Car cutaways is the kind of thing I was trained to do back in the early 70s, subject of my BA course, "medical and scientific illustration", that kind of work in airbrush was already becoming redundant due to early computers ( which were mainframed huge things ) so we were also taught COBOL and Fortran ( particularly Fortran ) ..punch card decks etc, so as to be able to program computers to do all the cutaways with shading and colour etc.
There used to be a couple of hundred medical and scientific illustrators trained up to degree level every year at that time , for about 10 jobs ! But it kept the lecturers in work teaching us , which some of us rapidly realised was the reason. Those of us who were good , spent our time on the medical part, which at the time involved a lot of drawing and photography in operating theatres and in morgues. Also a lot of "life drawing" ( which I taught for a while later ).
Many of us then moved on to "fantasy" airbrush artwork..
We airbush artists used to use another product which ( like the Aztek ) disappeared , line board.
Best was CS line board, British company., Collier and Southey, there was also a German product Schoellershammer line board .CS went out of production decades ago ( there is a market amongst older illustrators who have kept a few sheets or part packs ), Schoellershammer stopped production about he same time, shut their factory.Someone bought it a few years ago, built another alongside it, and resurrected their line board, but in a "nowhere near as good" version".CS was always the better product anyway. Nowadays white scraper board is as close as you'll get to CS line board.
Unless you are working ( airbrushing ) on 3D surfaces with many curves ? Digital printing has taken over from almost all airbrushing ( except maybe custom painting ) Artwork is done on graphic tablets with software tools which mimic airbrushes and other types of drawing and painting very well, this is far more versatile and far far faster and easier to correct and enhance than actual airbrushing. I've got 5 graphic tablets, my son has the same number, we have wacoms and x-pen, the x-pen are cheaper than the wacom and are just as good ,if not better.They are big, they are actual moniter screens ( thin) with full HD and very good colour fidelity and "colour space", you draw directly on top of the images on them, with no parallax , You can also use them to edit video or apply special effects to video. Thus hardly any illustrators or airbrush artists actually use physical airbrushes now. Unless one is making "one offs" original artworks.
I haven't done any physical airbrush work in about 10 years, When I was working on carny stuff etc I had a photo book of around 10% of my work which they would look at, like wise Harley owners and so on to give them some ideas if they did not have any preferences. Eventually I was sufficiently well knwon that they just bring the carnival ride or the bike etc and say we'd like this, but you are the expert, do what you think.Nice work, but the 2 pack cyano acrylates are toxic to work with. I might be able to find a photo of the last airbrushed sign I did , over the weekend. I'll have a root about, it was based on Lara Croft and Sly Stallone, it was to advertise a military surplus shop.It was two standing figures , life sized on marine ply , they were attached to the owners ratty little trailor and he placed them at the side of the dual carriage way near his shop.
Rest of the stuff is in albums in boxes. I work either on the x-pen tablets or in sculpture ( moving or static ) nowadays. We may be releasing ( self editing ) some comic books later this year or early next ( have the A3 Colour printers bought already ) and maybe some Tee Shirts , have the machinery for those too, used to do long runs of tourist type ones in the past.
If I can find the photos I'm thinking of , I'll scan them and upload. it will give the OP an idea of what can be done, they were done with a badger airbrush a VLS, took me a day to do both.
Tip .Unless you are experienced, varnish horizontally , lay what you want to spray varnish down on it's "back" and spray the upward facing horizontal surface, or you'll very likely get runs.If you want to be able to spray vertical and curved surfaces without runs, practice on scrap. Eventually after enough practice you'll be able to spray 2 pack clear on cars, trucks, boats and planes without any runs, or if you get runs, you'll know how to deal with them to lose them. You'll need a much bigger spray gun for them, at least a 50cm spray fan high volume gun. With overhead paint pot, you'll need strong arms too spraying with a 2kg( when fully loaded ) spray gun for 4 to 10 hours requires muscle, technique, concentration, a strong back, and an assistant to load the second gun so you can work without interruption.A strong bladder helps as you can't stop for "potty breaks" .
