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scrufts

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  1. I've been airbrushing for a few months now and am hopefully starting to get the hang of things to the point where I should be able to have some models ready for inspection soon. I still very much have my L plates on but there are some items I've found that could be useful for anyone like myself starting out, so here we go: Airbrush - I bought a job lot off ebay which included a compressor, spray booth and two airbrushes. As they have no name I presume they are the cheap chinese copies which IMHO are pefectly workable especially if you are on a budget, and not so many tears if you manage to damage one by stripping the thread of the needle insert like wot I did! It's only now that I'm going to ask Father Christmas for a decent airbrush. Clean,clean and clean. If you strip the airbrush down to clean it rather than just firing thinners through, you get to know the workings and the nooks and crannies where paint is likely to build up. For cleaning I use an odour free thinners from B&Q.I have some plastic boxes left over from a chinese takeaway and have one filled with thinners for the inital "dunk" and soaking followed by a second for strip down and cleaning.I get into the habit of stripping down an airbrush after every session rather than leaving it for later. Paint: Round my way model shops are thin on the ground and my local toy shop stocks the complete range of Humbrol which I tend to use. With regards to Humbrol Acrylics I had no end of problems with blocked airbrushes and trying to get the consistency right. (have a look at threads on britmodeller!) In the end I gave up and now use Humbrol Enamels all the time which works out nicely as I am sticking with Airfix kits for the time being. Thinning/Mixing: Go to costa Coffee/Starbucks and get a handful of their wooden stirrers! these are brilliant for mixing as well as applying glue (if you cut them down to a fine point). I then went to my local pound shop and got a pack of fifty plastic "shot glasses" for a quid. Visit your local chemist and get some oral syringes (used for giving medicine for infants). I then got a bottle of Mr sticky enamel thinners of fleabay. Using the measure on the syringe I'll use a 50/50 mix and give it a good stir with a wooden stirrer in the plastic shot glass. You can then pour as much/little as you want into your airbrush. Paper Towel: Unless you managed to hijack a load of serviettes from Costa, you're going to need a roll of kitchen towel for cleaning and wiping. Breathe Easily: An open door/window is not sufficient (especially if you're asthmatic like me) I found a reasonable mask from screwfix with changeable filters that works.Think about it. You have a lot of atomised paint particles flying around which preferably need to coat your model rather than your lungs) More info: apart from the threads on Britmodeller which are always useful, google "Dons Airbrushing Tips" and you'll find a site by a chap called Don Wheeler who explains the bare bones of airbrushing and saves you spending out £1.50 for the equivalent kindle book on amazon! That's it from me and I hope this is useful for someone like myself, starting out in airbrushing.
  2. I've now built the kit -my oh my what a handful. First of all I decided to "scalp" the pilots as the heads look soooo unrealistic and will paint the cockpit area matt black. The wings and the engines all had large gaps in them after fixing and the starboad tailwing was so wonky that I had to cut the tab, do a bit of sanding on the fuselage and attach via superglue. I used filler on the wings and the engine "pods" -no sanded down and have got to 1000 grade, nice and smooth. The plan of action is to get some primer on, have another gloss inspection and if all looks good then I'll go for a spray of Brunswick green and see how she fares..... It is the worst airfix kit I have built to date but having seen the real thing with such smooth lines I'm determined to finish the bl**dy thing!
  3. Kicking myself now as I could have had a look when I was at Shuttleworth ! I'm sure if you emailed them they would help out. (www.shuttleworth.org is the website) Having just had a look their news is that their own comet "grosvenor house" (red one) is back in the skies again.
  4. Having finally sorted out my airbrush woes and established "dad's private space" i.e. shed I've bought a few airfix kits to play with. During our holiday we went to the Shuttleworth Collection at Biggleswade and having seen the DH88 comet in the flesh, I bought the airfix kit. Oh dear me thinks as it is one of the shortest instruction leaflets I've encountered with simply "heads" in the cockpit and that's it. Having looked over the kit, the canopy seems more suited to a mustang as it has no score lines whatsoever. therein lies the question -do I simply mask off with tape and paint or do I need to score with a scalpel before I paint? Canopies are my nemesis and I spend ages trying to get them right! Has anyone done this kit recently and how did you do your canopy? ta muchly
  5. It works ! It works! started afresh today as the non stop rain was soooo depressing. pressure down to just under 20 and eventually got to a 50/50 mix of enamel to thinners and have been having great fun all day. i premix the thinner and paint before putting into the colour cup and use syringes to dispense the right amount. The only problem I have now is lack of mixing vessels as I've been using a basic humbrol airbrush glass jar/top to do my mixing. very happy and relieved now -but practice, practice, practice!
  6. Well I've just finished a complete stripdown of both the airbrushes and in all honesty I think they were overdue a clean out. One of the needles was actually stuck, hence the bubbling in the colour cup. Also checked the compressor and the inital pressure was about 40 psi and I've now got it down to just under 20. As the gauge is next door to the compressor it is quite difficult to read it because of the vibration, so eventually I'll put in an airline between the compressor and the gauge. After stripping the brushes down I tested them with thinners and they all work ok, so tomorrow I'm going to have another go at spraying along the lines of what DAGO58 has suggested. Thanks for the replies and I'll keep you posted.
  7. I'm going to strip my stuff down and see what's going on. As I've said earlier I'm no longer airbrushing with acrylics and am trying enamels instead. I'm keeping the acrylics for hand painting at work, so currently my situation is thus: Humbrol enamel and Mr Sticky thinner for spray enamel.
  8. I'll try dropping the pressure a bit, but i'm only using enamels now and not acrylics
  9. I posted on this forum a little while back -my set up was a "baby elephant" compressor and I was using humbrol acrylics. After forever blocking and stripping my airbrush I tried vallejo air with the same mess. So i decided to give up on the acrylics and go for enamels. Very recently I managed to win an "airbrush lot" on fleabay consisting of a stubby diaphraghm oiless ccompressor, moisture tap/regulator, two airbrushes, cleaning station and sprayhood/extractor, all of which had only been used once and I bagged it for £80 - very happy. spent most of the weekend converting my shed to "daddies retreat" (beer fridge on order) Tried my first session on a scrap model. 50 psi, humbrol enamel and mr sticky thinner on a 50/50 ratio. Most of it bubbled out of the cup and over me with a few futile spurts from the nozzle. Tried another airbrush which I had flushed through beforehand with the same result...grrrrrr. Short of getting a pint of milk to set by my booth could some nice person steer me towards a suitable ratio/pressure to start with? pretty please? ta muchly scrufts
  10. Getting confused now ! I've found flow improver on ebay, but what is retarder? which should I use?
  11. I'm going to get some retarder and start from there, If I'm still having problems I'll switch over to enamels and also look into my airbrush set up (thanks for the advice about moisture traps etc) We'll see how things get on....
  12. Interesting replies -I thought the idea of using vallejo air was that it was already premixed and you didn't have to thin it. I'm going to have a go with Humbrol enamels mainly because I build airfix and that it is readily available near me. I'm not overly sure about the baby elephant compressor as there is no way of adjusting the pressure, but I had to start on a budget. I'm going to get some humbrol enamel thinners and see how I get on.
  13. I last posted here in January regarding Airbrushes and I'm still having problems. My set up is a "baby elephant" compressor and a 0.3mm airbrush in the shed ("daddy's hidey hole") Before painting my models I prime them first with a spray on primer. I have been using Humbrol Acrylics thinned initially with water and then using Humbrol's own acrylic thinners and tried various ratios and then went for the "milk consistency" theory. Airbrush kept clogging and appearance was terrible so I've given up with Humbrol. I then tried Vallejo Air - gave it a bl**dy good shake before using it and the Black sprayed on like a dream, but most of the other colours clogged up within seconds. My airbrush still sprays thinners beautifully! Now going on the enamels route or the whole lot will be binned out of frustration -is the compressor/airbrush cr*p or is it just humbrol anamels and acrylics in general. If I do go down the enamels route can I get away with white spirit or do I need something more specialist. Any help would be appreciated as I am now building my models to a nice standard only to have them ruined with cr*ppy paint spraying!
  14. Progress so far...... I've tried different combinations of Acrylic paint/thinners and/or water and the end result still looks as if someone has sneezed on it.... :banghead: I have also stripped down the airbrush and cleaned it - it sprays thinners beautifully! Out of frustration I tried an enamel paint with a little white spirit and things are starting to look a little better although some tweaking is still needed. Methinks I may leave humbrol acrylics for brushing and stick with enamels for the airbrush until my skills and wallet expand sufficiently to try other acrylics such as vallejo or tamiya.......
  15. Watching the article on You Tube, apparently the new stuff goes on milky but sets clear. I might get some when we are shopping and try it out on a scrap model (we need to do something with the floor anyway ) I'm just amazed at the price it went for......
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