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Gawdzis71

Best Paint Spray Setup?

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Getting frustrated with the heavy hand of rattle can spaying, so I've been looking into paint spray guns, especially for vintage buggy body painting and restoration. 

Does anyone have a suggestion on what setup they use currently? 

I like the Devilbiss or Sata,  not looking for a real pro setup,  just something to get a nicer more controlled flow than these spray cans. 

Also - has anyone tried a cordless or portable mini sprayer for a 1/10 scale body - can you get enough coverage without a standard shop compressor setup? 

Thx!

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Spray guns are a bit over the top for 1/10th RC, even the smallest spray guns put a lot of paint on the bodies with each pass, you would be better off trying an airbrush.

I have a Fengda setup which is good for the money, name brand airbrushes are several times more expensive.

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For airbrush I use a very basic Tamiya portable compressor that runs off 7.2V sport packs.  I use the factory air brush nozzle but it is compatible with other higher end Tamiya air brushes if that is your primary paint method.  It will run for hours even with a 4000mAH battery pack  

Why I chose this is because I only do RC as my primary hobby in the winter and it can get -10F in my area often.  I have a temporary air filtered paint booth in my mud room which is connected to my garage with a high power exhaust vent.  I bring my items I want to paint to the mud room (including spray cans and this air brush compressor) and use lacquer, enamel, and acrylic sprays in a temperature/humidity controlled room and no vapors getting inside the house.  The portable airbrush is super convenient. 

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Thanks all. I think the basic airbrush is the best way to go. Willy I wish I had the willpower to wait until my local winter to work on these.  - 10F? Where do you live? Wow

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1 hour ago, Gawdzis71 said:

Thanks all. I think the basic airbrush is the best way to go. Willy I wish I had the willpower to wait until my local winter to work on these.  - 10F? Where do you live? Wow

You're very welcome.  I usually play/work on my real cars in the summer months and then hibernate them from late September to mid March so during those months I concentrate on my RC's.  But that's not set in stone by any means, I still work on RC from time to time in the warm months especially brush painting because I start to loose my brush strokes if I don't paint for more than 3 weeks.   :lol:  

I'm in the northern snow belt state in the USA.

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From what I’ve read to use an airbrush you also need to then thin the paint down first? It all seems very complicated :unsure:

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11 hours ago, Cynan said:

From what I’ve read to use an airbrush you also need to then thin the paint down first? It all seems very complicated :unsure:

You do and it's really not that complicated if you use disposable eye dropper and stir sticks.  For example, for Tamiya acrylics, I use 0.5x the amount of thinner vs the paint of choice.  So if I dropped 2 full squeezes of paint in the air brush reservoir with an eye dropper, I would take a fresh eye dropper and drop one full squeeze of acrylic thinner and stir it before I start spraying.   

Color, how much thickness you want per pass, etc will determine how thin or thick you want your paint but 2:1 is a good starting point for acrylics.  The portable Tamiya compressor is low psi so cannot run thick paint.  You can just thin it down and they will still work. 

If I was a modeler I would use more acrylics, but for RC I prefer lacquer and considering the many premixed colors Tamiya has, I mainly use their spray cans.  I also do not like to blow around residual paint dust (especially not lacquer) unnecessarily in my booth so spray cans give me much better control for that.  

There are some colors I like to mix, so for those I use acrylic and airbrush, or just mix enamel and brush paint. 

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On 4/27/2021 at 7:19 AM, Cynan said:

From what I’ve read to use an airbrush you also need to then thin the paint down first? It all seems very complicated :unsure:

One thing you can be sure of with an airbrush is that you will go through a lot more thinner than paint! Not only for painting, but cleaning up afterwards.

For fairly simple paintjobs the Tamiya rattle cans do a really good job to be honest, but there is no harm in giving airbrushing a go.

Thinning just involves getting the paint to a "milky" consistency, I haven't found that it is any more critical than adding a little bit of paint to a mixing cup (I use disposable medicine cups), then adding a couple of drops of thinner, stirring well, and repeating until it is "milky".

I'm sure there are already tutorials on this site and elsewhere about airbrushing lexan bodies so I won't go over old ground here.

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For cleaning up acrylic I take my portable airbrush to the sink in my mudroom, set the compressor on the counter and while the nozzle is still connected to the compressor clean out the nozzle using running tap water and my hand pushing air into the reservoir/pull trigger to release paint until the water coming out of the nozzle is clear.

Then run the airbrush a few seconds using Tamiya's airbrush cleaner (very small amount) followed by a 10-15sec spraying of distilled water through the system.  It's actually quite easy with the portable.  Takes no more than 2-3 min.

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Besides normal cleaning my airbushes get a clean every now and then in a small ultra sonic cleaner. Result: like new. 

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39 minutes ago, No Slack said:

Besides normal cleaning my airbushes get a clean every now and then in a small ultra sonic cleaner. Result: like new. 

Nice suggestion. There are parts of the inside of the airbrush that you can't reach.

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Be careful though with the valve inside. If possible remove this part as it is the only part better not cleaned in the ultra sonic cleaner. (However one of my airbrushes is cleaned ultra sonic with the valve in place for many years and it still works as new. Only a drop of Iwata lube is al it needs.)

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The airbrush will be another acquired skill, but I'm eager to see the results. 

I picked up a basic kit and gents I really appreciate the tips on thinning and cleaning. 

I'm watching as many youtube vids as time permits as well. 

Some photos attached of what I bought here and posted on the Home Page, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

20210501_080652.jpg

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GL with the airbrush Gawdzis!   I bought a box full of disposable eye droppers on Amazon and the only ones I use repeatedly are the ones I use for thinner and airbrush cleaner.  All others I just toss after use.   

I also use disposable wood stir sticks which I cut into 1/3 size as I don't need the entire length to mix paint.  I hear pro's stay away from wooden stir sticks as it can potentially drop splinters in the paint.  I've not had this happen, however.  I know they sell fancy stir sticks but that just ends up another thing I need to wash.  I like to keep the airbrushing as basic and simple as possible as I am not a modeler nor a lexan body artist.

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Been using cocktail sticks to stir my paint and I did wonder about tiny splinters but figured these would be ok as you eat food off them right? :)

C27423EE-CE07-4CD9-9518-CA9345266F8D.jpeg

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Willy and Cyan, I really appreciate that tip, I always try to substitute and save money myself as well to avoid gimmicks I can  just substitute or create at home. 

I did pick up this airbrush cleaner kit - from what I've seen on some vids I watched you basically run the paint thinner through the gun and spray into the pot to catch the mixture and it has this awl type tool for cleaning I guess the nozzle itself along with the steel brushes. 

Do you  run thinner through the gun immediately after painting so nothing gets too hardened inside? 

Can you mix the thinner with water to save on volume, or would that damage the gun? 

20210501_155145.jpg

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I mainly run acrylic so the primary cleaner is actually tap water, followed by running a dab of Tamiya's airbrush cleaner through the system (without taking the airbrush apart) then finishing off with running distilled water.  I do clear the paint immediately after spraying as paint can begin solidifying in the airbrush rather quickly which will clog it.  

If acrylic thinner you can dilute it with water I suppose, but why not just run tap water first (or use distilled water if your water is hard), then go straight to airbrush cleaner (cannot dilute with water).  I only use acrylic thinner for thinning acrylic paints.. 

I too have the airbrush cleaning brush, but I only use it after running enamel and lacquer which is only on occasion.  I prefer to use the TS spray cans Tamiya offers for non acrylic paint.   

BTW, nice car you got there!  Not to nitpick but I think the rear tire is mounted backwards (?)   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks Willy. My tap tends to run hard,  so the additional calcium is probably not great for the airbrush either - the distilled water is a great suggestion. I did pick up some airbrush cleaner so I guess I'm all set there. 

The cans just tend to lay down a lot of paint and run very "wet", so I'm hoping the airbrush gives a lighter layer that is more forgiving with tape lines.  

And I actually never noticed those padlatracks were reversed...

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No problem, Gawdzis71.   Regarding the cans laying down wet, I don't know, the TS paint (Tamiya laquer) has been very consistent in the amount of paint in the compressed air so I've had much success using their spray cans.  I also use Tamiya's masking tape which is like rice paper and provides very clean lines.   It's very good.  

You definitely have a lot more control over the amount of paint using airbrush for sure.. but I'm no modeler so I  just set it to where I like it and just use that one setting for all applications and adjust wetness by distance and rate of each pass.

Yeah, I rebuild M38 Willy's and I see the tire direction reversed quite often when I buy them used.  :lol:

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