Ok, i am having some big trouble here. For staters, i have a plane jane pasche H. I normally weather with about 15-20 psi. I use model master acrylics flat black and sand colors. I use the supplied jar and fill the paint up about 1/8 of the way, and then i fill up the rest to about 3/4 full with 71% iso. achol. When i press down the trigger, for the first 10 seconds, nothing happens. Then, the mixture comes out, but it comes out in little circles when it hits the model and is very inconsictent at best. Please, what am i doing wrong!!
I am no pro but lets keep this near the top for some better answers.
Do you have a moisture trap inline with your airbrush?
Keep the pressure at 20psi.
In my experience I have used disstilled water, windshield washer fluid, and thinner and I find the thinner gives better results. I am a rooky and I use what works best for me. I am sure some more experienced here will come along and enlighten the both of us.
Have you tried Timyaha acrylics? I like them as there is a good veriety and a shop nearby has them well stocked.
Another thing I’ve learned—make sure the line doesn’t get kinked up—the air doesn’t go through very well.
Tamiya Acrylics seem to work with me[^]
Have you tried to use a different thinner. Alcohol may work with some paints but only by small amounts.
I would try distilled water or washer fluid as you are thinning to a great extent.
Either the paint isn’t viscious enough for the brush to have proper pickup, the gun isn’t cleaned or the particular paint thinned improperly is reacting once hitting the model surface. This could be any of these or some combination.
Most of my weathering is done with thinned solvent base. I really like the control of the light coats and the flat finish. Of coarse a final flat is used to set the caulk and drybrushed and air brushed work. I don’t rely on just one step in a weathering process.
Sounds like your airbrush might be clogged, too. Run a few bottles of your thinner through it to clean the tip. I would also up the air pressure to 20-30 psi to get a finer spray.
Lee
[:-^]
Hi SD,
I have read your post several times and the thing I see missing is that you never mention anything about mixing the paint and alcohol ,
is this the step that you are missing ???
Johnboy out…
I’m not sure what you mean by “comes out in little circles when it hits the model” Is the model clean? It kinda sounds like water is involved and too much at that. Is the spray little circles or is it circles after hitting the model? Try spraying a piece of wood and see what happens.
I’m not familiar with Model Masters acrylics (their solvent-based paints thin well with lacquer thinner), but I had a similar problem when using alcohol to thin PollyScale acrylics - the paint was drying too quickly, sometimes even before it had left the tip of the airbrush. I went back to using Floquil paints, which I find very easy to spray, regardless of the percentage of thinner - depending on the effect desired, any percentage of thinner from about 25% up to 95% works well.
I did decide to give PollyScale another try though, but this time I checked their recommendations for airbrushing. Surprisingly, they’re printed right on the label. [:O] " Thin 10-15% with distilled water". Shockingly, this seemed to work well, giving a nice finish and no clogging. Despite what I’ve read on some forums, I found 15-20psi worked well. As a prelude to weathering with these paints, I thinned some 50/50 with distilled water and test-sprayed some cardboard - still no clogging and a good finish for the reasonably thin coverage. Finally, I repeated the latter test using a 90/10 ratio of water to paint, again with good results.
I’d suggest that you either try using distilled water as a thinner, (available in most supermarkets) or purchase a bottle of Testors “Universal Acrylic Thinner” to see if you can get better results. At almost seven bucks for four ounces of thinner, though, I’d try the distilled water first - couple of bucks for a gallon, and if it doesn’t work, use it to make yourself a pot of coffee. [swg]
Wayne
Thanks guys. I do have some distilled water, so i might try that. The only reason i got the model master paint is that that was the closest paint from my house(hobby lobby). I do have some tamia thinner, so i might buy some paint to. The only thing that baffles me is that this only happens when i try to weather, but if i try to paint something regularly, every thing is fine. Hmm. I might look at the tip of the airbrush.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, or maybe ballasting some track.” [(-D] just noticed.[(-D]
Try a little detergent in the paint to wet the surface. Very little detergent. I think your thinned paint is beading up due to suface tension and leaving little cirles as it dries. I had the same problem and this seemed to cure it. BILL
Model Master paints are just as good as any of the other brands.
I suspect the problem is too much alcohol. Alcohol will speed up drying and can clog up your airbrush if too much is used. A good ratio is 80-90% water to 10-20% alcohol, just enough to act as a wetting agent (to prevent beading up of the paint on the model). For weathering you can mix this thinner with paint to any strength you desire. I’ve been using this formula in my custom painting business for 15 years and I get good results everytime. I use one of those acrylic thinner bottles to keep “my” thinner handy.
BTW, make sure you are in fact using MM Acrylic paint not their enamel paints, the bottles look very similar! Don’t ask how I know.
I would not recommend using detergent as someone else suggested, as a wetting agent for paint as it has too many other additives that can affect the paint adhesion in the long run - it’s fine for ballasting and scenery.