Earth colours - hard to airbrush?

[Beardylong]

Morning all,

Are earth colours difficult to airbrush? I'm painting an Amera Nissen hut using Humbrol Dark Earth 29 and it's proving difficult to get an even coating, with some splattering & it's pretty powdery. I know from my days in the art materials business that artists' earth colours are in effect ground up mud in the relevant medium (oil, watercolour etc) - is this the same with modelling paint? Any way round the problems?

Thx

Andrew

[chadders]

Sounds like a thinning problem more than anything else. Who's paint and what thinner are you using?

[spitfire]

Never had a problem, stir the paint in the tin for two minutes minimum, thin 50:50 with good quality thinner, I use Xtracolor thinner but a good quality white spirit will do, swirl the paint in a glass jar it should run off the sides easily and leave a wash of colour on the sides, I usually airbrush at 12-15 psi but that depends on your airbrush. Humbrol quality over the years has been a bit patchy so you might have a sample from a rogue batch.

Cheers

Dennis

[Beardylong]

I knew I could rely on you guys! Thanks. I'm using Humbrol matt enamel, no. 29, dark earth with Humbrol enamel thinners. It's a pretty new tin of paint.

How do you go about decanting paint from a tinlet, especially with the lip on the inside? This seems to be the most problematic aspect of using the airbrush for me. I'm using pipettes to measure a couple of mm into a small transparent bottle lid & then dosing the same of thinners, but of course quite a bit remains on the inside of the pipette. I end up having to flush it out with thinners but lose control of the 50:50 (& make a mess!). I've just bought some Mr Hobby acrylics and it looks as though you can pour those. I've also just discovered Vallejo Model Air in the brilliant dropper bottles - no problem there (although the range is pretty limited)!

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Andrew

[colin]

Use the one pipettes to lift the paint from the tin, use another to measure the thinners, squirt the thinners into what ever you using to mix, sometimes I just use the airbrush paint holder, squirt the paint from the pipette into what you are using to mix, and then lift it back out with same, it will have the paint and thinners mixed together, do this a few times and because it's now pre thinned you get it out of the pipette easier and the ratios stay the same

Colin

[Beardylong]

I think I've finally discovered the solution to the decanting thing - you get these orange syringe things with bottles of kids Nurofen & they're perfect for decanting the exact amount of paint. Pipettes are no good because the inside immediately gets covered in paint & you can only use them once before cleaning them out. The syringe empties clean - sorted! As long as no one plans to use them for medicine again!

[spitfire]

I think I've finally discovered the solution to the decanting thing - you get these orange syringe things with bottles of kids Nurofen & they're perfect for decanting the exact amount of paint. Pipettes are no good because the inside immediately gets covered in paint & you can only use them once before cleaning them out. The syringe empties clean - sorted! As long as no one plans to use them for medicine again!

I use and re use pipette for years, I stir the paint, then use a pipette to measure out the thinner into a jar, then measure out the paint, use the pipette that you used for the paint to suck up the mixture squeeze in and out to mix, then airbrush. To clean the pipette I use some cheap turps or white spirit which I squeeze out to clean the mixing jar, and then use a pipe cleaner to finish off, takes 2 minutes.

Cheers

Dennis