Welcome to my basement airbrush painting area:
As you can see, I use a 20 lb CO2 tank for a propellant. One day maybe I get an airpump and tank in the garage, but I usually paint when folks are trying to sleep or take naps or do other things, and the CO2 tank is just so much easier... I fill it once or twice a year, no maintenance, no noise.... and notice the three-way quick connect manifold. I have hoses for my Paasche, my spray gun, and my HF dual action brushes.
The cardboard backing has got a hundred coats of airbrush paint on it. Most recently red from my EPM-010:
Today we'll use Auto Air Sealer White, with a K-3 Harbor Frieght mini spraygun with 4 ounce cup. Don't let the 4 ounce cup scare you, we only need maybe half an ounce or so for this job:
I spray with about 35 lbs of CO2 pressure. No thinning (I used to thin, but it causes more trouble than it's worth with my setup). The trick is to dial the gun down to a fairly dry spray. We're NOT trying to go for that glossy lacquer coat technique... airbrush paints go on thin, and the gloss will come later from clear. Basically, you want the paint to be half dry just from the high pressure gas flowing over the piece.
I do pretty fast passes, multiple passes per session. Eventually the rocket is fully coated:
This is a sealer primer. Put it on thin and light, then stop. You're NOT trying to go for a totally opaque white like you might with a white lacquer primer. In the pictures you may see some mottling visible through the primer. That's fine. The next step after a few hours is opaque white paint. Meanwhile:
The ABC's of airbrush painting: Always Be Cleaning. Never let the paint sit in the gun/brush unless you want to do a lot of hard work to get the gunk out. Also, you can use warmish water, but not hot: heat polymerizes the acrylic paint. Just use lots of flowing water and have a bottle of airbrush cleaner handy for the spray nozzle. Also use a compressed gas can to get stuff out of crevices. It took me about 5 minutes of actual painting on of primer, and about 10 minutes of cleaning this spraygun.
It was actually the next day (today) when I put the white coat on. Auto Air opaque white. When you put the white coat on, all trace of blotchiness goes away and suddenly you have a dazzling white rocket. But, the pictures wouldn't capture the difference, so I didn't shoot any.
Weight tracking:
Before applying the sealer primer coat: 116.9g
After the sealer: 121.7 g (this bird holds a lot of paint!)
After the white coat: 125.9 g (I will re-weigh when I start next steps, it might dry down a bit).
I also sprayed opaque white onto a piece of cardstock, to give me a test canvas for my color scheme. I think I've decided what to do...
At this point I will leave you hanging. It may be next weekend before I can progress in the build.
Marc
As you can see, I use a 20 lb CO2 tank for a propellant. One day maybe I get an airpump and tank in the garage, but I usually paint when folks are trying to sleep or take naps or do other things, and the CO2 tank is just so much easier... I fill it once or twice a year, no maintenance, no noise.... and notice the three-way quick connect manifold. I have hoses for my Paasche, my spray gun, and my HF dual action brushes.
The cardboard backing has got a hundred coats of airbrush paint on it. Most recently red from my EPM-010:
Today we'll use Auto Air Sealer White, with a K-3 Harbor Frieght mini spraygun with 4 ounce cup. Don't let the 4 ounce cup scare you, we only need maybe half an ounce or so for this job:
I spray with about 35 lbs of CO2 pressure. No thinning (I used to thin, but it causes more trouble than it's worth with my setup). The trick is to dial the gun down to a fairly dry spray. We're NOT trying to go for that glossy lacquer coat technique... airbrush paints go on thin, and the gloss will come later from clear. Basically, you want the paint to be half dry just from the high pressure gas flowing over the piece.
I do pretty fast passes, multiple passes per session. Eventually the rocket is fully coated:
This is a sealer primer. Put it on thin and light, then stop. You're NOT trying to go for a totally opaque white like you might with a white lacquer primer. In the pictures you may see some mottling visible through the primer. That's fine. The next step after a few hours is opaque white paint. Meanwhile:
The ABC's of airbrush painting: Always Be Cleaning. Never let the paint sit in the gun/brush unless you want to do a lot of hard work to get the gunk out. Also, you can use warmish water, but not hot: heat polymerizes the acrylic paint. Just use lots of flowing water and have a bottle of airbrush cleaner handy for the spray nozzle. Also use a compressed gas can to get stuff out of crevices. It took me about 5 minutes of actual painting on of primer, and about 10 minutes of cleaning this spraygun.
It was actually the next day (today) when I put the white coat on. Auto Air opaque white. When you put the white coat on, all trace of blotchiness goes away and suddenly you have a dazzling white rocket. But, the pictures wouldn't capture the difference, so I didn't shoot any.
Weight tracking:
Before applying the sealer primer coat: 116.9g
After the sealer: 121.7 g (this bird holds a lot of paint!)
After the white coat: 125.9 g (I will re-weigh when I start next steps, it might dry down a bit).
I also sprayed opaque white onto a piece of cardstock, to give me a test canvas for my color scheme. I think I've decided what to do...
At this point I will leave you hanging. It may be next weekend before I can progress in the build.
Marc
