Airbrush Set Up and Technique Question

[Dax415]

Hello,

I just got an airbrush and compressor and was wondering how everyone else set there's up. Is it in a place in the garage? Only use it outside? Or can it be safely set up in a room inside the house near a window? I know I will only be using acrylic paint and I will be clear coating outside with some extra cans of clear coat from a previous project. Any tips not already discussed for using acrylics with an airbrush?

Fortunately I do have access to tools and can build a make shift hobby spray booth whether its from styrofoam or medium desity fiberboard. So building something is an option and I can clear room in the guest room if necessary.

My last question is actually about waterslide decals. If I were to try and make my own what resolution will I need for the scans and what type of color printer? (specifications) Just wanted to see if my printer and scanner could handle it. Thanks!

[VF-19]

Here's what I do with my airbrush.

1) I use it in the garage with the door open. Helps keep the peace in the house.

2) I use a respirator. I like my lungs intact please!

3) I also use acyrlics, and to thin, I use 70% isopropyl alcohol. Thin to the consistency of milk. Too thin and the paint will run, too thick, and the airbrush clogs.

4) To clean my airbrush, I dissasemble, and dunk the dirty parts into rubbing alcohol. Wait, and then clean off with an old toothbrush.

5) My spraybooth is nothing more than a cardboard box. As I'm in the garage, I can go cheap with some materials.

Hope it helps!

[Grayson72]

I use mine in my office/hobby room, on a large plastic mat on the floor. I have to go outside and up a set of stairs to get to my garage so it's rather unmotivating if I had to paint in my garage.

I use acrylics which are a lot less stinky and toxic unlike lacquer and enamels. I have a bunch of pippets I use to mix my paints with and a bunch of extra glass jars (my Paasche fits on the model master enamel bottles so I saved them). I mix 3:1 paint to thinner ratio which is pretty standard, the pippets make it easy, 3 squirts of paint and one squirt of Tamiya airbrush thinner and I'm ready to go.

When I'm done and need to clean the airbrush I first empty any paint left inside the airbrush by putting my finger over the end of the brush and hitting the button, this forces the paint flow to go backwards into the syphon cup(only do this if you have a jar type syphon cup) this method saves paint and cleaning time. I then dunk the syphon part of the airbrush in water and rinse that off real good. Then I take a clean jar and fill it with one pippet full of rubbing alcohol and run that through the airbrush (I open the window and put the end of the airbrush at the screen and spray it out into the air outside).

I do disasemble mine as well every so often and clean all the parts. Oh and buy some medium size pipe cleaners from the craftstore really handy for a thorough cleaning.

I don't use a spraybooth. My methods are a bit unconventional but I get good results anyway.

Edited September 2, 2003 by Grayson72

[Grayson72]

Speaking of airbrushing here's my first attempt at preshading, some of it doesn't show up well in the photo but all of them are done. I'm just glad it didn't come out all splattery.

Edited September 2, 2003 by Grayson72

[Commander McBride]

Aw, man, i've been trying to preshade for years, and I havent even been able to make it recognizable as preshading!