Airbrushing?

[MoonHawke]

So, a few weeks ago I had a paycheck burning a hole in my pocket and I ran out and bought an airbrush. When asking my dad about using one of his air compressors, he basically said he had an old airbrush that I could have. (Yay for ending up with money and an airbrush!)

I've bought a few bottles of airbrush paint, and I'm hoping to do a full body repaint of a pony or two to get myself familiar with how it works. But I've been too lazy/unsure to go ahead and try it out yet.

Does anyone have any tips, tricks, advice, or links to great resources they'd be willing to share?

[PrincessOfDarkness]

Run a water trap on your airline. Without one, you'll run the risk of water creeping through your lines and out the airbrush, ruining not only your paintwork, but also the brush

Set the pressure on the compressor correctly. You'll need to play with various pressures, depending on paint thickness, airbrush etc.... not too much pressure or you will vapourise the paint, not enough will cause splattering. My own compressor/airbrush runs at about 18 - 23 PSI depending on the thickness of the paint I'm using

PRACTISE!!!!! Learning how to use your airbrush can be challenging - even switching between my old brush and my new one took me awhile... so I recommend having a bait pony just for practising on - things like getting the right ration of air to paint (on a dual action), gradients, smooth FBRs, correct paint consistencies...

Have fun! I find that when I am not in the right frame of mind, my aibrushing isn't as awesome... but when I'm actually enjoying myself, the work looks way way better

Good luck!

[Maniah]

Practice really does make perfect. I have used an airbrush on cakes for going on 10 years, but when I got my pony airbrush, I had to practice with it first.

Just try making lines as thin as you can. Play with the brush. See how it behaves when you do different things with it. Try holding it different distances from the target.

As far as technical stuff.. I have a water trab that I need to install on mine, but I haven't had time to go get a coupler to hook the hose to it. It's rather odd in that I hook it to the compressor, but the bit it has that I hook the hose to is smaller than the bit on the compressor that it was made to fit. Obnoxious. I don't really know where to go to get something to make it fit.

Anyway.. Practice. It'll come together after playing with it some.

I have seen people suggest mixing acrylic paints with water as a cheap alternative if you dont want to buy acrylic thinner, or even windex. I didn't realize the difference between the two, but windex seems to evaporate faster, making the paint dry faster on the pony. Ive only used windex once so far (Oh god the stink!) but that's what it seemed like to me.

When airbrushing a base coat, you will want to do light coats so the paint doesnt bead up and run. I hold my brush a good 8 inches away when doing a base coat.

[keikokukien]

This is just one thing I have to add because even if you know from other crafty projects, it can still happen; after your pony has finished drying, don't put the painted parts on top of paper/boxes/anything that can transfer BEFORE sealing your job. U_U; Seriously, with all the glue and paint projects I work on, I still ended up doing this twice. One pony was finished drying and had been for two days and I was trying to find a book my sister lost in my room...well, a few days later, I went to seal up the painted bits with mod podge and the pony was stuck to the top of a cardboard box...*slaps forehead* Mistakes will happen, but just thought sharing might help this not happen to you. And make sure you only paint in a ventilated area that is okay to get paint on something. I use the garage and lay down newspapers so the car port won't end up pink and purple.

[PrincessOfDarkness]

And make sure you only paint in a ventilated area that is okay to get paint on something. I use the garage and lay down newspapers so the car port won't end up pink and purple.

I made a spray booth by cutting the top and front off a box. I lined the bottom - I wrapped a piece of cardboard the right size with saran wrap/ glad wrap which gets replaced after each session - and have been using it for years. Not only does it catch the overspray, it gives me the perfect place to test spray things