Finishing Questions...

[Aerostar]

1. Has anyone tried spraying Future/water mixture through a.spray bottle?
2. When spraying acrylic paints, I hear folks thinning them with thinners instead of water. Is water an issue?
3. Can anyone recommend a cheap airbursh set up that gives good results?

[goose]

1. Has anyone tried spraying Future/water mixture through a.spray bottle?
2. When spraying acrylic paints, I hear folks thinning them with thinners instead of water. Is water an issue?
3. Can anyone recommend a cheap airbursh set up that gives good results?

I have used the Future/Water mix, but with a brush. The main problem that I have is that it causes the tissue to relax, and the thinner pieces like the rudder sometimes have both sides of the tissue stick together, that would probably get worse with a spray. I have had good results going lightly with a brush on the tail surfaces, and a brush everywhere else. As the coats build up it takes less and less of the mix to cover.

[kittyfritters]

1. Has anyone tried spraying Future/water mixture through a.spray bottle?
2. When spraying acrylic paints, I hear folks thinning them with thinners instead of water. Is water an issue?
3. Can anyone recommend a cheap airbursh set up that gives good results?

1. If you are going to spray, get and airbrush. Most spray bottles do not have the even, fine misting spray pattern required for modeling work. Future has been difficult to find lately in my area. I have been having better results with Armstrong ShineKeeper, an acrylic emulsion intended to restore no-wax flooring. It can be brushed, or sprayed. Full strength, it fills and seals silkspan very nicely, much better than Krylon Crystal Clear, and thinned, works very well on tissue. I have thinned it with water or rubbing alcohol with the alcohol being preferred. A half gallon of it costs about $15 at Lowe's or Home Depot.

2. There are special thinners for spraying acrylic paints, but I have not found them worth the trouble. Water is fine, also rubbing alcohol, which is 30% water anyway. When using alcohol as a thinner while spraying be careful to have good ventilation and be away from open flame.

I have also used acrylic artists inks intended for airbrush work. They cost a bit more than the paints, but are available in a great variety of opaque and transparent colors, do not require thinning. and, if you are building flying models, seem to be lighter for the equivalent coverage.

There is also a surface tension breaker for acrylic paints. You just put a drop in an ounce of thinned paint, mix, and spray. It gives the paints the flow characteristics of the inks.

All water based finish products carry a big load of water. This will make the tissue sag and is somewhat scary at first. My experience is that when the paint or ink is throughly dry the tissue returns to it's original tightness. However, if you are spraying multiple colors the first color must be absolutely dry before applying the next color, whether or not you mask. If the tissue has any sag at all when you apply the second color the ripples in the tissue will pick up the next color and give you painted on wrinkles, which can be a very interesting effect in a camouflage job but is quite inauthentic.

3. Harbor Freight Tools has inexpensive airbrush kits, both external and internal mix, that work quite well. The secret is having a good compressor. Professional airbrush compressors are quite expensive, but very quiet, and can only be used for airbrushing. You can get a utility compressor at Harbor Freight that will give excellent airbrush work, and can also inflate the tires on your car and run small air tools, for less than $100. It won't be quiet and will be strictly a garage, not apartment, tool. When they are having a sale you can probably get the compressor and airbrush kit at Harbor Freight for $100.

Hope this helps,

Howard

[Pauli72]

Kittyfritters hit the nail on the head by recomending the Harbor Freight airbrush. #95810 Deluxe Airbrush Kit, and it's only $24-99. Right now it's on sale for $17.99. It doesn't come with an air hose, so you'll have to pick one up too.
It's a lot better than paying 100.00 or so for an Iwata, or Pasche. True, they are much better quality than the HF brand, but to just give this technique a try, you can't go wrong for the money. It's a nice little air brush.

[Bill Gaylord]

Kittyfritters hit the nail on the head by recomending the Harbor Freight airbrush. #95810 Deluxe Airbrush Kit, and it's only $24-99. Right now it's on sale for $17.99. It doesn't come with an air hose, so you'll have to pick one up too.
It's a lot better than paying 100.00 or so for an Iwata, or Pasche. True, they are much better quality than the HF brand, but to just give this technique a try, you can't go wrong for the money. It's a nice little air brush.

I'll have to look that one up. Those brand names are brand name rip-offs too. My LHS has them, but I'm too poor to spend that kind of money. I've seen too many instances where foreign made goods can be bought at equal quality, at 1/4 the price of the brand names.

I work for a friend who bought me an airbrush setup. The compressor works well, but the brush is junk. The solution was to collect all the small air fittings I had, and rig up a 10 cent Testors compressed air can airbrush tip. It's workable, but also starting to get old.

[kittyfritters]

Actually, the inexpensive, Testor's, internal mix airbrush works very well. I have used one for many years. Since it is all plastic you must be careful about what you spray with it and very careful about cleaning it, but it is as good as any of the more expensive airbrushes for modeling work. It is good with the CO2 propellant can, (Tip: Stand the can in a container warm, not hot, water when spraying to keep the pressure more even.) and works even better with a good compressor.

[Bill Gaylord]

I've had good results from the plastic tip sprayer, but it is a bit tempermental. When spraying enamels at a fine spray setting, you have to restart them fairly often when they quit by opening the nozzle, then dialing the spray down to what you want while spraying on a piece of test paper until it is spraying consistently again, and then continuing on the model. Spitting really ruins a nice paint job. The paint also has to be thinned a bit thinner than I would like for it to spray well, experimenting quite a bit with the different tips and line pressure also. Like anything else you learn to work with it, and can get decent results when you know how it behaves. My 16" Guillows FW190 micro rc flyer was the last plane I used it on. I use it for overall spraying also on models this size, as the applied paint weight is much lower than with can bombs. On thing that works well is to spray Testors enamels right into the airbrush bottle and then spray them with the airbrush, for both detail work, and overall work to reduce weight, with a bit of added thinner required at times.

[ADW 123]

its important to take really good care of that airbrush, other wise it will clog up and wont work. that means cleaning it really well after EVERY coat of paint/use. dont put the airbrush away without a thorough cleaning. i have a badger airbrush with a badger compressor that probably costed me a bit under 200 $. I would check ebay too... you could get a "barely functional/broken" airbrush for really cheap and clean it up because its previous owners were too lazy to or didnt know how.

[Bill Gaylord]

its important to take really good care of that airbrush, other wise it will clog up and wont work. that means cleaning it really well after EVERY coat of paint/use. dont put the airbrush away without a thorough cleaning. i have a badger airbrush with a badger compressor that probably costed me a bit under 200 $. I would check ebay too... you could get a "barely functional/broken" airbrush for really cheap and clean it up because its previous owners were too lazy to or didnt know how.

Absolutely. I generally clean it 5 times DURING every use. Even the slightest bit of contaminent, let alone just a bit of build up will stop fine spraying. With the one I have, even a tiny spec anywhere near the nozzle area inside the tip, will interrupt the flow and stop it. Straining paint is a good thing also.

I need you to help me lecture a friend that I work for, on cleaning paint spraying equipment. Every time I would be the one using the industrial Sherwin Williams commercial sprayer, it would quit on me. Murphy's law says that the person who takes care of the equipment, is the one who gets it when it fails due to everyone else's negligence. I'd call him while taking the unit apart, just to give a reminder about lack of cleaning, and he'd say how he always cleans it. I'd tell him, "Sure, that''s why I just cleaned through 30 layers of paint inside the sprayer, one of them an unusual color that I remember us using 5 years ago." With thick latex, I've also finally got him using hot water for purge cleaning, but I think he only does that when I'm there and watching.