Request For Input

Music City,
Amen brother.
I say you have written the BIBLE of airbrushing. If it is made mandatory reading for everybody who has an airbrush question, then 99 1/2 % of the questions will no longer have to be asked.

Scott,

You've pretty well covered the bases although I think I would have put more emphasis on PRACTICE! Another thing I've noticed that no one really talks about is the fact that airbrushing like a lot of other skills (welding, flying etc) is a losable skill. If you have a layoff of more than a month or two from a skill, you will remember how to do the basics but lose a lot of the specifics of that skill. In other words, if you jump right in and start painting the high priced model you've built after a month or more of not airbrushing, the results very likely won't be near as good (or totally screwed up) as the last model you painted before the layoff. (and the longer the layoff the more you lose). The answer? Practice on a hulk until your skills are back to where they were before. Then paint your model.
Oh, and I laughed at your reference to a plastic hammer. I've got a half dozen plastic hammers (plus rubber and rawhide hammers) of various sizes, weights and shapes in my tool box. If you're doing sheetmetal work, the softer hammers give you more control and reduce the chances of damaging or destroying what you are working on as opposed to a steel hammer. But I can understand why you used that example.

QUOTE: If it is made mandatory reading for everybody who has an airbrush question, then 99 1/2 % of the questions will no longer have to be asked.

Thanks, Traskos. Hopefully when everyone has a chance to add some to it, it will get to a point that instead of answering the same old questions time and time again we can just link to it.

QUOTE: Another thing I've noticed that no one really talks about is the fact that airbrushing like a lot of other skills (welding, flying etc) is a losable skill.

You are absolutely right, Quincy. I haven't painted much at all since October (it's been way too cold in the basement!) and I noticed that exact thing. I'll add a section about that.

QUOTE: Oh, and I laughed at your reference to a plastic hammer. I've got a half dozen plastic hammers

Truth be told, so do I Maybe I'll change that to "Plastic Screwdriver". No, I've got some of those to for tuning electronic circuits. Ah, a plastic saw!

Excellent.

I'd point out how on the multi-head airbrushes the medium head assemblies are the main heads for what we do.

The Paasche ones mentioned with the wider bodies are the VL and H (and maybe all those other Paasche single actions). The V's (V, VJR and VSR) are quite small and slim.

I think the airbrush page could use some explanations regarding the smaller cup gravity airbrushes.

I remember when I first started looking at the long lists of airbrushes in manufacturer's catalogs. I don't remember how long it was before I realized that what I was looking at were actually the same airbrushes only repeated in four different configurations.

Scott, excellent work. Clearly and consisely written, not filled with jargon. I'd say you have excellent articles on your page there. Your waterhose analogies were perfect. They should sticky those articles here just like the Complete Future is stickied. Very nice sir!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input and the comments. I'll make a few more edits.

Awesome job Scott!!!... just a thought, but maybe later a "enamel vs. acrylic page would be helpful too! We could just give tham a link to that when they ask as well... then they can come back armed with knowledge to ask the specifics!

Really good job on this!

Thanks Tom, I appreciate that.

QUOTE: just a thought, but maybe later a "enamel vs. acrylic page would be helpful too!

It's already written, but I didn't write the information in it so I'm waiting for permission from the guys who did.

cool! again good job and a resource long overdue! One of those "why didn't I think of that" type things haha...

Just read the "Which Airbrush is best?" article - EXCELLENT! Will be reading the other two shortly. Was pleased to see you own a Badger 200 as myself. Because this article is for people new to airbrushing who might not know one end from another perhaps you could include links at the end to the websites of the manufacturers you have mentioned. This will allow people to see the airbrushes and begin to visually appreciate the differences. I guess copyright precludes you from including these pictures directly in the article. As an aside do you or did you ever use the 200 as a double action operating the rear needle whilst spraying? Thanks for giving back to the hobby.

Just read the other two articles again excellent! I am very much a beginner to the airbrushing game (despite owning my brush for 15 years) and will apply the information immediately. You seem to have a very good "mind set" that we could all benefit from adopting - there is no hard and fast just what works at that instant for the desired effect. Love the background. My only suggestion would be again to include some illustrative pictures and then take the opportunity to display your handiwork! Thanks again for giving back - you didn't put these together overnight and I am sure they will be appreciated world wide.

QUOTE: Because this article is for people new to airbrushing who might not know one end from another perhaps you could include links at the end to the websites of the manufacturers you have mentioned. This will allow people to see the airbrushes and begin to visually appreciate the differences. I guess copyright precludes you from including these pictures directly in the article.

Thanks, Simon. I do have links to the manufacturers but perhaps a group of links at the bottom is a good idea. I would be reluctant to use someone elses photos for illustration, but there's no law against taking pix of my own airbrushes.

QUOTE: As an aside do you or did you ever use the 200 as a double action operating the rear needle whilst spraying?

No, I never tried that. I always just get the spray the way I want it and then spray. I still use that airbrush for general coverage, but any time I want more control I go to one of my Omni's.

QUOTE: Love the background.

It's an engineering drawing of an F4U Corsair. Not exactly sure which variant though. I have a printout of it stuck up in my office. Since I work for an engineering company it fits right in.

Hey Scott,I don't use my airbrush very often for several reasons....( or excuses) but one thing I found out is that even though I do have a moisture trap on my compressor I was still getting water coming out of my airbrush.I am not sure if I'm the only poor chump that this has happened too, but I was talking to someone about my problem and they enlightened me to the fact that I need to find a way to move the trap closer to the airbrush.The way it was explained to me was that even though my moisture trap was on the compressor,the moister was by-passing it because it was not forming until it got further down the airline.He explained to me that the air is warm immediatly after exiting the compressor and doesn't cool enough to form moisture till it travels closer to the airbrush.And of course by that time, a disaster is inevitable.I never gave much thought to this while it was happening and I was like everyone else..."It's not my fault...it's gotta be this P O S airbrush!!!!" So...to make a long story short I was not aware of how to fix this problem till someone pointed it out to me.Does anyone else have this problem? I appreciate your willingness to provide such good info.Thanks for taking the time to do so.I definately learned some things.BTW how far is it from Nashville to Memphis? Do you guys have any good contests (read: vendors) and hobby shops out that way? I just found out last week that I am going to be moving to Memphis,and I am looking forward to meeting new people, that are into this stuff like I am.Anyway,take care.

QUOTE: The way it was explained to me was that even though my moisture trap was on the compressor,the moister was by-passing it because it was not forming until it got further down the airline.He explained to me that the air is warm immediatly after exiting the compressor and doesn't cool enough to form moisture till it travels closer to the airbrush.

Well, he has a point, but it may not always be true. Probably just depends on the compressor and other conditions. I say that because I have a trap on my compressor, a 50' hose going from it to my bench, and another trap at the bench. I get a lot of moisture in the trap at the compressor but never get any at all in the one at my bench.

It could be that compressors with tanks tend to allow the air to cool more than compressors without tanks. Since tank-type compressors only run the motor once the pressure in the tank drops below a certain point, the air in the tank would have time to cool off before it gets used.

QUOTE: BTW how far is it from Nashville to Memphis? Do you guys have any good contests (read: vendors) and hobby shops out that way? I just found out last week that I am going to be moving to Memphis,and I am looking forward to meeting new people, that are into this stuff like I am.

It's about 180 miles from Memphis to Nashville, but it's interstate all the way. Hop on I-40 and it's a straight shot. From a modeling standpoint I think there's a lot more going on in the Memphis area than there is here. I've run across links before (have no idea where now though) about shows and stuff in Memphis, so you should have quite a few guys in that area who share an interest.

Sorry Music City I didn't realise the underlined titles were links I just used the scroll key alongside the window and whizzed right by. Hope it didn't cause you any trouble.

Nope, didn't cause me a problem at all I did add a block of links near the bottom, and I also sent an email to Badger to see if I can use some of their images.

Excellent articles music city. I read them all and will definelty be trying the retarder that I have for my acrylic paints next time I airbrush. I have had problems with paints drying to fast and also thinning them but i think your article has cleared up some of that for me. Of course i dont practice near enough but at least now i can say you told me so:-)

Thanks, glad you enjoyed them. Retarder helps a lot. It isn't the absolute solution to fast-drying acrylics, but it sure helps a lot.

FWIW I just added another page. I posted (with his permission) Robert Foster's excellent post regarding different kinds of paint. The link to it is:
http://www.craigcentral.com/models/paint.asp

Gip "Styrene" Winecoff is also putting some information together regarding airbrushing safety, and that one will be up soon.

Thanks Robert and Gip!

Scott - this is really taking off... I already had the chance to link to this topic this evening and it will definitely be a help in the future! Good work on this...

I also went to your website again, have you changed the format? Maybe the other times I was taking specific links to areas on your site and didn't go to the main page... good looking site!

I am contemplating building a site mainly for my builds as they go along... would love to have a link to your site, with your permission of course!

Thanks!

Tom

In the list of airbrush manufacturers & retailers, I'd like to recommend Reginald Syke's site, www.youcanshopsecure.com . That's where I got my Omni 5000 from.

QUOTE: I already had the chance to link to this topic this evening and it will definitely be a help in the future! Good work on this...

Great, glad to hear it's useful.

QUOTE: I also went to your website again, have you changed the format? Maybe the other times I was taking specific links to areas on your site and didn't go to the main page... good looking site!

It changes from time to time, but not recently. I would like to give everything a face lift, but it's a lot of work and I don't really have the time. Some of the pages are old and haven't changed in years. I know there are some dead links, just don't have time to validate them and fix the problems..

QUOTE: I am contemplating building a site mainly for my builds as they go along... would love to have a link to your site, with your permission of course!

Sure, help yourself. Web sites are fun to play with, but I wou;dn't want to do them for a living. They are a good place for putting stuff like pix of your models though

Edit ... jdavidb I forgot to mention that I did add a link to www.youcanshopsecure.com