Looking for some help on getting better at airbrushing

You are right, practice is everything.  I have two strategic suggestions and then some comments on what you've said

1) watch some basic tutorials on airbrushing on youtube

2) get some plastic sheet from your local hobby store and practice on that

On what you've said, spattering makes me think it's not thinned enough.  You might try with about a 50/50 mix of paint/thinner.  I use Mr Leveling Thinner to thin Tamiya paints which I think is not unlike their lacquer thinner.  A 50/50 mix to paint and thinner is usually about right.  I run about 15psi with that mix through my airbrush.  Tamiya paint can be thinned way down, and if you thin it too much, you can just turn down the pressure more and it will spray nicely.

Hope this helps,

Phil

Practice is the key.

Look at Don Wheelers site.

And practice.

Here is the deal with your Paasche H and medium needle or small for that matter. The H likes to be flowing over 20 psi, so that is your first adjustment. In fact pretty much nail it down to 23psi with 50/50 Tamiya  ( that's a starting point, in fact I often mix more like 65/45 paint to thinner, works great but 50/50 is easy and works). You will notice a drop in pressure when air is flowing, that is your working pressure and that will work best if it remains 20psi or above. For lines and stripes and camo you might want to switch to the fine/small/1ring nozzle. Or not, that's up to you.

So, thin your Tamiya 50/50 as a starting point, keep your working pressure over 20 psi. If you thin more than that and use the optional side cup you can get away with 18 psi but then you have to ask yourself what for lol. This is not a gravity gun, you need to overcome gravity to get paint to the nozzle. A gravity gun has positive pressure to the nozzle and so you trim back your working pressure according. That's the difference in working pressure, it's not a magic number to be under 20psi because the gravity guys shoot there. The H in particular likes air, in fact some weak compressors when using the large nozzle ( 5 rings) can't keep up with it as that nozzle really can stand 28-30 psi and flows a ton of paint being a 1.0 nozzle. None the less, use it right and it will give you a nice paint job. For car models I often shoot the H @ 25psi, 23 working pressure. I've shot clear coat glosses at 30psi . Lacquers I shoot at 20 psi, if using the H but I'm more likely to use my Badger for lacquer. Lacquer shoots nice at 18psi with a siphon gun, the Badger will do well there.

You can shoot acrylics higher psi fwiw but I think you will find 23psi 50/50 to work well for you. I measure my paint and thinner mixes using pipettes, don't try to eye ball it in a cup, highly inaccurate. I use Kleen Strip lacquer thinner and add retarder for my thinner in Tamiya acrylic paint. Stright 91 isopropyl and some retarder works well too and of course there is X-22. Those all work. The retarder is mostly for tip dry but it also helps a little for leveling. Tamiyas thinners has some retarder in them already fwiw.

Nuff said, digest and practice that much and you will gain.

Additionally:

#1 tip .45

#3 tip .75

#5 tip 1.05

I agree with oldermodelguy completely, with glass feed jars you will require the higher pressure, metal cup less. I shoot Tamiya acrylics thinned at least 50/50, often much more as a thinning ratio. Another consideration is the distance from the AB tip to the model, that will often be variable depending on the thinning ratio, psi and the tip being used.

Use his advice, he's spot on, practice is what will advance your skills. Oldermodel guy posted one of the most useful and informative posts I've seen.

Change one variable at a time.   Mix your paint 50:50 then vary the air pressure for a sweet spot.  Practice on a sheet of paper,   draw lines, circles, shades. 
With your preferred pressure,  tweak the paint mix; 60:40, 55:45.  See how that performs.   Practice your lines

With your preferred mix & pressure try the different needles.  Practice your lines. 

With a siphon feed brush you may need +5psi or more to suck the paint into the brush.   A gravity feed brush can run at a lower pressure.  Practice to see what works for you

patrick206

I agree with oldermodelguy completely, with glass feed jars you will require the higher pressure, metal cup less. I shoot Tamiya acrylics thinned at least 50/50, often much more as a thinning ratio. Another consideration is the distance from the AB tip to the model, that will often be variable depending on the thinning ratio, psi and the tip being used.

Use his advice, he's spot on, practice is what will advance your skills. Oldermodel guy posted one of the most useful and informative posts I've seen.

 

Wow I didn't know this.  I thought I did something to mess up my siphon feed. 

You guys really help out a lot.  Thanks for taking the time to share. 

T e d

Well, for my 2 cents here; I would suggest a gravity feed airbrush. They work very well with intricate camouflage patterns and as with any airbrush... practice, practice, practice.

To practice with an airbrush using acrylics, I use a picture frame with actual glass.  There are templates and practice sheets online for drawing dots, lines waves and other assorted practice strokes. Put these behind the glass in the picture frame and paint away!  When the glass gets covered, take a razor blade and scrap the glass clean and you can start all over again.  No wasting paper after paper on practice.  I would alos say that if your getting splatter, thats your paint too thick.  If you see the paint spidering out, your paint is too thin.  It is a process and you will get it. Just gotta keep practicing!  Good luck

ok, a big thanks to EVERYONE for the suggestions.  Wow, i a m surprised at the pressure needing to be that high.  but im goning to do it and see what happens.  also, i did see somewhere early on to mix acrylics to the consistency of milk - whatever that is - ive been guessing.  But, guessing is most likely whats causing the issues.  Gonna try the 50/50 approach using cups i guess.  what i have generally done is to add the paint, once again i cant say how much, not talking tons, then have added drops of thinner to get the mix to that "milk" consistency....  Then i would mix with stick and see how the paint dripped off.  I think it was the site mentioned above that i seem to remember seeing the milk bit.  anyhow, im gonna try some adjustments and see what happens.   

To me and my $.02, lets get him shooting the Paasche well and then he can decide for himself if he needs something different along the way. I see 0 need to rush into that though, he can get some nice work done with what he has and it's rugged well made kit, easy to clean that will last a lifetime if taken care of. The only add on if he doesn't have it already that I could suggest is the metal side cup. It's worth owning that and we can get into why of it in another post..

Mrchntmarine

ok, a big thanks to EVERYONE for the suggestions.  Wow, i a m surprised at the pressure needing to be that high.  but im goning to do it and see what happens.  also, i did see somewhere early on to mix acrylics to the consistency of milk - whatever that is - ive been guessing.  But, guessing is most likely whats causing the issues.  Gonna try the 50/50 approach using cups i guess.  what i have generally done is to add the paint, once again i cant say how much, not talking tons, then have added drops of thinner to get the mix to that "milk" consistency....  Then i would mix with stick and see how the paint dripped off.  I think it was the site mentioned above that i seem to remember seeing the milk bit.  anyhow, im gonna try some adjustments and see what happens.   

 

Practice, practice and more practice.  It is an art.  No amount of practice is too much.

I know I and many people experiment on, and practice on plastic spoons.  I alway test and practice if I change to a new kind of paint.

Mrchntmarine

guessing if use spoons, I have to prime em 1st? the store was closed and so I tried the spoons, but the paint blew right off.

 

When I do my test spraying I go through the steps I will be using on the model. In my case that includes primer. You also can first put down a dust coat and let that tack up before adding more coats.

Mrchntmarine

tks all again. keep em coming. UPDATE: practiced w/ .45 tip, 50/50 mix acrylic and rubbing alcohol w/ 2-3 drops retarder. I first did some spraying on a sheet of paper moving closer, farther away and adjusting the nozzle. So I definitely need to closer to the work area for the camo I would be doing. Also noticed I tended to pull the tip away as my lines got a little longer. so I need to practice more on staying consistent in closeness. I also noticed a big difference when I tried painting on some primed spoons. The results were much better on the spoons. gonna keep at it. I did go and look at some plastic sheets at the store but decided to try the spoons and paper 1st. Ill do some more of that and then maybe get a sheet.....

 

You could try some plastic party cups, it will give you something with shape and size somewhat closer to a model than spoons, even to do just one side and the other another time.. I also use prescription bottles. But as I mentioned before I do the whole workup, from cleaning the surface with alocohol or mineral spirits to primer, base color coat, shading, camo as the case may be. The result is many less surprises on the model I'll be using those same products on.

Glad to hear you are progressing !! Try a 60/40 blend along the way too ( paint to thinner). Learn that paints ways. I can give you a formula to work with model Master acrylics too.

Hey oldermodelguy----  tks again for your advice and others too.  Printed out a chat paper to keep on the bench.  So ive used the 50/50 mix on my M3 Stuart and it came out good - but i made a boo boo on the decals - which leads me to another question - i used Future to gloss, 2 light coasts it i remember correctly, then decals then gloss again.  Not heavy coats.  I had a little puddling which i tried to remove unsucessfully.  Question - what psi do you use w/ future and pasche H ?  If i remember correctly, i used 20 - I think.  Anyhow, after my last future coat, i noticed a spot on the undeneath that i missed with paint.  Granted, they were above the bogies and not visible unless one were to turn the model updisa down, but i decided to lay a little strip of blue tape on the edge to not get any paint on the gloss and spary the area.  Well, the tape caught my decals and pulled them right off....  Agh!!  oh well.  Pic 1 ex. of shading.  2 - decal boo boo.  3 - drip line of future.  4 - in progress, where i am now.  Tks!

the easiest way is just to swap paint brands to an airbrush ready one such as AK or Vallejo's Model Air ranges.

Tamiya is really a paintbrush brand apart from the arosols.

Mrchntmarine

Hey oldermodelguy----  Question - what psi do you use w/ future and pasche H ? 

 

You want to be over 20 psi working pressure, I shoot for about 23 psi which means with my compressor and lines/hoses I set the gauge around 25 or 26 psi. Then when I push the button for air to spray it drops off to 23. Anything over 20 psi working pressure should work though. If you set your pressure at 20 psi then with paint flowing and depending on your setup the pressure will drop off maybe to 17 psi. The H likes air, they like good volume of air and pressure in the mid 20 psi range, some guys even shoot over 30 psi for heavier paints and the larger needles. But on another note I don't do much with Future/Pledge these days.

Sounds like you might be rushing your steps a little.

Tks Snap&OMG. I've been thinking of checking out vallajo model air....  

I know a lot depends on technique/experience but I have found a gravity-fed brush VERY forgiving when learning freehand camo especially for a first-timer. Small tips, nozzles all around.