With everything to hand ie airbrush,adequate thinners,paint,pipettes,stiff oil painters paintbrush and an adequate constant air supply it is time to get to work,but where is the model you may ask ? no your first attempts will be onto paper ! you must first master exactly what your airbrush,and above all yourself are capable of producing,and to this end spend a bit of time using the instrument on a large sheet of paper before venturing anywhere near your precious model.
Tape a sheet of cartridge paper to a piece of board and with a marker pen draw some odd shapes,now load the airbrush cup with some thinned paint,learn how to comfortably hold the brush so that your forefinger rests lightly on the sliding lever normally on the top of the airbrush and your middle finger rests comfortably at the side,try to get used to this as you move the brush from left to right with the trigger depressed,as you start the action a fine diffused stream of colour will be atomised and hit the surface of the paper,if you are too close then the colour will puddle as too much air striikes the surface,aim for a distance that suitably wets the surface with a slightly diffused edge,at all times as you move the brush make sure the surface is wetted as the colour blends itself,slowly adjust the flow of air until you are happy with the proportion of paint to air mix to do the job.As a first exercise simply fill one of the pre-marked out sections on the paper working as neatly to the edge as you can.Now change colour but before you do so run a cupfull of thinners through the gun to not only clear it of colour but clean the delicate needle and reservoir.Now fill in another portion on the paper practising going up to the edge this time of the previous colour,the idea of this is that there will be many situations where minimal masking will happen,for example the subtle camouflage of a WW.2 Tank or the wavy lines of an authentic camouflage pattern,all of these jobs are well within the capabilities of the humble airbrush.Keep going until you have filled the page as your work of art developes and you learn the art of controlling air and paint all at the same time.
Once you have done this we have one more exercise before you are let loose on a model ! the next trick is to see exactly how fine the airbrush will spray,depending on the model you should be able to go down to a miniscule dot on the paper,try it and see how quick bursts can produce interesting and intricate patterns,note how the paint will dry either lighter or darker depending on the distance from the object,but remember still to keep the colour wet as opposed to dry.
Right now that you have had your first taste of what the airbrush can and will do it is time to clean up,do not skip this process under any circumstances otherwise you will need to strip down the brush and this is not necessary if a proper clean-up is conducted,think of this as like stripping your carburettor down on your car every time that you come in from a journey ! all of your critical settings will have been lost.Just fill the reservoir with proper thinners for your particular paint and keep the trigger depressed at the widest air setting,all traces of colour should vanish,now take a lint free cloth and wipe all around the nozzle area and inside the cup,add a tiny amount of cycle or light machine oil and give a quick blast,this will ensure the needle will not seize with any tiny amounts of uncleaned paint,wrap it in a cloth all ready for next time.
Next time I will deal with some advanced techniques that anyone can easily master with their airbrush.
PS-The illustration shows a glass jar as opposed to the cup mentioned above,the idea is basically the same for the two types of airbrush except the paint is drawn from the bottom as opposed to overhead as a gravity feed,the jars are more suited to covering larger areas of colour in one attempt,both have their advantages,the choice is yours.
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