hey im new to airbrushing

[michaelriddick16]

Hi all michael from Glasgow Scotland here, been working as a vehicle spray painter for 4 year's and recently ventured into airbrushing. Bought a mini compressor, gravity feed dual action airbrush with a 0? 2 needle and a single action one with a 0.4 and while there I remeberd talking to someone a while back who used ink to airbrush at home in his bedroom. So I bought myself 6 different coloured inks aswell. I have a few questions for everyone.
1- does anyone on here use inks. If so could you give me advice on using them?
2- im airbrushing at home but say I wanted to car wing mirrors at homewhat paints aeare best and safe?
3- I have seen small airbrush boths are these good for at home using likes of solvent paints?
4- what is the best paints to use for airbrushing cars, bikes ect..I know car paint works but what others work.

Thank you everyone for any replies.

 

[ferret]

Hi Michael ,never used inks myself but do use my lechler car paint through a 0.4 but word of warning if using waterbased car paint ,it's dirty by nature so filter it well . I also use trident and Comart which I use with a 0.2 or less for details . Hope it goes well for you .

 

[michaelriddick16]

I see. We aviod waterbased at work and stick to solvents. Are trident and comart types of paint? I got the 0.4 one off a friend but it was single action and felt tricky to control Ive been playing about with the inks on paper but im keen to see what other peoples opinions are. But the inks arent suitable for car parts I dont think.

 

[Madbrush]

Hi Michael, welcome from another Glaswegian living in Holland

I previously used Schmink aero-color which is classed as an ink but switched later to first com-art and then e-tac efx, what inks did you buy? Using inks isn't much different than using dedicated airbrush paints except inks will usually require less thinning, the main problem with inks is that they are by nature not light fast, meaning they fade in sun light.

Since you mention cars and bikes I would assume you want to go in that direction, the most commonly used paints for this purpose seem to be wicked auto air, which are water based but do contain some solvents, it is usually recommended when practicing to practice with the medium which will be the one you intend to use later, each paint type and brand as you know from experience I think, require different reduction and pressure ratios so you may frustrate yourself by using too many different types, there are also solvent based paints such as trident and hok but I wouldn't recommend those in the house obviously, the booth may help but not if your using vast amounts, but you should apply the same measures as you would at your normal spray job.

There are several threads on which airbrushes, paints and substrates people like to use, have a look through the forums for these but feel free to start threads with your questions when you feel the need, I'm not personally into custom work, but we have a few who are.

What airbrushes specifically do you have, some cheaper brushes have rubber seals which will perish fairly quick with solvent based paints, so be wary of that.

 

[michaelriddick16]

The inks I got are Windsor and newton. Just seen on box suitable for airbrushing and took them . Work well on paper not tryed anything else yet. We do custom paintwork at work but not airbrushing. Yeah paint can be a pain at times with thinning and pressure. Ill need to have a llook at the wicked auto air paints and see. Its a badger one. Unsure of model as its at work and im at home

 

[Madbrush]

The inks I got are Windsor and newton. Just seen on box suitable for airbrushing and took them . Work well on paper not tryed anything else yet. We do custom paintwork at work but not airbrushing. Yeah paint can be a pain at times with thinning and pressure. Ill need to have a llook at the wicked auto air paints and see. Its a badger one. Unsure of model as its at work and im at home

Badger is a pretty decent brush, I would assume it will be the "krome" or "patriot"

Windsor & Newton, also fairly decent, you can certainly practice with it to get used to controlling your brush and building muscle memory and confidence, I don't know if you've seen any of the tutors videos, but he has download-able practice sheets to help learn the different strokes used in airbrushing as well as a shed load of basic handy information.

Did you buy your gear in Glasgow? I had a look there when I was on holiday a couple of years ago and couldn't find any shops there except a silly little model shop in the St. Enochs centre, they only sold crap Revel brushes and tamiya paints.

 

[markjthomson]

I see. We aviod waterbased at work and stick to solvents. Are trident and comart types of paint? I got the 0.4 one off a friend but it was single action and felt tricky to control Ive been playing about with the inks on paper but im keen to see what other peoples opinions are. But the inks arent suitable for car parts I dont think.

Yes Trident and comart are paints... I think they are both waterbased but could be wrong - trident definitely is. They are both suitable for auto work. Ink is more for detail adn very fine work as I understand it...

 

[markjthomson]

and welcome from New Zealand

 

[JackEb]

I cant help with info but welcome from Australia

 

[haasje dutchairbrush]

Welcome

1 I tried some just to see how they work, they do tend to dry up a bit like a "glas layer" and they are not "rewetable" making them ill suited for a lot of techniques used in airbrushing (scratching and erasing). Also they are very vibrant. Like I said I just tested a bit with it so I'm not familiar with all brands and am grossly generalising here.

2 For custom paint you can either use waterbased paint or ureathane based. For water based createx autoair or wicked seem to be used most, for ureathane its House Of Kolor (HOK) or Inspire. For these kind of projects I personaly prefer uretahanes as they cover faster, can be degreased without risk of damage and are more reliable with masking (and for the form let's add acording to my humble opinion ). Being a car painter you'll know about the precautions to take when using urethanes.

3 No clue I wear a mask and open all the windows

4 See the answer to no2

 

[Nada]

Those little spray booths wont protect you from urethanes. Since I am painting in my home, im strictly water based until clearcoat (which i take elsewhere)

I have used auto air
Wicked
Golden high flow
All under urethane clearcoats no problem.
Com art is a great paint for art but much too thin for automotive IMO.

I also think the autobourne sealer is fantastic.
In the US more and more shops are moving towards waterbased which should bring even more competition to the market.

 

[MeeshellMP]

Welcome aboard Michael!!

 

[michaelriddick16]

Badger is a pretty decent brush, I would assume it will be the "krome" or "patriot"

Windsor & Newton, also fairly decent, you can certainly practice with it to get used to controlling your brush and building muscle memory and confidence, I don't know if you've seen any of the tutors videos, but he has download-able practice sheets to help learn the different strokes used in airbrushing as well as a shed load of basic handy information.

Did you buy your gear in Glasgow? I had a look there when I was on holiday a couple of years ago and couldn't find any shops there except a silly little model shop in the St. Enochs centre, they only sold crap Revel brushes and tamiya paints.

Badger is a pretty decent brush, I would assume it will be the "krome" or "patriot"

Windsor & Newton, also fairly decent, you can certainly practice with it to get used to controlling your brush and building muscle memory and confidence, I don't know if you've seen any of the tutors videos, but he has download-able practice sheets to help learn the different strokes used in airbrushing as well as a shed load of basic handy information.

Did you buy your gear in Glasgow? I had a look there when I was on holiday a couple of years ago and couldn't find any shops there except a silly little model shop in the St. Enochs centre, they only sold crap Revel brushes and tamiya paints.

Krome sounds familiar could possibly be that it was one I looked at but no sure witch I took of 4/5 he showed me, it was a small shop in manchester I got it from while visiting family. I got the compressor from machine mart in glasgow but. Glasgow is quite poor for anything other than clothes haha not any better now than would of been few years ago. Someone I know said Edinburgh had a not too bad shop but place drives me mad. The inks I got from the range they had a lot of different paints but I dont know what works what dosnt. They had inks, acrylic tubes, acrylic tubs, oil tubes, water paints in tubes and pretty much everything apart from specific airbrush paint.

 

[michaelriddick16]

I see, ill need to have a look at trident paints when I get a chance. Thank you

 

[michaelriddick16]

Ah i see cretex auto air is similar to wicked auto air? Personaly Id be aiming towards waterbased. I have herd of house of colour and like there colours but it would be a bad idea at home using them thanks for the advice

 

[michaelriddick16]

Well after ready all replys it apears that cretex or wicked seem to be the choice for what I want to do, id imagine theyd be safe enough at home? Its a spare room I use so its only for storing tools and now ive built a bench for that airbrush. If the paint at work was home friendly id have no problem. We mix our own paints so have a good 50x litre bottles of all different colours for mixing

 

[Madbrush]

Krome sounds familiar could possibly be that it was one I looked at but no sure witch I took of 4/5 he showed me, it was a small shop in manchester I got it from while visiting family. I got the compressor from machine mart in glasgow but. Glasgow is quite poor for anything other than clothes haha not any better now than would of been few years ago. Someone I know said Edinburgh had a not too bad shop but place drives me mad. The inks I got from the range they had a lot of different paints but I dont know what works what dosnt. They had inks, acrylic tubes, acrylic tubs, oil tubes, water paints in tubes and pretty much everything apart from specific airbrush paint.

Inks you can use no problem but stay away from everything else in your list here, if you used any of these you would spend more time cleaning than painting and your brush would get clogged up very quick, try if you can to adhere to only airbrush specific paints, you can thin the paint but you can't thin the pigment.

All that you have now is good enough to get you started, but you may want to upgrade your compressor later, although some people who start airbrushing often decide it's not their thing after a few months so it's not always wise to have the most expensive stuff from the outset, once you've caught the bug then you cab review your equipment.

As far custom work goes, you already have all the knowledge you need to get your projects up to the artwork ready stage which is more or less everything you would do preparing a car but applying your artwork before clearing, to help you with the art/custom side you could probably find some old car bonnets or motorcycle tanks from the scrappy to practice on, auto air paints and even the solvent based paints are made for this purpose and you can clear over these with the same clears you would be using for a metallic respray at your work.

Have a look on YouTube for a guy called Simon Murray, he does a lot with auto air and goes into a lot of detail that I know for sure would be right up your street, I believe he also gives lessons.

You can find Simon here

 

[JackEb]

Standard ' Createx airbrush paint' is textile oriented. Createx 'Wicked' and createx 'illustration' will do cars / helmets /hard surface

 

[WhiteKnight]

Welcome from Canada

 

[Amra]

Welcome from the USA! I mostly use wicked, including their regular line, their pearl line and their detail line. Im about to try the illustration colors to see what they can do, they have some properties Im pretty interested in (scratchability, rewettability using anines, etc) for getting better realism, but I do like the wicked paints.