First Impressions

[topgazza]

Well that was interesting.

I found the airbrushes both a Clarke bottom feeder and a Fengda gravity fed both easy to set up and use. I think I prefer the gravity fed but that was mainly down to a bad paint mix on the Clarke. Both worked fine after cleaning and starting again. The actual painting was also easier than I thought and I had to question if I was doing it right. I didn't even practice, just loaded paint and sprayed against a paper towel while I played with the needle and paint balance. I think thats the good thing is that whilst experience will come it is a fairly straight forward job which is credit to the airbrush design. Resprayed the underside of my Hurricane and it worked well. I think I still need to get comfortable with mixing the paint. I found IPA doesnt seem to mix well with Vallejo Air as it tended to clump a bit. But with water and a couple of drops of flow improver I had much more control and consistency and no clogging. Stripping down and cleaning the airbrushes was a doddle and quite simple really.

So far so good and I feel more confident than I did before and was over analysing the potential issues. Next comes experience of course and that, obviously, takes time.

 

[AlanG]

Glad you liked it Gary. Vallejo Model Air is already thinned so you don't need to thin any more. Also i would only use water to thin Vallejo products. I only use IPA to clean paint from the airbrush.

 

[topgazza]

The Clarke is a nicely balanced airbrush Alan. I had the air pressure set at 20psi. I went for thin coats first then used the paint neat. Both were fine but the thincoats build up nicely but to be fair I found the neat worked just as well with a lower paint flow. Overall and I'm not being cocky, far from it, it was fun and I was impressed by how accurate the spray is allowing me to spray right up the edges of wheels etc and not overspray. I feel happy to use it on the real thing.

 

[AlanG]

That's the joy of using something that's 0.3mm. It gives you a finer control (at the right psi), allowing you to spray nearer.

 

[Bortig the Viking]

It all takes time, I think we all feel a bit scared trying anything new, but I find the airbrush invaluable now. Onwards and upwards buddy.

 

[adt70hk]

Glad to hear your first test went well. Don't worry if you run into the of hiccup to start with like I did last year, it will all come together pretty quickly!! Keep up the good work.

Andrew

 

[topgazza]

Thanks guys. The "easy" part was setting up and using the airbrush not the kind of work that I see in your builds. But I'll stick to base coats initially and maybe the odd camo. Although I do nice camoflauge shapes with a brush. But nothing ventured etc