I got my very first kit today. A interlocking tower, sooooooo nice [:D]
I really want to paint everything on my layout with airbrush so it’s time to learn about that part of the hobby. What airbrush do you guys recommend to paint plastic kits? I want to use water based paint like Floquil Polly Scale. I also want the kits to be flat, no shiny plastics on my layout please…
Thanks in advance.
For your first airbrush, any of the good brands should be sufficient. To learn it, I believe Kalmbach publishes a book on techniques, well worth the money.
For the actual painting, if you’re planning on doing any decal work to the buildings or rolling stock, you need to first paint it with a gloss (very smooth) coat, apply the decals, setting solution, then coat with a clear flat coating to kill the gloss. If you try to apply decals to a rough (flat) finish, they will easily get cloudy around the decal film.
I don’t know about your country, but over here the local colleges often have night classes for very low fees. One of the best ways to get experience is one of these art classes for airbrushing . 3 guys in the old train club did this and they all turned out to be pretty good painters. This is easier than getting a lot of experience on your own.
Is Testor a good brand? What airbrush would you recommend me to buy? And what is the best, single or double action? I don’t even know what that means so please explain.
The Paasche H single action brush is a great brush for novices and veterans alike. They are easy to “learn” with and easy to clean and maintain. The design hasn’t changed over the years for good reason. It also has nice weight to it. I would not recommend a dual action for anyone without a lot of experience or unless you plan on doing some serious weathering. Basically the difference is that with a single action you adjust the paint/air mixture before you paint. You set the desired flow and start painting. With a dual action you can adjust the paint/air mixture while you are painting using a “slide button” on the airbrush. Great for weathering, but not painting a large surface area or doing a lot of consistent painting, in my opinion. I hope this helps.[:)]
Is it this one?
I’m a Paasche VL user of 10 years and love it, but any of the good brands will work fine. You can make some plastic kits look not plastic with some paint and weathering. Someday, I will post pictures of my Walthers Lumber Mill which is still not finished. I seem to have this mental block about breaking out the digital camera!.
The weathering on the mill thus far is just several coats of thinned “grime.” Even that is enough to make it look not plastic and pretty decent.
first off…stay away from the testors airbrush…it’s a piece of junk…I’ve found that a Badger single action airbrush works well for everything i do…one thing that is a must is a moisture trap…i have three inline moisture traps…one on a regulator and two paper cartridge types in line before the brush…I use a two gallon compressor that can be purchased at walmart and it does a good job at about 20 -25 PSI…chuck
You got it! Great brush and it will last you for decades as long as you maintain it well.
I’m looking forward to some pictures. I also have mental blocks sometimes, my wife says that I have it all the time, hehe
When you say good brands, what brands do you mean? I know nothing about this.
Why is testor not a good brand? What about single or double action, what is the difference?
I use a Badger 200, single action. Simple to operate. Does a nice job. For paint I use Polly Scale or Model Master.
Nick Brodar
the testor brand is cheaply made…the parts wear out after the first few sessions and it can only accept those cans of compressed air which usually run out before the paint job is complete…the difference with a single and double action is the button depression…a single action requires that you press the button down and the paint comes out…a double action has two depression positions for light and heavy paint …i like the single action because being a klutz the double action takes a lot of coordination to get the button just right…I like the floquil paints the best diluted 1:4 with thinner…I have some pictures of my work with the badger airbrush here at: http://community.webshots.com/user/bayouman1
Very interesting pictures. I did not know that testor can only accept the cans with compressed air. That sounds expensive.
BTW: I saw your installation of a uncoupling magnet, it’s not Kadee, what brand is it?
it’s a mchenry uncoupling magnet…they seem to be more powerful than the kadees…they come with a metal plate that accelerates the magnetic field…
Can I use the mchenry uncoupling magnet with kadee couplers as well? The Kadee 308 also have a metal plate, or am I maybe wrong?
opps…i sent you the wrong website…these are the pictures i wanted you to see of the paint job with the badger single action
primer
first coat
decal work
finally done note the fiber optic headlights…they are really cool!
chuck
yes it works great…I use only kadee couplers but use mchenry magnets…i like the mchenry’s because they are a bit longer than the kadee uncouplers…less room for error if you overshoot it
Yes, I searched but could not find any paint work, but I found many other cool pictures [:D]
Very nice paintwork, but a little hard to see the details. Do you have bigger versions of the same pictures?
click the picture and it will get bigger