please dont look at this post and its length and just back out. please read and answer these 6 questions as i think they would be good general ref. material for any begginer (as myself) or someone planning to buy an airbrush. advice is good, but i have 4 airbrushes and each one sprays different paints at different thinning ratios at different psi with different results. thanks.
1. first, what brand airbrush is your favorite?
2. with said airbrush, what is your favorite paint brand and is it enamel or acrylic and why?
3. with said paint brand and type, what is your "sweet" concoction to achieve your desired results?(thinning ratio/ brand of thinner/ retarders / mediums/ superlube/ ect.)
4. with said "sweet" concoction, what is your home psi for general spray/ detailing?
5. what do you model the most?
6. what do you shoot through your brush to change colors/deep clean your airbrush with?
here are my answers:
1. iwata hp-c with the .4mm needle/nozzle combo
2. tamiya acrylics, ease of use, no notious fumes to share with my family, i can achieve the look i like with no additives
3. i start at 60% thinner 40%paint using tamiya thinner and have recently began applying superlube to my needle. the superlube actually works well to prevent tip dry. i was pleasantly surprised. i would reccomend buying it.
4. my home psi is usually 15 to 18 psi for general spraying, 10psi for detailing and such.
5. ill try any aircraft with a cammo scheme. i love painting cammo!! but ironically, my favorite bird of all time is the P-51D which is usually found in its birthday suite.
6. i just spray some windex/water to change colors, then load the next color and spray about 3 seconds away from the subject to "prime" the airbrush with the next color. to deep clean i break it down and wipe down all affected parts with model master acryl solvent, reassemble and spray about a half a bowl of said solvent and leave just a tad in the bottom of the bowl and stick a toothpick in the little airhole in bowl cap.
i have found the above to work well for me with plenty of advice from this forum and other places on the web, but mostly from trial and error (mostly error).
i just came from my LHS and the guy there said he talked the winner of some local model contest and ask him these 5 questions and the one that floored me was his home psi. his home psi for all spraying was 40psi!!! i was curious as to how many modellers used this kind of psi on there projects. ive never ventured over 25 psi when painting a model, but i tried it on some scrap plastic and was pleasantly surprised at the softness i achieved. i also was able to achieve an awesome tight fine line with as little overspray as spraying at 10psi. also, the airbrush trigger was more "responsive" if you will. what do you think? later.