First attempt at weathering with an airbrush. Paint seemed be too wet. Is that a function of having the airbru***oo close or the thinner ratio? Can’t seem to find good ratio info for weathing.
Paxton,
Telling me what type of paint and thinner would help. You are doing one of these wrong.
- You might be spraying to close to the model. I spray about 8" away.
- You have way TO MUCH paint going through the brush.
- And depending what type of paint you are using you might have it dilluted way to much.
Ideal spraying would be for the paint to almost go on DRY. It should be dry when it touches the model or seconds after.
My first attempts at weathering with an air bru***urned out OK if I do say so myself.
The L&N caboose was weathered with a very thin wash of several colors. I used the larger bottle for my air brush filled it 2/3 with water and added a few drops of gray, brown, black, ink, antique white. Not all at once mine you. I put on a coat, while it died I refiled the bottle and added another drop or two of paint. I worked on 7 cars at a time so the mixture stayed a thin wash. I did not like the way it beaded up, I made sure to wipe off the number boards when they seemed to bead up to heavily. Next time I am adding alcohol to the mix. After they dried it seemed to look OK.
Here is an older sot of the cars.
Here they are after 5 or 6 coats of the wash.
Edit: What gasturbine said about the paint going on dry is right, when you paint that is how you want it to work. The blue caboose (originally ATSF yellow) was painted like that but with the weathering I wanted something different.
I am using Polly S and thinning with windshield washer fluid 2 to 1. Air Pressure about 40.
before applying the paint to your rolling stock…test ‘weather’ a piece of sheet styrene or cardboard to get everything right
are you using 2 parts paint to 1 part water…or vice-versa? Seems to me even the former is way to thin…curious…why windshield washer fluid as a thinner?
1part paint to two parts thinner.
wondering what others’ opinions are but that ratio seems way too thin …it has been a while since I have used my airbrush (about 2 years) but don’t recall ever using that thin of a solution…still wondering about the windshield washer fluid as a thinner
Numerous articles refer to thinning with the washer fluid so that is what I tried.
Don’t use Polly S airbru***hinner with Polly S paints. It’ll turn to vomit.
Use denatured alcohol, available at Walmart/Home Depot.
And lets not forget dry brushing in use for weathering. Its quite a useful skill to master.
Your best bet is to test spray on a piece cardboard or styrene first. Then adjust your mixture and your air flow on your air bru***o get a nearly dry finish when you spray.
Wind washer fluid is mostly alcohol. When I used to make it at an oil change place we used 60% alcohol and 40% water then added some blue dye to it.