perfect paint finish tip

[percy1510]

I have a tip that I have discovered last night out of necessity. I airbushed the base colour onto My Taigen Tiger. when the paint had dried I noticed that the surface felt rough to the touch and thinking that this will not be a good surface to apply washes etc. Now I am not sure why the paint finished the way it did, its probably down to me doing something wrong with the airbrush or may be down to the fact that my airbrush is a cheap one and I need a better one? - advice on this would be appreciated if anyone has any suggestions-

Anyway what I did was use the green (scotchbrite)part of one of those sponges that you use to do the washing up. I wetted the sponge slightly and wiped over the rough paint with the green part of the sponge and then dried everything off with a paper towel and what you end up with is a beautiful smooth finish to your paint.
Maybe people already do this and I have just discovered it by accident??
Anyway I hope that this info is useful to somebody
Glyn

[Rad_Schuhart]

I had a similar problem and got some help in this forum regarding that. That might be because you may have applied too much pressure, so some paint arrived already dry to the tank.

Next time try with less pressure or some thinner.

[percy1510]

yes possibly I need to increase the amount of thinner in my paint mox

[Ragnar]

In my talking with experienced painters found their conclusion was generally the rough surface was caused by holding the air brush to far away from the subject being painted,the paint was actually drying before it hit the surface.

[wibblywobbly]

Easy way to smooth down paint is to get a packet of those antiseptic kitchen wipes. Lightly rub the surface over and it takes off all of the imperfections and smooths the paint surface down.

[Raminator]

I've had good success using acrylic retarder when the weather is uncooperative (in Australia this is 90% of the time). It slows the drying time of the paint, so it's less prone to drying mid-air or in the needle of the airbrush.

I think it's basically some kind of glycol, so it'd be easy enough to try something if the hobby-grade stuff is expensive or hard to come by.