Sputtering

Bgrigg wrote:

Scott, you've released the Secret of Print Journalism! LOL!!

and many high school students as well!  My sister is a teacher and has caught a few at it... some of them aren't that smart though.. they print out the web page,  and glue on a piece of paper with THEIR name on it, over the authors name... then they Xerox it...

Too bad they forget that when you print from the web the URL is at the bottom of the page...  

Scott, you've released the Secret of Print Journalism! LOL!!

I wish, I could write a 5000 word essay in 60 seconds.

You can!  Select All, Cut, Paste, change Author's name, Print.

Bgrigg wrote:

Ah, makes perfect sense, pictures truly are worth a thousand words.

I wish, I could write a 5000 word essay in 60 seconds.

Ah, makes perfect sense, pictures truly are worth a thousand words.

Its not quite like that,

When I had the Airbrush at a high angle with no air on, if I had the paint tip open wide enough the paint would sinply drip out of the paint tip from gravity, as seen here.



I hope this makes sense im not good at explaining things.

Put a piece of masking tape over the colour cup. That eliminates accidental spills.

I found out why I had drops of paint all over my model, and its the dumbest but easist to fix reason ever.

My AB is a single action EXTERNAL MIX brush so whenever I had it tiped and angled down paint from the colour cup would drip down and out of the paint tip. I easily fixed this by having the AB at a horizontal level and after hitting the trigger I pointed it down.

However I did love the tips about measureing paint, I got a glass syringe that allows me to get just the right amout every time and my paint coats look a lot better.

You can get those plastic disposable pippetes off ebay for really cheap.

I just remembered that the syringes used to measure pet medicine or plant food also work great!

Just go to the drugstore and buy a few glass eyedroppers, they are cheap and work great.

See if you can find a medical supplies place (I'm sure there must be one in Vancouver!) as the model shop ones are just too darned expensive!

One method I've used to transfer paint is a plain drinking straw. Stick one end in the paint, put your finger over the other end and transfer the paint that way. Problem with this method is you get less and less paint as the level in the jar drops...

My air soure is a compresor with a regulator, I usually use around 20 psi to paint with. I also looked at MusicCity's article and it says that external mix airbrushes (like most single action ones) require more air preassure to atomize paint. Im also going to see if I can find some of those pipettes to transfer my thinner so I can get a more controlled amount.

Some people use pipettes. then either measure drop by drop or they get calibrated pipettes. I bought some, but only use them for transferring thinners and squirting Windex into the colour cup when cleaning.

What you should be looking for is the consistency of milk. I measure by eye until I get that consistency. Which doesn't sound very consistent, does it?

Let's back up for a second, though. What do you use for an air source? Do you have a regulator? I find controlling the air pressure is far more important then exact thinning ratios. You can spray some very watery paint quite well if you can control the pressure. See MusicCity's article on air pressure.

I use a dual action AB for my main painting, but have a cheap clone of the Badger 350 single action that I use for laying down my clear coats. It's basically the same kind of AB the Paasche is. Since I've only squirted Future through it, I don't have any real experience of how to paint with one.

I think it is probebly the tinning, Im not very good at thinning paint, I usully put to much in and then i get a watery mess, so I have been under thinning my paint. I could use some ips on how to measure and mix paint properly.

Are you thinning your paints? Acrylics might seem thin enough, but they're not! See MusicCity's article on thinning paints.

Acrylics also dry really fast, so keep a moistened Qtip handy to swab out the tip (pulling back the needle and not using air, of course!).

Check out the rest of MusicCity's website, some very useful advice there!