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Tips for airbrushing acrylic inks ?

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  • Member since
    November 2005
Tips for airbrushing acrylic inks ?
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, October 16, 2003 5:54 AM
Hi,

I would like to use acrylic inks to weather airplanes. I am not talking about using them as a wash in panel lines, but I would like to airbrush them in very fine coats to model smoke stains etc.

I bought a few bottles of Dr Martin Spectralite ink, which
apparently gets good grades from airbrush artists.
After some experimentations, I found that they should not
be thinned with alcohol, only with water. If thinned with alcohol,
they give a very chalky finish (probably they dry too fast on the model). Thinned with water the finish is better, but I am still not so happy.

Does anybody has some experience with this technique?

many thanks in advance for any help,

Christian.
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: The flat lands of the Southeast
Posted by styrene on Thursday, October 16, 2003 10:50 AM
Please forgive my ignorance, but:
1. It seems as if inks (by definition) have to be fairly thin already. Have you tried airbrushing without thinning to see if it will go through the brush?
2. Throwing #1 out, and using the water-as-thinner technique, experience has shown that water as a thinner by itself can cause beading of the paint, instead of a nice even coating. The solution (at least for acrylic paints) is to add a tiny drop of dishwashing liquid to break up the surface tension properties of water.
Gip Winecoff

1882: "God is dead"--F. Nietzsche

1900: "Nietzsche is dead"--God

  • Member since
    November 2005
Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, November 6, 2003 6:33 AM
thanks for your answer (sorry for the delay, I do'nt visit the forum so often. Yes inks are very thin and can be airbrushed straight from the bottle. The point is that while thin,
they are also very opaque and cover a lot. It seems that one needs to thin them a lot to
get translucent coats.

best,

Christian.
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