Why so bumpy?

PhilberJ

Young Tutorling
Hiya folks! You guys have been a huge source of information for me as I've taken on some small projects over the last couple of years... and I'm sure you guys will know exactly what I'm doing wrong as soon as you see this. So I live in Alaska and paint in my garage. I try to keep the temp at about 70 while I'm working, and drop it down when I'm not. I keep all my paints and reducers in a portable tool box, and keep that inside at a constant 70ish degrees... learned the hard way last winter that cold paint is bad. I paint with an Eclipse HP-CS and a Badger Anthem, only Createx paints and reducers. So what we have here is a flask I was working on. I sanded it, degreased it, sprayed it with Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter, let it dry a bit, then built up layers of Wicked Pearl Gold. You can see in the one pic that it dries and has a bumpy texture. I've painted a couple flasks and cups and one ammo can, but I think this is the first time I've seen that texture build up. Then in the other pics... that's after I've done a couple light layers of Candy 2.O red on top. The bumpy texture is still visible, obviously... but now there are a few larger "fiber" looking things in some spots. I've notice this before other times I've painted with those Candies too. With those, I do about 20% 4030 and maybe a little reducer... to be honest I haven't developed a solid formula for that yet. So any insight would be awesome! Am I just making a simple mistake and I should know better by now?
Thanks!
Resized_20190329_202600_9767.jpeg Resized_20190329_202638_8588.jpeg Resized_20190331_191709_3452.jpeg
 
I’m not qualified to provide any authoritative answer, I’ll leave that to others but I’ll give you some ‘out loud thoughts’

Possible dry spray.. you’re to far away from the piece and the paint is drying before it gets there.

You have a fan going in the room for ventilation and it’s kicking up dust/fibres

The paint is at fault, maybe it got affected by temperature before you got it climate controlled.
The metallic paint needs a really good stir (not just a quick shake) and filtering through fine mesh /ladies stockings

.. like I said, just thinking out loud
 
I'm gonna go with JackEb on this one. I am not positive, but would guess that you need to use more reduction in your initial layers, to allow the coat to lay down wet, so that the next pass will have a wet edge it can burn into, rather than lay on top of. If you have a texture, no amount of subsequent coats is going to cover it (within reason). The idea is to get each layer to lay down smoooooooth.

If you have any scrap, or sample pieces you can try test spraying on, I would work on adding more reducer to see how it lays down... maybe a lot more.
 
Pearl =Tip dry city. while yes it can spray through a airbrush with a .5 set up nicely anything smaller gives tons of tip dry which to me is what it looks like has happened.
If you are base coating even small items such as the flask your working on I would suggest a mini spray gun . The 1.2 tip size that is usually standard on them will lay a smoother coat and actually use about the same amount of paint you did to cover the flask with an airbrush.
 
Thanks for all the considerations fellas! It all actually makes sense, not just one thing I'm doing wrong. I know I definitely need to work on laying down wet layers for even coverage. I catch myself all the time being impatient and wanting to jump into the next step, and get to the finished product. That also ties into how I also have the habit of holding my airbrush further away while spraying to get more coverage, which would lead to the dry spray. I do that especially with my Badger because of the slightly larger needle set up... treating it like a mini mini spray gun. I think that is actually contributed to the fact that my first airbrushing experience was spending a winter painting a space mural across a 30 foot ceiling.... now I'm trying to retrain myself to slow down and work on up-close detailing. And that leads right into the true observation that I just need to pull the trigger (hehe) on getting an actual mini spray gun. I started looking into it, but locally a decent one was getting close to $200 and I just don't have the extra scratch in my wallet right now. I've seen the cheapos on Amazon, but I'm wise enough to not sacrifice on quality tools. However, as most of the things I paint require a clear coat, a lot of things would be easier with a bigger sprayer. Anyways, I'm about to start a new project soon, so I'll definitely try out some practice panels first and report back. Thanks again guys!!
 
Thanks for all the considerations fellas! It all actually makes sense, not just one thing I'm doing wrong. I know I definitely need to work on laying down wet layers for even coverage. I catch myself all the time being impatient and wanting to jump into the next step, and get to the finished product. That also ties into how I also have the habit of holding my airbrush further away while spraying to get more coverage, which would lead to the dry spray. I do that especially with my Badger because of the slightly larger needle set up... treating it like a mini mini spray gun. I think that is actually contributed to the fact that my first airbrushing experience was spending a winter painting a space mural across a 30 foot ceiling.... now I'm trying to retrain myself to slow down and work on up-close detailing. And that leads right into the true observation that I just need to pull the trigger (hehe) on getting an actual mini spray gun. I started looking into it, but locally a decent one was getting close to $200 and I just don't have the extra scratch in my wallet right now. I've seen the cheapos on Amazon, but I'm wise enough to not sacrifice on quality tools. However, as most of the things I paint require a clear coat, a lot of things would be easier with a bigger sprayer. Anyways, I'm about to start a new project soon, so I'll definitely try out some practice panels first and report back. Thanks again guys!!
Have a look at the ANI R150 from Spraygunsdirect.co.uk
They ship all over the world for a pretty good price and the gun is a great performer. I have used it for Metallic base coats, metal flake and Clear Coating. For around £100 it’s excellent value for money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Have a look at the ANI R150 from Spraygunsdirect.co.uk
They ship all over the world for a pretty good price and the gun is a great performer. I have used it for Metallic base coats, metal flake and Clear Coating. For around £100 it’s excellent value for money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks a lot for the suggestion... I'm checking it out now. What nozzle size would you recommend I go with? I'm guessing much like an airbrush, I can get a couple different nozzle setups to match my needs... but if there was an all around size for base coating and clearing, that would be awesome! Also do think I would run into issues running that spray gun with my compressor?
https://www.californiaairtools.com/...actor-grade/1-0-hp-air-compressors/cat-2010a/
 
... but if there was an all around size for base coating and clearing, that would be awesome! Also do think I would run into issues running that spray gun with my compressor?

Im in the 'dedicated clear gun' camp. nothing like a tiny speck of pearl to ruin a perfect clear coat !!

@Robbyrockett2 is our numbers guy when you're trying to figure out if your compressor will run your choice of airgun. He has way to many facts for spray guns running around in his head :)

but at first glance I'd say 'Yes' your compressor is going to need an upgrade
Compressor stats:
3.10 CFM @ 40 PSI
2.20 CFM @ 90 PSI

Spray gun:
3.6 cfm @ 29
 
Last edited:
Youd be really pushing your compressor hard with that gun, You might get away with like , a motorcycle tank with that then a good long break. The r150 last i checked runs $165 to the US with shipping from the site @SiRoxx posted. If you can only get one size, id say 1.0....you can get away with one size away from where you should be on a mini...So if you should run .8,1.0 or 1.2 a 1.0 will do the trick.
For now i would recommend going to harbor freight and spending $13 on the 4oz mini detail gun (tiny purple lph 50 knockoff) It actually does a great job and ive pushed high build 2k primer through it pretty easily. It will run all day on your compressor, yes its a .6 but reduce to suit and it will spray it fine i promise....its very very very worth the $13.

I run a finex fx1000 regularly and its ok for $120 but it also sucks down twice the air of an ANI r150, When youre ready id save the extra $40 for it.

Although , I'm testing one now that I may have to recommend in the future.
 
Oh and yes, Id agree with the others...youre basically trying to push it through too small a nozzle. Probably pressured up so you back away and bam dry spray, If that paint is a year old though.....new will make a world of difference too. Ive had tons of problems with old golds.
The rest is trash and hair that got caught up in your rough gold layer before the candy went on.
 
Thanks JackEb and thanks Robbyrocket2!.... yeah that compressor has been great doing a bunch of small indoor stuff for the last 2 years. I think I've spent most of my spray time in bedrooms, and nobody has ever complained about noise. But now that I want to be doing bigger projects and hooking up bigger toys, maybe I need to look into upgrading that as well. :) But for the immediate necessities, I'll check out one of those Harbor Freight ones and see if it makes my life easier. I mean, right now I'm clearing small things with Badger 155, so it has to at least be a step up from that haha. Mini gun for bases (maybe a second gun just for clearing) and keep the airbrushes just for the artwork.
 
Youd be really pushing your compressor hard with that gun, You might get away with like , a motorcycle tank with that then a good long break. The r150 last i checked runs $165 to the US with shipping from the site @SiRoxx posted. If you can only get one size, id say 1.0....you can get away with one size away from where you should be on a mini...So if you should run .8,1.0 or 1.2 a 1.0 will do the trick.
For now i would recommend going to harbor freight and spending $13 on the 4oz mini detail gun (tiny purple lph 50 knockoff) It actually does a great job and ive pushed high build 2k primer through it pretty easily. It will run all day on your compressor, yes its a .6 but reduce to suit and it will spray it fine i promise....its very very very worth the $13.

I run a finex fx1000 regularly and its ok for $120 but it also sucks down twice the air of an ANI r150, When youre ready id save the extra $40 for it.

Although , I'm testing one now that I may have to recommend in the future.
Love that little purple gun, I use mine a lot. I put an adapter on and run straight off my airbrush hose. .. Only complaint is the cheap metal adapter for the cup rusts. But it works suprisingly well
 
Youd be really pushing your compressor hard with that gun, You might get away with like , a motorcycle tank with that then a good long break. The r150 last i checked runs $165 to the US with shipping from the site @SiRoxx posted. If you can only get one size, id say 1.0....you can get away with one size away from where you should be on a mini...So if you should run .8,1.0 or 1.2 a 1.0 will do the trick.
For now i would recommend going to harbor freight and spending $13 on the 4oz mini detail gun (tiny purple lph 50 knockoff) It actually does a great job and ive pushed high build 2k primer through it pretty easily. It will run all day on your compressor, yes its a .6 but reduce to suit and it will spray it fine i promise....its very very very worth the $13.

I run a finex fx1000 regularly and its ok for $120 but it also sucks down twice the air of an ANI r150, When youre ready id save the extra $40 for it.

Although , I'm testing one now that I may have to recommend in the future.
The harbour freight knock off sounds like a great suggestion. If Robby says it does a good job, I would definitely give that a shot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top