Airbrush painting question

[AndyjcClod 389]

Hi Everyone

I have been practicing with my airbrush for the past 6 months and now want to spray my new Lunchbox body, does anyone have any tips on what paint to use in a airbrush for a solid tamiya body?

and if you have any past experience with this what mix or paint, thinner or water did you use?

[Gazzalene 171]

I am new to RC but have been "styrene modelling " for ages. With AB use. When you ask "thinner or water" I presume you mean acrylics or cellulose. Although Tamiya Acrylics is not a true one,is alcohol based.

If going for gloss finish you can not beat Cellulose BUT of course it very smelly. I have got away with using Acrylics then top coat with a Cellulose.

Mixing is a hard thing to judge,you need a milk consistency. If its too thick you can up the air pressure and vice versa, go too thin though and it will take many coats to get good coverage.

If I am painting something of large area I will use a can but any detail or free hand use the AB

[Pteppic 62]

I've airbrushed Tamiya acylics onto 1/24 model cars and it's worked very well.

Thin with X-20a Tamiya thinner in a 2:1 ratio (2 Paint to 1 of thinner) and it's pretty much ready to go. 

I use an Iwata Neo with a 0.35 needle and it covered nicely once I'd found an air pressure I was happy with. Also recommend buying a job lot of pipettes for mixing.

[graemevw 820]

Tamiyas recent lacquer paint are nice.

[topforcein 1763]

i would not try and paint a whole shell with a small paintbrush perhaps details but not the complete shell i would stick to rattle cans for that or get a bigger airbrush gun

[Nicadraus 5721]

I use polyurethane paints of my projects for RC/models and many others. Polyurethane is very sturdy and shiny when done in the proper procedure and volume mix of paint, thinner and catalyst. 

[Apexape 13]

If you are dead set on using the airbrush for a large area then make sure you are using the 0.5mm tip with max airflow. Practice on some cardboard to get distance and speed down. Make sure you do a 50% to 75% overlap. Have a plan so you dont overlap areas too much and cause runs. if you have a dual action brush remember to start the air off the body, start paint right before you hit the body, steady speed and needle control, paint till you are off the body and keep on the air, then make the next pass in the opposite direction. Dont worry about getting full coverage on the first coat. Its better to build them up but do it without spraying too dry. Also work your way from top to bottom.

I used to paint cars and airbrush alot now. Alot of the technique still applies. Practice with what ever materials you plan to use first. Color theory is another thing. Use a gray primer in different darkness depending on the color you want to spray. Its alot to explain in a post so if you have a question about that feel free to ask based on the color you want to spray