As I have blathered on about before, I collect, assemble, and paint plastic crack for a game I almost never play. I’ve found it’s really the act of creation and expression that is more enjoyable than pushing the plastic across the tabletop. For a while now I’ve been thinking about getting an airbrush to try new techniques and to facilitate ones I already use. For one, it would allow me to prime models cheaper on a per unit basis. But, this isn’t really a hobby for those seeking to be economical, it’s a damned money pit.
So, first question is what type of airbrush to get do I even know enough to get started? Ages ago, when I’d first started down this dark path, I’d flirted with airbrushing, but I had far less money to sink into it and the absolute piece of crap I tried to work with at the time made me shy away for fifteen years. In retrospect, I recognize several of the mistakes I made that torpedoed that first attempt – wrong type of paint; wrong type of thinner, wrong propellant, not investing in a compressor… but do I really know better now?
Yes, yes I do.
Thanks to the internet, I was able to do my research this time, and only made three mistakes. So, to get started I needed some hardware. I had been looking longingly at a top of the line Iwata I’d found, but did want to ruin an expensive piece of hardware if I screwed up significantly. Looking at my options, I got an entry level model from Master instead. While not as fine a machine, the internet had deemed it solid enough. And here I made my first mistake. Lets see if anyone can spot it.
That’s right, the compressor it came with was a tankless model. That meant it would run whenever I was spraying, starting and stopping more often, and causing more wear and tear. Whatever, too late now. It works, and that’s all I need at the moment. That, and something to work on… paint… thinner… cleaner… okay, I need a lot. In total I sank north of $500 in stuff for this project. Since the airbrush and compressor kit was only $70, that means other sundries accounted for the bulk of my setup costs. But that’s all sunk costs at this point. I have my setup, and I found an isolated Stormcast Liberator miniature laying around in a box of random bitz that had been fully assembled ages ago and never ever primed. It was the perfect candidate for a test piece because I could ruin it and not care. Okay I’d care a little because I take pride in my work, but it wasn’t something that was part of an existing project.
Step 1 – Prime the Model Learn to Spray
I added primer to the pot on the airbrush, pointed it at the target and pushed the trigger. Air began to flow with a hiss… but no pigment. What was going on?
Pointing it at a piece of paper, I began to futz about trying to figure out what had gone wrong. It turns out that despite all my research and all those internet videos I’d watched, I’d forgotten the very basic principles about how the trigger functioned. You see, pushing down on the trigger is required to open the valve holding back the air and letting it flow. That part was correct. What it doesn’t do is move the needle. The needle runs down the core of the airbrush and through the bottom of the paint reservoir. It regulates the flow of paint into the airstream. In order to let the paint out, I had to pull back on the trigger. These two actions control very precisely how much pigment goes flying out the nozzle. That, and the pressure setting on the compressor. The air pressure you run at changes the character of the spray and what the optimum consistency of paint you should use is. I mostly ran at 40psi because I didn’t want to start fiddling with too many variables just yet.
Once I worked out how the trigger functioned and did some test sprays on the paper, I could move on to
Step 2 – Prime the Model
There wasn’t a whole lot to say about the actual spraying process. I covered it in black primer all right. It probably wasn’t the most efficient airbrush priming ever done, but it was neater and more controlled than the spray can priming I’ve done in the past. Satisfied with the priming job, I set about the next step.
Step 3 – Clean the Airbrush
Like any other brush, when you are done with a color, you want to clean out the leftover paint and residues. The process, however is rather different. The three areas that get paint in them during normal operation are the paint reservoir, the needle, and the nozzle. You can deep clean the airbrush by disassembling it and scrubbing all these parts, but that isn’t needed every time if you are careful during normal cleanup. To get the job done, we need – water; something to dump the wastewater in; solvent commonly sold as airbrush cleaner; and paper towels. First we wash the pot, err, reservoir. We need to fill it with water, agitate the water, and dump it out a few times to get the leftover paint out of the pot. After the easily removed residues are dumped into the wastewater basin, I ran airbrush cleaner through the mechanism until it stopped carrying color with it. However, at this point I made my second mistake.
It cost me a shirt.
While running airbrush cleaner through the mechanism, I sprayed it into the wastewater basin. This kicked up the wastewater and splashed it everywhere. There was still plenty of primer in that water, and even prompt attempts at cleaning did not save my shirt from the splotchy stains. I tossed it in the wash and put on a shirt that I could accept damage to should new spillage take place. I could have kept wearing the stained one, but it was wet.
Lesson learned. Now I spray the cleaner into a paper towel, so I can prevent this from recurring, and observe the color for it to turn clear. If the solvent isn’t picking up any pigments from the mechanism, I figure the next paint won’t get tinted by anything left behind either. Periodic deep cleanings are recommended, just to keep the airbrush in top shape, but this process is good enough for a color change.
Step 4 – Basecoating
As I’d said, one of the reasons I got the airbrush was to try techniques I couldn’t do with a regular brush. It’s not that what I’m attempting is impossible with a regular brush, but it’s more annoying. I wanted to try out a method for getting a metallic primary color that didn’t involve mixing paint. The basic idea is to lay down a metallic basecoat, then a nonmetallic glaze over it. Getting an even coverage of a glaze is supposed to be easier with the airbrush, but first, basecoating. In my spending spree, I picked up some metallic airbrush paints from my new favorite paint company. And I picked out their ‘Aluminum’ shade, figuring that the bright silver would have the best chance of being visible though the later coat(s).
Laying down a coat of Aluminum over the black primer was a delight. The high contrast let me see exactly what I was doing, and it flowed smoothly all through the application. I was so happy.
Riding high on that success, I cleaned the airbrush again (remembering my earlier mistakes and not repeating them) and moved on to the glaze.
Step 5 – Glazing
The blue I had was just called “Blue” and had a very strong pigment. I was worried about it overwhelming the basecoat and eliminating the metallic effect. I had thought ahead on this and had acquired two products that could be put to use – Glazing Medium, and Airbrush Thinner. What do they do? Glazing medium is an additive for acrylic paints to increase their translucency without changing their viscosity. It’s slightly cloudy rather than transparent, and thicker than water. Airbrush Thinner is, well, thinner than water, and reduces the viscosity of paint. It is transparent. So I mixed one part paint, one part glazing medium, and two parts thinner in the pot and sprayed the model.
This was my third mistake.
You see, the reduced viscosity meant that the paint didn’t stay where it first struck. It behaved more like a wash, draining into the recesses, or simply being pushed around by the air from the brush. The splotchy uneven result was not what I wanted.
So, I cleaned the airbrush again and thought about how to fix this.
Step 6 – Rebasecoating.
The good thing about airbrush paints is that they all have the be low viscosity to even work in the airbrush. They are laid down in a fine mist and produce a thin layer on the surface. This means, even with the failure of my first attempt, the details on the model were not clogged with paint. I could start over without significant hassle or needing to strip the paint off. I didn’t want to go all the way back to primer black. I just needed to cover up the error. So I grabbed the darkest metallic I had at hand, a paint called “Dark Steel” from the same set as the aluminum. Having let the blue dry, I laid down a coat of Dark Steel to cover up my shame and cleaned the brush.
I was about to lay down a full coat of Aluminum again when an idea struck me.
Step 7 – Zenithal Highlighting
I’d set out on this airbrush journey to try new techniques, and one that is frequently used by the internet video makers is one called Zenithal Highlighting. Now, what on earth is Zenithal Highlighting? Well, it is actually a technique that goes back to the Renaissance with the early masters who brought portraiture out of the flat medieval style into something more realistic. In principle it is actually very simple – you apply lighter colors to the surfaces of the subject that would be visible from above, and darker colors where they would be shaded. It’s more difficult to execute in the two-dimensional space, but it adds a depth to the image that you only really notice when it’s missing.
In the three-dimensional space with an airbrush, it is dead simple. You take a lighter color, point the top of the model towards the airbrush, and spray from ‘above’, using the model’s own structure and detail as the mask to create the shadows. As I already had a dark metallic base, I applied a zenithal highlight of Aluminum to the model. In photography, since the light in the workspace is from above, it’s a bit difficult to see the effect.
Now, it was time to try the blue again.
Step 8 – I am Alpharius
Realizing that the problems from the previous attempt could be averted if I used a higher viscosity of paint, I opted to simply omit the thinner from the new formulation, going 1:1 paint to glazing medium. This time, the results were much closer to what I intended.
While I still need practice, I’m definitely getting the hang of the airbrush.
For those of you who want to know what the test mini looks like now that it’s done. Here it is, with a dime for scale.
Wow. Looks great.
Thank you.
I still have to force myself to not fixate on the mistakes.
Yeah, Impressive to paint something that small so well.
On the upside, it requires only a little paint.
Although, my character wouldn’t be a fighter or barbarian, probably a rogue or ranger. Magic-user if they didn’t only have the one crappy spell for first turn. “Oh, here you go, yeah. now I’m going to run away for a while until I reload in ten minutes or so.’
This guy is from a tabletop wargame, and is the squad leader for Line soldiers (albeit from a sculpt not exactly represented in the current store page.)
Well, good fighter/sergeant type.
Sorry, UCS, I had more complementary things to say which were wiped out by a sliding mouse. It took me 10 minutes to replace. I hate new computers.
*shrug* It happens.
No doubt!! The coin for scale is great
If that’s a test you got an “A” from me.
I might suggest, how ever, relax a little on the dime. I know times are tough and we’ve got to squeeze all we can out of our income but…
At this point, the battered dime for scale has become traditional for showing scale when sharing my work with this group.
I collect, assemble, and paint plastic crack for a game I almost never play.
I make booze that mostly gets given away.
It’s the doing that matters.
I’ve decided that if I get more enjoyment from the creation, I shouldn’t worry about the lack of playing.
Agreed
I misread that as “It’s the dong that matters.”
Also true
You aren’t wrong.
It’s what we do. It’s what friends are for.
The breadth of interests and skills in this group never fails to amaze me.
UCS, did you airbrush the details on the model, or use a mix of airbrush and standard brush? Just curious, I couldn’t achieve anything but slop at that size ;-\ Very impressive work!
After the metallic blue, it was regular brush work. I am not that adept with an airbrush to do any of those details with one.
I can see big advantages to being able to prime and base coat with the airbrush, even if you do the finish details with a brush.
One of the reasons I changed my color scheme for one of my armies was because of the hassle of laying down a basecoat different from the available primer cans. With an airbrush, the part of those models that frustrated the brush would not be a problem.
Also, canned primer is only really usable outside, and very sensitive to weather conditions. The airbrush can be used indoors with that spray box. So my options increase significantly.
Is the Liberator stepping on a bird headed Tortoise?
No, it’s a rock with a vine growing out from under it.
You should put googly eyes on the vine, it’ll look like the tortoise is screaming
… Nah, that would draw too much attention away from the focus of the sculpt.
” this isn’t really a hobby for those seeking to be economical, it’s a damned money pit.”
There are no hobbies, that are truly economical. I started shooting air guns in my basement as a way to save a little money, as I wouldn’t have to go anywhere, and ammo is much cheaper. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but I joined a shooting club for firearms, and am looking to refine my collection of shooters. And all the while I keep buying more air guns.
The only thing that keeps my woodworking hobby economical is seeing as I am a carpenter I get to Write Off™ all my toys.
There are no hobbies, that are truly economical.
Have to disagree, my main hobbies are poker and dabbling in stock options, and I’m making (some) money. 🙂
This time, the results were much closer to what I intended.
That looks good.
The finished version looks even better. I didn’t finish until after the article was scheduled, so I linked it in the first comment.
Wonderful UCS. Needed this sort of thing after today. And SK for yesterday’s, which I was lax in thanking.
Threw my hands up metaphorically and left work early today. Not going to be done again today and looks like another out of town next Monday. Getting frustrated with colleagues who say they’ll handle it (and get mad at stepping on their turf) but don’t take care of their shit, others that are creating more work rather than checking first, and a dummy who needs to shut up and listen to what others are actually saying rather mishearing and speaking authoritatively. Or a mixture of all three. And I know I’m in at least two of those categories myself. Have a G&T and scotch in the fridge for tonight.
Cheers.
Let the stress go.
Awesome article. I have a Paasche Talon that I use with watercolor. I don’t practice enough but it definitely is tricky.
I had looked at one of their kits, but I’d read somewhere that they used a different size connector for the air hose from most airbrushes, and I figured if I wanted to upgrade or acquire more, I’d be better off with one using a more common connector size.
I only have the one airbrush, plus a small compressor with a tank. I didn’t have any problems with the connections.
Marking time thru Ludacris to get to Janet. *sigh*
He’ll eventually tire out.
He has some peanut butter commercial and honestly I couldn’t tell the difference.
UCS, thanks. I’m fascinated by painting of all media and methods, so I’m of course interested in airbrushing.
I’m glad to be of assistance. There’s a lot more to know, and I’ve got a lot of practice ahead of me.
[Holds up “Nerds” card from GlibZoom]
Also, the end result as linked in the top comment is teh awesome.
Thank you.
I did see your answer regarding scheduling requests, and hope to have something written up reasonably soon. (I need writer’s block insurance)
Fascinating! Do you happen to know if any specific artist is credited with developing that technique? (::has flashback to high school Humanities class and the Art History AP exam::)
(Also, I think I saw a commercial for Zenithal during Curse of Oak Island tonight. The list of possible side effects was pretty gruesome.)
🤷♂️
I will wage a Firsthad against my enemies the likes of which has never been seen in all of Firster history.
Could you do something useful like take it out on the fucksticks at Grant and Sons that decided Glenfiddich needed a label refresh? The new one sucks.
I shall note the names of their executive officers, and they will be smited in detail when The First That Shall Change Everything is upon us.
In return, a great sacrifice may be required. I have foreseen the time and place of a needed First, and it can only be done through the naming of your next child. Yes, there will be a child. You do not need to know for when it shall arrive, only that I shall have naming rights which I will call upon when the time comes.
Never get rid of shirts or any other clothing stained during painting. Most of my other clothes have been lost to the mists of time and decay, but my paint clothes are eternal, indestructible. And damned useful.
You should see the clothes I have that were stained while Firsting. Each is a sacred garment and as such obviously would never be discarded.
Have a great day, you crazy people!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=02K82uw4lio
🎶🎶
☕🍩
Donuts? What have you poisoned them with?
Looks like theobromine and other alkaloids. Run away!
Bush. Tee hee 🤭
Mornin’.
Peak 90s.
Nice. I used to do a bit of kit building but the combination of finding dedicated time and space to do it rather than unpack and pack everything away again meant I didn’t carry on. Also I have no desire/space to display the finished products so they’d just be packed away somewhere to end up getting dusty and/or broken in a box. Sad. It’s all about the journey. The destination is just the end point on the continuum of getting there.
I got a small diaphragm compressor as apparently the flow is smoother than a piston compressor (at least when you’re going direct and not via a receiver tank). Small airbrushes are apparently quite sensitive to this. I don’t have enough experience to know whether that’s true or whether it depends on the individual compressor though. Pinch of salt. Also was the right second hand unit for the right price at the time which had more to do with it.
Another day, another interesting Glib technical piece.
Good morning ☕️
Morning, Limey.
Mornin’ all
Happy Middle Day!
Mornin’, Squirly.
Good morning, Shirley, Roat, limey, U, and Sean!
Today SHOULD be a quiet day at the office – the CEO is on vacation this week, and my boss is WFH. Now watch – something will come up, and I’ll end up being crazy busy. 😕
I want to call out of work today, but I haven’t got any good reason for it.
Besides, I’m already in the office.
Hope your day is quiet.
Calling off is a very seconder thing to do. It’s not like you have more important things, like Firsting, to do.
I am amazed you are so easily amused.
Hope yours is too.
Besides, I’m already in the office.
There’s your first mistake.
Morning all, and a fine morning it is. Some workers coming today to fix somethings, I hope.
See the dentist later but routine. Getting my yard cleaned up and feeling better to be back outside and doing a little work. Got rid of some ‘stuff’ over the week end to good homes. If anyone is short on rhubarb plants I have lots to give away. They don’t do well in the warmer climes, however.
Good morning, 4(20)! If I thought I could successfully grow strawberries, I’d take you up on some of those rhubarb plants and be motivated to learn to bake my favorite pie! 😋 Alas, I’ve come to the conclusion that I lack the patience to be a good gardener.
Old news here but New York to ban natgas stoves:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/new-york-slated-become-first-state-ban-natural-gas-stoves
My takeaway: “only 39% of registered voters supported banning all new fossil fuel equipment for new homes by 2025 and all construction by 2029.”
Only? Fucking hell New York…
Probable wording of question: “Do you love Mother Earth and therefore support banning those horrible fossil fuel-using instruments of Her destruction?”
She is probably salivating at the numbers of lower middle-class folks this will impoverish so she can add them to the welfare rolls, especially in NYC where gas is typically included in the rent but not electricity.
She gave a presser about how she TOTALLY wasn’t taking away gas stoves from current users. If you can find the audio, it’s amazing how much contempt she puts into her voice.
The entire point is to stoke division.
It’s also the Biden’s entire rationale for their policy. They work for Davos and the WEF. They’re vandals.
Good Morning:
#1 I have more baby sheep than I can count. I have to move some of these cute guys out.
#2 After breaking through the field fencing, and under the barbed wire, the electrified poly tape seems to be holding. It was sort of funny seeing the “alpha male” sheep twitich as it got shocked licking the tape. (don’t judge, that sucker has hit me many many times)
#3 two days ago i have a mass escape at 8 pm. even the cows got out. that was a fun 90 min. tractor and SUV to round them up.
Weather starting to act “twichy” hope no one gets tornadoes.
UCS: Thank you for the article, I never dreamed about ever trying to paint minis.
It’s not for everyone. I’ve been at it roughly as long as I’ve been at the state not counting the handful I painted as a kid that are long gone.
⚡🐏💫🤣.
I can see the humor in it, especially as it’s not permanantly injuring and he’s been antagonistic.
Good morning, ‘bodru! Sounds as if you need more sheepdogs! (And by all means, ignore the sheep’s “Defund the sheepdogs!” protests.) ::thinks a moment:: For that matter, do they breed cowdogs?
Oh, my, yes. Cattle dogs are definitely a real thing. The Finnish (and Swedish) Lapphunds herd reindeer.
Reading that and remembering my boyhood is a good reason for me not to have any critters, Robo. I have a chain link fence around my garden but it’s to keep things out.
Seriously thinking of running the tape around the garden as well. We need to let them out of the area they are held to graze. I don’t want them to eat my tomatoes again.
So, why was this model set aside? Aesthetics? The stats (as I understand it WH minis have a 1:1 relationship with game stats)?
I just wasn’t all that into the minis or Age of Sigmar.
It didn’t help that the starter box minis were monopose, so I had less leeway in expression. I couldn’t so much as lower the hammer arm or reposition the sheild without serious effort. (Not visible from the pictures – the hammer and helmet crest are physically connected.)
With that degree of precision, you could be a bullseye shooter.
Tell that to my eyes.
I paint objects that are between 12-24 inches from my face. Most targets are a bit further out.
I need new glasses, probably bifocals at this point.
Prescription shooting glasses are definitely a thing.
Do you have a recommendation on that front?
For bullseye, I think people pretty much use whatever they like. Some people attach blinkers and a maks for their non-dominant eye.
For practical shooting, HD Hunter’s Gold has a well-deserved reputation BUT, other than their photochromic nature (which admittedly is very nice) my regular prescription glasses (wiht a yellow tint option) performed just as well — in fact my optometrist had the same wide-noggin frames that Hunter’s uses. And they were much cheaper since they were part of my optometry plan.
My vision plan only includes the shittiest, least flexible, understaffed, and low quality chain eyeglass store, so I’ve been out of pocket the last few pairs just to have something resembling a viable experience. It’s been too many years since my last replacement and it’s starting to show.
I find this maker to have frames that actually fit my face and have a good field of vision and sufficient coverage. YMMV.
https://www.wileyx.com/
The great thing about Hunters HD Gold is that they specify the width of the temples and the lenses on their website. They also do the “give you a few options to try on, mark the pupils on the one you want us to make lenses for” thing.
But in conclusion, for bullseye, you are always looking straight ahead at the same fixed distance. So you don’t need to worry so much about the field of vision. There are plenty of people wearing “normal” glasses with sideshields installed.
That comes in handy.
Thank you for the info. I’m going to have to schedule an eye exam before I go buying anything. (I plan on making the appointment today, just because it’s been bugging me a while)
I’ve discovered that for iron sights, my reading glasses are better than my distance glasses. The reading glasses bring the front sight into sharp focus, with the distance glasses, the target is in focus, but the front sight is blurry.
Yesterday I discovered there is a pro Rugby league in the US, Major League Rugby. We stumbled across a match (?) on the teevee last night, and the whole thing was so obviously on a shoestring budget, it was awesome. It’s possible the “video replay official” was also the color commentator. In a strange inter-sport confluence, the match was Seattle vs. Dallas, and Seattle was putting the boot in.
Also learned that “seawolf” is a colloquial name for killer whale.
Good article, UCS. I have toyed with the idea of painting the pieces from some of the board games I have with large detailed figures (Rising Sun, Blood Rage, Ankh, Nemesis) but much like you it would be a ton of work for games that I don’t play often. Do you keep these on display when you finish them?
It depends on whether I regard it to be a milestone piece.
If I think it represents the pinnacle I’ve reached with a particular skill or technique, or that I did a particularly good job, it’ll sit on my desk for a while. But in general, they get packed away so they won’t be damaged.