Airbrushing advice

[stewart]

Hello all

Another question to test the wider interests and knowledge of the membership. My son has got into making stencils for his A level Art work and we're going through cans of spray paint at the moment and thought perhaps airbrushing would be a good way to go - especially as he can then mix his own paints up. He's working on a small scale - no larger than A3 paper at the moment.

Anyone have any experience of this kind of airbrushing?

I've got a small compressor - this one from MachineMart http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/bandit-air-compressor-nailstaple-gu

I assume it has enough uumph to drive something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spraymaster...I/ref=pd_sbs_hi?ie=UTF8&qid=1205961860&sr=8-3

As always, any advice gratefully received!

 

[Vormulac]

In the dim and very distant past I used to paint a lot of models (yeah yeah, geek, nerd etc etc) and I used an airbrush similar to the one you show there, it ran for ages off aerosol cans of compressed air, so I think using a tool-spec air compressor is going to be severe overkill (not to mention ruddy noisy!). I expect you can get much lower rated, but more than sufficient compressors for this sort of work that don't require ear protection. Just a thought.

(just looked at that link you posted for the airbrush and at the bottom of the page there are 'associated' items, scroll through them and sure enough some diddy little compressors turn up for exactly that purpose)

 

[Paul Hardy]

We run a small hobby type airbrush off our large compressor, but you need a regulator to drop the pressure down, and you need various fittings to get the tube diameter down as well.

Paul Hardy

 

[jasonB]

Avoid the very small diaphram compressors as you can get pulsing of the air which can cause the line thickness to vary. The type you have will work fine, if a bit on the loud side, use a regulator to run it at around 30psi and fit a moisture trap otherwise condensed moisture in the air will "spit" drops of water out of the brush just when you don't want it.

You can buy almost silent compressors which use a similar compressor to a fridge, machine Mart & Axminsters both do them.

The brush you link to is a far east copy of a Badger double action brush but should be fine for use with masks & stencils.

Paint wise go with inks, liquid acrylics & liquid watercolour. It is possible to use almost anything that can be thinned to the consistancy of milk but it must be well mixed.

Also invest in a can or two of "spray-away" to keep the brush clean.

Jason

 

[stewart]

Thanks for the tips - very useful and helpful as always. I'd rather spend as little as possible as I'm not sure how long my son's interest will last but who knows, it may lead to a deeper interest and another slope :shock:
Thanks again!