spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

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mike1268
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spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by mike1268 »

I don't currently own an airbrush. Never used one.

Pros and cons to using an airbrush over a rattle can?

Also, there is an old post about how to use an airbrush but the link seems to have gone. Would be cool to see how people are using both cans and airbrushs
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spongehoobtank82
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by spongehoobtank82 »

Hey dude, I use rattle cans for the under coat and base coat, then an airbrush for and camouflage patterns and panel shading, I find the spray cans give me a better finish on large areas and the airbrush is great for small areas and detailing
Sponghoobtank82-panzerIII, panther V, tiger VI early and late and another early tiger,leopard 2a6, panzer IV F2,challenger 2
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mike1268
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by mike1268 »

Any recommendations on which airbrush and compressor to get?
billpe
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by billpe »

I used spray cans for primer but an airbrush for most other actions, with exception of some weathering where I use brushes.

There are several problems with cans: You can't control the pressure or flow and you cannot get the right colours or mix them. The last is you need to do allot of masking off and paint in an area where you don't mind overspray.

As you cannot control the flow or pressure, only the distance from the thing you're spraying, to get into the fine detail you'll need to spray at different angles, which means some parts will get double, maybe triple layers of paint which can kill off detail. It can also lead to dripping and welling of paint if too much is applied - you'll never get this with an airbrush unless you try and do it. Cans are also pretty inefficient and over time will cost you more than a good quality airbrush and a compressor - for instance my Tammy Leo 2A6 used one 30ml pot of Nato green and about a quarter of Nato black and brown - probably £10 to paint. It used a whole can of Tamiya primer however! If you want to do things like preshading or build up layers or modulation it's impossible with a can. Then there is the colour choice - in cans it just doesn't exist.

As long as you get a good quality airbrush, which is dual action (control of the pressure and flow of paint) and a half way descent compressor you'll see the practical benefits of one after a bit of practice - each brand of paint has it's own quirks but generally they're easy to find out what the right pressure and thinness is. It takes a little getting used too but apply in fine layers and it's about as good a finish as you can get. I'm an idiot when it comes to artistic endeavours and even I can make a tank look semi decent with an airbrush but I did invest in a reasonably expensive Iwata Revolution with 0.5mm. I use a pretty generic two cylinder AS196 clone.
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PainlessWolf
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by PainlessWolf »

Good Morning,
I too use rattle cans for primer and base coats. Billpe has the right of it. Most tanks will take a can of the quality Tamiya primer at least due to the numerous thin coats required to get at all of the odd armor angles and attached equipment. For base coats, I use the excellent Model Master's in whatever color is required. Their Olive Drab and Dunkelgelb are spot on. ( at least to me, I do not want to ignite another paint color war ) One thing that I do is use an add on handle for the can, one with a grip and lever that allows a much more even pressure and spray of paint than just pressing on the valve with a forefinger would do. For hardline camo, I prefer using a hairy stick. For Ambush patterns and other types of camo, an airbrush would definitely be preferred.
regards,
Painless

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AlwynTurner
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by AlwynTurner »

Well I just spent a whole afternoon trying to get my new airbrush and compressor working to spray my Abrams. First mistake was mixing the paint before checking that everything worked. Connected everything up and found the hose from the compressor did not have a washer in the connection so no pressure. Made a washer and tried again. The hose blew off the connector because the hose was cr@p. Fixed the hose on using the ever faithful piece of wire wrapped round and twisted tight. Tried to use the crap airbrush that came with the compressor and that just plain didn't work, wouldn't suck the paint out of the pot. :silent: :silent: @) Then used the much better airbrush that I bought and it worked! much celebration initially as I started to spray. Then found I was getting moisture in the paint - no moisture trap on the compressor! It was also taking ages and at the rate I was going it would take days to paint the tank.

Gave up, cleaned everything up and used the reliable hairy stick which was faster but obviously didn't give the nice finish obtainable from the airbrush.
In future I will use the airbrush for weathering and small jobs and just use the good old reliable hairy stick for the donkey work. Disappointing but a lesson learned. Alwyn
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billpe
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by billpe »

Why not get a compressor with a moisture trap? Sounds like that is the only problem. Depending on the compressor, you can buy a new regulator with a moisture trap on it.
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AlwynTurner
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by AlwynTurner »

Hi Billpe, It wasn't just the moisture, it was the speed. I didn't realize how slow airbrushing is when you are tackling something the size of the Abrams. It is probably fine for small jobs or delicate finishing work but for a large tank it just takes too long. Alwyn
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spongehoobtank82
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by spongehoobtank82 »

Yeah for 1/16 scale rattle cans are much better for under/ base coat, tried painting one of my models base coats with an airbrush took forever and the finish was not what I had hoped :-( plus if you don't have tank compressor gets really hot when you use it for any length of time, great results when detailing/ camouflaging with it though!
Sponghoobtank82-panzerIII, panther V, tiger VI early and late and another early tiger,leopard 2a6, panzer IV F2,challenger 2
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AlwynTurner
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Re: spraying, rattle cans or air brush?

Post by AlwynTurner »

Yeah I was working with the compressor for maybe 45 minutes and I could just about have started cooking on it. It's a cheap compressor so you get what you pay for. As you say sponge detailing/weathering is where it's going to be at. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the hairy stick results on the Abrams though. Cheers Alwyn
YOU'RE NEVER TOO OLD TO HAVE A HAPPY CHILDHOOD!

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