Airbrushing Thin Lines

Turn your psi down to 12-14 psi and bring the airbrush about a 1/4” to 1/2 inch away. It may also be hard to get really fine lines with a single action airbrush. You need to experiment with different paint ratios and airbrush settings on a scrap model and get the feel for it. 

Nathan T

Turn your psi down to 12-14 psi and bring the airbrush about a 1/4” to 1/2 inch away. It may also be hard to get really fine lines with a single action airbrush. You need to experiment with different paint ratios and airbrush settings on a scrap model and get the feel for it. 

 

Perfect recommendation, IMO.

Plastic party cups are good to practice spray patterns and designs like camo and such on, I'd even blow a little primer on to them before you start.. You might even have a couple hanging around the house after the Holiday season lol. I use them to tape parts to as well, gives you something to grip for hand holding. Anyway, then practice distances, speed of passes, paint flow setting for free hand work. As you move in closer you will see the pattern narrow. Start right there, if the paint pools turn down your flow or pick up the speed of the pass. If the pattern literally wants to blow out then turn down your pressure. Your mix blend sounds about right so I'm not suggesting a change there till you try the other things. FWIW 5 inches away may be good for the overall hull coat, broad coverage. But camo work will likely be in much closer.

The .38 needle is good out to a fairly wide swath of paint when you move away from the subject getting painted. When you get in to within an inch or so you will see a whole different thing going on but as I said above you may have to change a setting or two. It's unclear to me if you have a single or double action gun. Paint flow differences there too but it's all doable.......

oldermodelguy

The .38 needle is good out to a fairly wide swath of paint when you move away from the subject getting painted. When you get in to within an inch or so you will see a whole different thing going on but as I said above you may have to change a setting or two. It's unclear to me if you have a single or double action gun. Paint flow differences there too but it's all doable.......

Ya plastic cups,not paper and wax lol. People use plastic spoons too, or I also use prescription bottles.

Get the paint mix right ( about the consistency of milk or 2% milk) and the pressure thing will kind of take care of itself, usually 18-23lb with properly thinned tamiya. Give or take 2 psi for gravity vs siphon feed. But siphon plain won't pick up heavy paint anyway. Get it like milk, it will spray fine, .25 or .38. If you find yourself cranking on the pressure dial to get paint flow look at your paint mix ( or cleaning method). But you should be close with what you described earlier.

The Paasche TG is a nice airbrush !

All the above said, I really like a .25 for various things and sometimes even overall.. It has finer atomization than my .5 is why. I just really like how that nozzle sprays ( Badger). But the .5 could do what you're doing too. It's just what you like and are used to. And the .38 is in the middle, so all we can say is try the .25 and see what you think.

The thinner the needle the finer line you will get. Every ab sprays differently so you have to experiment with different mix ratios, pressure and distance. Lots of practice and patience.