@@Quaaludiosprues, army guys, and printer paper are good ways to get the hang of it. Try writing your name in cursive on the paper. Then again in varying thicknesses
I'm going to be honest here, Paul. This one of your best videos in months. Especially the segment on paint consistency and spiderwebbing was not just cathartic as someone who has(and still does) struggled with spiderwebbing, but it was also super useful to learn about your fixes for it! Truly great work, Paul!!!
You mentioned that spider webbing didn't appear when you tested paint on paper but it did when you applied the same dilution to a model. That's probably because the paper is absorbent and will suck up any medium while the model is not. Hope this helps for your future testing
Learning to shut off the paint before shutting off the air is probably one of the hardest things for new airbrush users to master. This is one place that the pistol grip style of airbrush has an advantage. You cannot stop the air flow before stopping the paint flow.
What a crazy coincidence I actually got an airbrush too from my family because they knew I really liked Warhammer so they thought it would be pretty cool for me to have this and man is it so much easier to paint smaller, tedious stuff than it used to be. I used to dread painting infiltrate, but now it’s actually pretty fun
I upvoted when you started your rant about thinning paint and skimmed milk. This has never meant anything to me either! I got a pile of Army Painter airbrush paints for Christmas and part of the appeal of them was definitely their ready-thinned nature, getting paints to the right consistency for airbrushing is always a challenge for me. I would however say that paints in dropper bottles are a bit easier to get right than paints in pots. Once you've worked out a ratio for a particular paint it's not too hard to note it down, and drops are more consistent than brushloads so it's likely to be repeatable. I've had an airbrush for several years now but I'm still using it in a pretty basic manner. Even at the most basic level it's still really useful for priming and varnishing miniatures though.
Haha, definitely. As far as Im aware, skimmed milk has the same consistency as water which has the same consistency as airbrush thinner. I usually just go by how well it flows down the side of the airbrush cup
Same lol. I dislike it because how vague it is and hate even more when people just parrot it without elaborate it any further. Usually I just go either 1:1 or 1:2 and adjust it if it's too thin or too thick.
A few tips I learned: 1.) Don't cover the nozzle and have air blow back into the airbrush (like some youtubers suggest). That will just clog things deeper which is harder to clean. Just don't do that. 2.) Airbrush is a tool for specific functions. It is really good at getting paint on model and making a glow effect. Airbrushes can also change the color of a paint or ink when used. I don't know why but I noticed it'll usually be a lighter color sometimes. 3.) Even if you don't feel like painting using it as a primer alternative with zenithal highlights will be an interesting detail that even if you bring to the game, people will still want to look at them. I don't have a pile of grey shame, but I do have a pile of primed potential. 4.) It is cheaper than rattle cans if you plan to do a lot of miniatures long term. And takes up less room if you use a lot of different color rattle cans. 5.) Airbrush medium is a great way to dilute paints even for a brush stroke.
Ever since getting my airbrush I haven't regretted it in the slightest, it makes it so much easier to lay down difficult base colours. (Like white or yellow) I don't have easy access to the outside to prime models, and spray cans have a lot of drawback. Priming with my airbrush is much cheaper and more convenient. And it leaves room to do preshading and stuff. Personally, I really feel like an airbrush isn't that expensive and really is a big QoL improvement for any painter once they've achieved the basics. Even if you do no fancy tricks with it it will just make your painting a quicker and easier. My biggest tip I can give is, buy some dropper bottles and create your own pre-mixed airbrush paints. It will save you a ludicrous amount of time and headache. They will last a long time, give you a lot of consistency, and they are also useful when not using the airbrush if you need thin paint..
Lol, good videa. When i got my airbrush (after decades of non airbrush work), I paid someone to teach me all about it. How it works, how it breaks, how to strip it, how to clean it, how to rebuild it, how to troubleshoot it... and it was the most useful 3h I ever had. We didn't even paint anything. But it taught me how to push through all those roadblocks every new owner experiences.
As always the first two minutes of your video has me rolling in laughter. Even better your story of dipping your toes in to airbrushing mirrors mine anxiety and all too. Great vid!
Something that people often skip over is that not all *brands* of things act the same way through an airbrush. Inks, for example. I've found that Daler Rowney inks go on majestically with my brush but Liquitex and a couple other brands are basically useless because they are way too thin or have no pigment. A lot of tutorials will just say "when using inks in your airbrush" or "when using sealants in your airbrush" without mentioning that the user needs to find what works for them.
Rattle Can Primer > Airbrush main color > Manually Paint details > Airbrush varnish. Just adding the airbrush in to these two steps will save you so much time and frustration. Don't be afraid to experiment with PSI's and thinning ratios until you feel comfortable with it. If you don't know what the consistency of milk is, pour some in a shot glass, and swirl it around, see how it clings to the sides but is transparent. Use the little lube bottle they provide on the trigger, just a drop at the beginning of every session.Also finally, my airbrush became SO much less frustrating to use once I learned you have to constantly and aggressively clean the tip, the nozzle, the needle, and the cup, I flush with water and then a splash of Lacquer thinner between each color. The cleaner you run it, the less problems you'll run into long term and ESPECIALLY clean and disassemble at the end of every session. Good luck, I hope you begin to enjoy using it, it's a powerful force multiplier for miniature painting.
I often check consistently from the airbrush by spraying a bit on my cutting mat, paper towels don’t show potential spider webbing wel because it absorbs the moisture
I super strongly recommend to find some decently sized bit of spare terrain piece and use that as a test for spraying rather than paper as paper will absorb the moisture from overthinning whereas the plastic will not. You can then gauge how the paint performs in a way that will represent the behaviour you will see when applying it to your mini good vid btw and I chuckled at the skimmed milk comments
I bought an airbrush about three years ago, and have used it in most of my projects since then. I did not need an airbrush, you do not need an airbrush. My main use for it is getting very nice even coats of primer, basecoats and varnish.
biggest time saving i got using an airbrush is not priming with it, rattle can is the old faithful and sticks better. use airbrush to zenithal highlight then apply contrast paint for auto shadows. then finish base coating small stuff...edge highlight yay basically done after base.
my experience with an airbrush: it's very good for high quality priming and basecoating, but with ADHD, knowing that i'll have to clean it afterwards means i literally can't bring myself to use it unless im priming like 30 models in one session. also, mine isn't fancy enough to do any NMM or other cool stuff with it. it can also be difficult to get the exact ratio of primer to thinner that it wants. its worth it overall imo. love ur vids my guy
Bought an airbrush two years ago. Have used it maybe several times as I am terrified of being awful at it and I was spider webbed to mental breakdown. This video has inspired me to use my airbrush *today*. I will update here later and let ya know how it goes. ;-;7
Great video :) Depending on how easy it is to get ventilation, I would thoroughly recommend thinners based paints (lacquer and enamel) for someone looking to learn airbrushing. It's a different batch of stuff to have on hand, but old school scale model makers used these paints for a reason. They're buttery smooth to apply, the thinner re-dissolves the paint in the airbrush so you pretty much never need to worry about blockages, the paint dries basically instantly on the model so spidering is much less of an issue, and generally the paints are much cheaper than water based ones. Just a thought, but keep going! That dreadnought looks sick!
I agree completely. I've been a car modeler since i was in my early teens. In the last 2 or 3 years, I've started to dabble in TT minis and models. In doing so, I have also leaned on the mini-painting comunity to see how the workflow progresses. Long story short, acrylic paints are super frustrating compared to enamles, laquers, and the like. Acrylics are great for washes, weathering, and hand painting but don't like trying to airbrush with them.
@@EndofTransmission My local hobby store for one. Wolf Hobby - Massillon, Ohio. Tamiya pots (24 ml) are $6.99. Vallejo droppers (17 ml) are $7.99 and GW pots (18ml) are $8.49. Testors enamel (7.5 ml) are $2.49. they also have a store brand called MCW Finishes (15 ml) that's $4.99.
@@demondredge4983 that would make the enamel paints more expensive per millilitre though (at least compared to Tamiya, though Vallejo and Citadel are a lot cheaper on their respective websites). Is it because enamels have better coverage?
hey, throwing in my $0.02: the paper you are practising on and the modle will have different textures and adsorption characteristics, so what works on one might not work on the other :)
THANK YOU! Your rant about skim milk is validating! For years I've raged against that advice. Am I supposed to go buy skim milk, and try painting with it?
In my few years of experience, 'pre-thinned' often still needs thinning (like 20% ish instead of 50% ish), but varies a lot by brand. Tamiya goes on like a dream, but I avoid Vallejo where I can. I test my thinness with a cocktail stick dipped in, if the paint drips off it easily it's now thin enough. Very much something you just get a feeling for as experience grows.
For anyone starting out... Next Level Painting is going to be your best resource. Kenny can be a hard personality to get used to, but he understands and communicates the why's and hows of painting very well.
I've been in the hobby for years and purchased my first air brush a few years ago, only last year did I conquer my fears and now I'm very happy using it, it's great at priming and laying down base colours. I also purchased the army painter Air brush paint set which although is another expense but has massively saved the stress of trying to thin paint, love the channel brother 😊
I always Prime my minis with a rattle can before I go over with an Airbrush. This saves me so much time since I don't have to cleanup the airbrush 20 times before I can start to actually apply my painting scheme
I own no warhammer models, will never paint a warhammer model, but I love your videos and they consistently make me laugh, you have great comic editing and timing, and drawing too
I found for thinning for airbrush the best approach was to ignore whatever the %^# skim milk means and use clear plastic pots to mix the paint and thinner then put it in the airbrush. Yes you can mix in the cup, but starting out your not going to get it as well mixed as you think, and it's hard to tell the consistency in the cup. Mixing in a small clear container (I use plastic shot glasses) lets you play around and see it's fully mixed. Yes you'll waste some paint, but that's going to happen anyway until you figure out what you are doing. It's one of those things you can really only learn by experimenting. Because you're batch of paint isn't identical, the temperature and humidity are different your thinner isn't identical and all these things factor in. Only mess with one variable at a time. So while you are figuring out consistency. Don't change paint color. Start with the pressure set to a reasonable value somewhere in the middle of all the different values you will hear online, then leave it there. Try and maintain you distance from whatever you are spraying. Then play with the paint consistency until it sprays OK.
I use my airbrush on literally every single model- no matter how big or small. I prime with it, then usually do a zenithal, then my basecoat, then a subtle color highlight, then maybe shadows if the zenithal isn't enough. It's fantastic for vehicles and big panels since you can get a perfectly smooth gradient of any two colors essentially for no effort, and it's also fantastic for doing tinting using super transparent glaze style techniques, like for colored metallics and hue shifts. Quick tip, dunno if this is popular in the UK, but we have a childrens toy in the US called Silly Putty, which is the perfect masking material for small models. It easily allows you to mask of sections of complex geometry to avoid overspray, I just used it to paint a powerfist blue on a metallic arm. Doesn't pull up dry paint, leaves no residue.
Arbrushing is really fun. I like to thin my paints to the point where they easily flow down the airbrush cup but don’t pull away from it completely meaning they still cover up the color of the cup
I started with a 0.2 needle airbrush and learning how to thin the paint correctly was... an experience. The fact that the first paint I tried to thin was the crap called Thousand Sons Blue did't help either. Good thing is that now I can spray pretty much anything without problem
I love this video. I got an airbrush specifically for painting large models, and it is super helpful. I agree that starting out the tutorials made no sense what so ever, and it can all be really intimidating. But once you get it figured out and the model comes together it the best feeling and just looks awesome. Now if only i could stop fucking up the washes....
will say even if you don't pick it up blending and detail like the pro's it will level up your basecoat and zenithal game in no time at all. If something feels off, stop and clean the needle/cap
What helped me a lot - was buying Vallejo paints, you can just thin them 1 to 1 with Vallejo thinner , and it give ±ideal results every time. Also buying mid level airbrush wowed me, on how much more control you get.
Since you just got a bit into Gundam, it might be an avenue to practice with the airbrush. Most Gundam modelers use that compared to hand painting. The fact you can take the model apart makes it a lot easier to paint the different colors too, although you will often have to mask to do color correcting bits. Also, priming using the air brush is something you can do too that will probably save you a bunch vs canned primers.
My first experience with an airbrush was a single action Paasche, thinning and cleaning with window cleaner. Pre-youtube days, so information was scarce. Let's just say, that thing clogged almost continuously. Many years later using a decent double action airbrush with all the appropriate rituals, sacred oils, cleaning fluids and unguents, and it's been a much easier time. I think the machine spirits of my newer airbrushes are a lot happier. I don't think that Passche will ever forgive me.
I started to use the airbrush for simple one color basecoats. Then i started to do a two color (dark and light) basecoat to emphasize light and contrast. And when i was confident enougth i used it for all sorts of intermediate to „pro“ techniques. But mostely to slightly change hues or values on parts of the model. Or to blend layers done by brush. So it still looks paunted by brush, but it takes way less time than actually blend it to that lvl by hand.
I approach airbrushing in the same way I did playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 as a teenager - spray and pray. Great video Paul, had me simultaneously nodding in agreement and laughing in equal measures.
Yeah I doubt it'd get one otherwise and it was very good for the dreadnoughts. Makes me less stressed/thinking about procrastination for my other dreads
I just use my airbrush for priming models and base coating. Brushes offer so much more when it comes to stuff like weathering effects, fine/small details like eyes or decorative items, highlights and glazing or washes.
The Harder & Steenbeck RU-vid channel has a lot of good Airbrush Tips and also recently started to answer Question asked in thier comments. Their Answer to how much should i thin my paint is usually 1drop thinner per 1 drop paint.
Yeah I heard one drop thinner to one drop paint as well. I think that was the cause of my underestimating stuff because I was thinking one brushful would equal one drop from a dropper bottle
Once you start getting into more advanced techniques of airbrushing, your skill will increase tenfold! Stuff like pre-shading, inkining, and contrasting start to make your painting so much more impressive with very minimal effort. OSL (object sourced lighting) becomes trivial when you're using an airbrush. I've been in the miniature painting hobby for almost 10 years at this point but I can confidently say that I got really amazing at painting in the last 2-3 years after aquiring an airbrush and really learning how to use it properly. Keep at it, and soon enough, you won't be able to get enough of airbrushing!
Yeah I saw some stuff about doing that. Some tutorials mentioned it being useful, others said it wasn't worth it. I imagine for starting out doing the mixing outside the hopper helps you see the consistency and get a better understanding of it
just one tip: Citadel paints suck :) Get anything that comes in a dropper bottle, that way you can measure much better the proportions (like, 3 drops of thinner for every 2 drops of paint), and if there's some colours that you think you're going to be using often with ypur airbrush, consider getting an airbrush specific paint (for example, Vallejo's Game Colour Air, or something like that, works pretty good, and already comes with the right consistency to save you the hassle. Also, being efficient when cleaning your airbrush and switching colours and such is a must, otherwise you'll end up dreading using it. In this regard, Vince venturella has a brilliant tutorial that literally changed my life (my airbrushing life, that is). I don't remember the title exactly, but he's usally very descriptive, so it'll probably be something like "Cleaning your airbrush" or something like that Hope it helps. That dreadnought looks amazing, keep it up! As with everything in the hobby, practice is the only way of improving. Don't be afraid of trying new stuff and you'll soon get the hang of it
I have put a mark on my airbrush well to show how much thinner I need then normally 2 or 3 drops medium and then put in enough paint till it is sufferntly that colour (put in less of a dollop at work your way up) and if its not opaque enough i will ad more paint
As also a new airbrush owner I thought the comprehensive video Squidmar recently did on the subject was actually a really informative video for someone who doesn't know anything 😂 but I totally agree that most tutorials seem to have a lot of assumed knowledge
Squidmar's video was on the of the ones I watched and it was very useful, and they even said that skimmed milk comparisons are worthless so bonus points there
Great video with great timing. I've read a lot about airbrush for beginners (I knew the possible reasons for webbing) and I have all the kit ready.... except a solution to my spray booth and window being on opposite sides of the room (a vent kit for dryers looks promising). I've been putting off my airbrush journey from noobdom, in part to the vent problem but really because I know it's going to be a slow learning process. But it looks fun and I really want to get into it. Plus, the grey pile is not getting smaller! I don't think I want to sacrifice any of my larger kits to practice my (nonexistent)skills on..... I'm delaying again!😠
@@PaulIsBadAtStuff I'd highfive you but I'm afraid I might injure myself Keep up the great work, love the flow of the videos and I'll be watching the backlog :)
I use my airbrush almost exclusively for priming and doing metallic base coats, saves a ton of money on primer and isn’t much slower, while also making basing my necron a in silver 1000% faster
the webbing might have been because the paint was too liquid, hence when used on paper it absorbed the excess water and sprayed gently. I used mine to Jackson Pollock my stormcasts and did a metallic grey gradient space marine army, being a adhd madmen too I managed to get just the right consistency of my 4th pot of silver ish paint at hand left over my gunmetal, it was necron compound DRYBRUSH PAINT, didn't webbed, had about 15 h of airbrushing ever done, don't ask me how I did it. since then i get quite the occasional web and nozzle clogs. and one last thing, don't do like me and get... A STATIC GRASS APPLICATOR, I'm a few hundred in and now my hills and forests will be dazzling and lush that even slaanesh might find it excessive.
Other than the age and the mini being used, this could've been me making this video. I'm still terrified to use it, so it's mostly been used for priming minis and a little bit of gentle flesh tones to Angrons wings. I'm sure we'll both be airbrush superstars in no time. And until then, I shall pray for all the poor gaunts I use for airbrush target practice.
Actually, organic things like Tyranids are good subjects for airbrushing. If there's small imperfections, it doesn't really matter. It's not like smooth surfaces where the flaws will show up most. When I was painting some a few weeks ago, I used a small piece of paper as a shield to get a nice edge along the big plates.
Troubleshooting an airbrush when you don’t already know how to use an airbrush sucks. After a whole freaking year trying to figure out why my airbrush kept clogging, or when it did work why it was too wet on like a 20 year old dakkadakka thread. 1. Vallejo black primer does not like a lot of airbrushes, and 2. Airbrush thinner, counter intuitively, dries out the airbrush faster than water (thanks, random warhammer RU-vidr for the completely wrong advice). I kept thinking if I was getting clogs, my paint must be too thick, so I’d add more thinner! Not how that works lol Ive switched to colored Vallejo primers and thin with water and have had zero issues for 6 months
I saw enough videos to know that is worth an airbrush. Some things are just easier and/or faster with that tool. I'm saving some bucks to get my first airbrush + compressor
Waiting for my first airbrush & compressor (almost the same set in fact) to be delivered from Amazon as I stumbled on this video, this was excellent! I have modest expectations, if I can at least use it for priming & zenithals I'll be happy. Brush priming isn't much fun, and rattle cans are pretty useless when it's -20 C outside. I was too stingy to spring for a spray booth, so I'll try using a cardboard box to contain the spray as much as possible. Let's see how messy the room's surfaces get before I yield and buy a damn booth.
I used the box the compressor came in as my spray booth by cutting it a bit. Didn't see any mess on my surfaces afterwards so should be fine. I would recommend a mask though!
The reason why paper is fine and the model spiderwebs, is thay the paper soaks in the "wetness", the plastic of the model doesn't. I personally try out on my cutting mat, so i don't get the "paper soaking"
My advice would be get some pippettes and some little pots/jars pippettes help measurements and the little pots/jars are for paint storage of ready mixed stuff also the little jars i have work well for testing the consistency of the paint hope that helps a bit
@@PaulIsBadAtStuff Most people probably use vallejo surface primer or badger stynylrez primer through their airbrush. Depending on the nozzle size of your airbrush you might need to thin it a bit.
@PaulIsBadAtStuff Vallejo surface primer black is fantastic, however their white leaves a lot to be desired. Monument Hobbies surface primer is also really nice, for black, grey, and white. I highly recommend priming with the airbrush as a method of practicing. It's a very low stakes environment that helped me get over the anxiety of learning to use it. Since you are covering the entirety of the model you don't have to focus on placement and you can instead focus on thickness of application. Once you've got that down you can shift to practicing brush control by picking a part, like a arm or shoulder pad, and trying to prime just it without hitting other spots. If you miss or get over spray it's no big deal because you are going to get the whole model anyway. You can also begin practicing gradients by doing zenithal highlights with the airbrush.
I wonder if the reason you got different results on paper is because it's more porous/absorbable? Maybe trying it on some plastic or laminated paper from takeout containers or something would yield more similar results?
Quite possibly yeah. I imagine I wasn't spraying exactly the same amount or from the same distance as well. Potentially also the angle I was spraying meant I had more control over the trigger. Lots of reasons for my incompetence!
If you're getting spiderwebbing, just pull the airbrush a bit further away from the model. Get thin layers on the model with the wider mist spray, let it dry while you work with other parts. Once you're done with the rest of the pieces, the first one should've dried down for another layer.
I have an airbrush just so I can easily and smoothly apply the main colour to my models. I love painting but painting so many space marines in the same core colour just drains me.
in my decade of mini painting experience learning to airbrush is just as difficult as learning to paint, except you also have to make sure your super precise mechanical instrument is maintained properly and you have to spend like half an hour setting everything up and putting everything away after you're done. You're better off learning to wet blend, buying rattle cans, and just pushing the issue back until you're forced to learn because you need to paint tank camo or something
What airbrush did you get/ what are the extra bits people would need for one? Its one of those investments I don't know If I want to make in the hobby yet (though my pile of shame would say otherwise)
I got a fengda one and a fengda compressor. Other stuff is things like a mask or extraction box, some thinner, cleaner, a stand/pot (or make your own) and... something else I'm probably forgetting. Depending on what's in your pile might be worth getting one
