Beginner Paint Question

Well, first of all, use a bigger pipette, or stop pulling so much paint out at one time...  They come in all sizes and you can order them on-line in a thousand different places on any given day... A box of 100 runs, on average, about 12.00... Or do what I do... Make a friend that works in the lab at the local hospital, and rip her off when you go see her for lunch every now and then..

I also mix the paint in the airbrush bottles, so I can just pour straight from the bottle. Make sure you strain the paint though. I make field expedient strainers from my wife's old nylons...  Just cut a square of it and lay it loosely on top of the ottle and secure it with a rubberband.. Also, buy some more paint bottles for the AB.   I buy a couple every few weeks at Hobby Lobby, so I can just keep the paint mixes in the bottle after I finish a job...  

 

 I have a plastic eyedropper thingie that has graduations on it. I really like it because the rubber bulb comes off, allowing me to clean it easily. Since I almost exclusively use acrylics, cleanup involves spraying some windex down the tube and in the bulp, then rinsing with hot tap water. Easy peasy.

 I have no idea where I got the graduated eyedropper but these ones on Badger's site(at the bottom of the page) have no graduations on them, but are almost exactly the same size and allow you to take them apart and clean them the same way (I just got a dozen of them with some other stuff I ordered).

http://www.badgerairbrush.com/garagesale.htm 

 

I squirt in the thinner medium, then use the stir stick I stir the paint up with to add drops of paint to the airbrush paint cup. Once I have the right amount I use the stick to stir the two together in the paint cup...throw the stick away...no pipettes or droppers to clean and no wasted paint.

 

I think I will do a video of this method and post it on my blog. 

HawkeyeHobbies wrote:

I think I will do a video of this method and post it on my blog.

That would be great!  I love to see vids of other people's techniques.

HawkeyeHobbies wrote:

I think I will do a video of this method and post it on my blog.

 

Please do :)

I took two 5cc plastic syringes, then clipped off a 2" end section (not the bulb end) of two of the Testor's plastic pipettes that come with the mixing kit.  I used heat shrink tubing to mate the two together and shrunk the pipette around the base of the syringe using my 40W soldering iron.  I only use acrylics though, so even if I get the paint around the rubber, cleaning it only involves some Windex.  I do wonder about the accuracy though, since trying to measure the mL markings on the side could be affected by the diameter of the pipette being different.  But it looks cool and works well.

Unless I'm painting somthing big, such as a base coat, in which case I'll carefully pour paint from the bottle into my color cup, I do the same thing as Gerald and use my mixing stick to transfer the paint a drop or two at a time.  It sounds tedious, but in reality you can easily transfer ten or twenty drops quite quickly, and ten or twenty drops of paint can actually go quite a long way.  I too will add a couple of drops of thinner into my color cup before adding the paint because I find it mixes easier that way.  To thin, I just use a Testor's plastic pipette. 

 

I use a toothpick.  I just put it against the lip of the paint bottle and when the paint gets to the lip where the toothpick is touching, the paint just runs straight down the toothpick into whatever cup I'm using on the airbrush.  I also use this method for adding thinner to the paint as it lets me add it drop by drop.

HawkeyeHobbies wrote:

I squirt in the thinner medium, then use the stir stick I stir the paint up with to add drops of paint to the airbrush paint cup. Once I have the right amount I use the stick to stir the two together in the paint cup...throw the stick away...no pipettes or droppers to clean and no wasted paint.   I think I will do a video of this method and post it on my blog.

Great idea

Good question.

I've adapted the method I used to mix paints when I used a bristle brush. I just dip a clean, handle end of a paint brush into the paint and hoist it over the airbrush cup and let the paint drip off the handle. I add water the same way. I simply wipe off excess paint with a tissue.

The "Flow Enhancer" I also use already comes in a miniature squeeze bottle so I add a drop or two from it.

For a large amount of paint, I pour paint into a container. I bought some extras that actually fit the threads to my airbrush bottle.

The paint (acrylic) that I've been switching to comes is squeeze bottles and it makes airbrush prep easier!