that as for as I'm concerned acrylics are a lot easier to use then the non-acrylics. When I clean my gun I use a specialized fluid for cleaning and blow the gun dry. After that I put some acid free grease on the needle.