Beginner Air Brusher

MaxPower wrote:

My advice would be to not over think. It's not a serious thing so just play and have fun. You'll get better over time. :)

Very good advice. I started out with a double action airbrush and taking it too seriously. I stopped after about 6mos. I picked it up again later on and just doodled around and whenever I made a mistake I paid attention to the effect just in case it was something I might want to use later.

I would also suggest going to a local hobby store like Hobby Lobby and getting a big newspaper pad. It's about 50 sheets for $6 and you can practice lines, dots, etc. You can just use your regular newspaper but when you want to try effects like shading it might not be very clear.

I still do it as a warm up from time to time before I start airbrushing. Just enjoy it. It's not supposed to be like golf where you go play to relax and come back even more stressed!!

mrazz wrote:

Hi, I received an Aztec single action air brush for a gift and I've never used one before. Is this a good starting air brush? I will be attaching it to a small compressor with a 5 gallon tank, a will be buying a "Milton" brand pressure regulator w/ moisture trap. Any word of advice about this set up? I'm assuming I will be upgrading this air brush in no time, but want to get my feet wet first. Also, what is the proper tecnique for mixing paints? How do you get accurate ratios, with an eye dropper? If eyedroppers are the way to go, do you waste alot of paint in the measuring process?  I will be using acrylics, Pollyscale, Testors Model Master and Tamiya brands. Any information will help. Thanks

Aztec's are one of those things, you either love yours or you hate yours. I remember spending 150$ or more with accessories on a double action Aztec and although it when it "DID" paint it sprayed well, but I found that half the time I was cleaning all those little nozzles. It was frustrating to no end. Aztec has their own little proprietary style and if you do a lot of cleaning and due dilligence you'll probably love all those nifty little heads it comes with. As for myself I felt like I was spending more time cleaning all those teenie parts with brushes and thinner then I was actually painting.

 Just keep in mind, that if your one of those persons that doesnt like the aztec don't take it as a personal reflection of your skill. There are other airbrushes out there that you should try long, long before you get discouraged with airbrushing. I have a 30 year old paasche (double action) of my mom's and i'm loving it, they are brand new on ebay about 40-60$ (complete kit). However you might find that you love the aztec and stay with it for a while.

Don't let the single vs double action thing through you. I just watched a youtube video of a guy airbrushing a motorcycle tank with a single action and he was doing incredible detail. So there are a lot of people who do fine detail work with single action airbrushes. They use other techniques to get the job done and each spray is more uniform.

I am a lazy guy, I just take the model masters/testors pour some into the spray cup and then I take my eye dropper and keep dropping in airbrush (enamel) thinner till I get what looks like 70/30 (70%paint 30% thinner) or even 60/40 by sight. . Then I take a toothpick and stir the cup really well. I know this is not precise at all lol but you actually get a pretty good guage by lifting the toothpick up and seeing how fast a drop of paint falls of the toothpick. You can see the consistency and when it looks like light milk you should be fine.

Keep the aztec clean and you'll probably love it.

"I would try to get a regulator that maxed out at say 60 psi and had one psi increments. That would be a bit more accurate and easier to use for small adjustments."

Absolutely!  I got mine from a homebrew store, it's made for beer tap systems.  Works great.

"I received an Aztec single action air brush for a gift and I've never used one before. Is this a good starting air brush? I will be attaching it to a small compressor with a 5 gallon tank, a will be buying a "Milton" brand pressure regulator w/ moisture trap. Any word of advice about this set up? I'm assuming I will be upgrading this air brush in no time, but want to get my feet wet first."

I have never used an Aztec AB, but I do own a single-action siphon-feed along with a couple of dual-actions. I find I use the single-action quite often actually. I use it for priming, spraying large areas with solid one color (such as car models), and gloss coating. Once I finally got it adjusted to my liking, that was it, never changed it since. As far as air compressors go, as long as it can supply "more" air pressure than you need it will be fine. I say "more" because you don't want the a/c to constantly be working at it's maximum capacity. For spraying models 30 psi should be more than enough. Spaying T-shirts require 60 psi. Regarding the Milton regulator - The ones I have seen or read about are of a high pressure nature, example - 0 - 150 or 0 - 250 psi. That would make it a little difficult for small pressure adjustments, say going from 20 - 25 psi. Personally I would try to get a regulator that maxed out at say 60 psi and had one psi increments. That would be a bit more accurate and easier to use for small adjustments.

"Also, what is the proper tecnique for mixing paints? How do you get accurate ratios, with an eye dropper? If eyedroppers are the way to go, do you waste alot of paint in the measuring process?  I will be using acrylics, Pollyscale, Testors Model Master and Tamiya brands."

I have mixed paint for 1:1 car painting for years. There's really no need to be a drop accurate. What I do is start with a small empty paint bottle (a old Model Master enamel jar, I have a few LOL) and fill it about 1/2 full of paint. I then pour in the thinner until it's 3/4 full. Stir with a wooden toothpick and watch the drips, adjust by adding drops of paint or thinner as needed (glass eye-dropper). One thing to keep in mind, milk consistancy is pretty thin (almost watery). Once you play around with the paint consistancy, air pressure, and spraying distance from the object, you will get the hang of being close for the paint thinning. Practice on some old plastic milk jugs first.

There is a ratio to mixing paint to thinners. I go with a 3:1 ratio... 3 parts paint to 1 part thinner which gives me the milky mixture. I also use pippets to for measuring the paint as well as eye droppers. Kiddie medicine dose dispensers also work great. As for airbrushes I prefer the Paasche H single action AB.

The Aztec SA will be great to wet your feet.  You'll probably want to move up to a double action later after you get used to using an airbrush.  Your compressor set up should work fine.

For mixing paint, I'm no pro but the general rule of thumb is to thin paint to a consistency like milk....there's no set ratio and no need for pinpoint accuracy here.  The mixing ratios will change a little with each brand, and even with each jar of the same brand.  I just pour a little from the jar into a plastic mixing cup, add thinners, and stir with a toothpick until it looks right.  I have and sometimes still do use a dropper to transfer the paint to the airbrush, sometimes I just pour it into the color cup.  When I used an Aztec I would stick a toothpick in the outlet of the color cup and mix paint right in the cup, then pull the toothpick and attach the cup to the airbrush.