Whats the best way to touch up a paint job. I had some paint get under my masking. Should I use a brush or should I mask around the problem and use my air brush. I’m afraid I might damage the paint job if I use a brush. Any suggestions
Go ahead and use a brush, and just make sure your paint is thinned. This may mean more than one coat to cover the mishaps, but you should be applying just a small amount of paint at a time, so it will dry quickly. You can also keep a dry brush at the ready, so that once the thin paint is down, you can touch the dry paint brush into it around the edges in order to wick it up into the bristles, leaving just the thinnest amount of paint possible over the blemish.
I actually use a brush and thinned paint entirely, instead of an airbrush, for all of my painting, and the quality of the finish can be rather good with practice. I think airbrushed surfaces just look too flat, too dull & lifeless; brush painting in thin washes results in natural tonal variations which are a sort of built-in weathering; by using an appropriate base color (usually a spray-paint primer), the quality of this variation can be adjusted.
OK, this is not for everyone, but I have had some success (probably because I was more careful than I usually am).
Sometimes it is possible, with a sharp Xacto knife, an Optivisor (even if you have 15-20 eyesight, you’ll need it), and lots of careful patience to slowly scrap away the blob (bit, spot) of paint covering the surface without mucking up the paint underneath (of course, if you have a wide band of overspray across an entire locomotive all bets are off - but if it’s a like a tiny .3mm or less spot of paint, you might be able to pull this off - light passes with the scrapping blade, please.