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Goldelocs Bears Sep 25, 2008

I have a few more questions about airbrushes. My dad has been looking around for me and found some that he thinks will be alright for me to start off with. Is a 35mm valve good or does it need to be finer? Is a gravity feed or a bottle feed better? Dad has a few compressors of different sizes so that shouldn't be a big problem powering it.
Then once I get going what paints are best and will they need to be watered down etc...?

Thankyou 
Ann-Marie

Judi Sep 25, 2008

Hi Ann- Marie,
Make sure you have a water trap on your compressor because you don't want water coming through your air line.  It will splatter your work.

35MM valve.  Where is this valve?  Is this on your airhose?  An airbrush for fine art should fit nicely in your hand almost like a large pen.  You want to stay away from larger airguns.  I can't picture anything in my mind right now that would be 35mm on an airbrush itself.  If this is on your airhose than that will not affect your painting.

Paint.  Almost any kind of paint will flow through an airbrush but it needs to be at the proper viscosity to flow smoothly.  One of the biggest challenges with airbrushing is trouble-shooting and getting the paint to flow.  Since you are working with such a fine mist of paint it will be more likely to dry on the needle tip and block paint flow.
You can buy ready made airbrush paints from a number of sources.
I work with acrylic based paints as they are soft , flexible , and permanent and they flow nicely.  I use Liqutexx fine art paints which need to be watered down, and Createx which state that they are "airbrush ready" but I still water these down too.  If y our paint builds up too quickly on the mohair it will become stiff and detectable to the touch.
I just bought some taxidermy airbrush piants which I have not tried yet but have poured some out of one of my bottle and they look great.  I can't wait t try them on another new tiger I have in the works at this moment.

The most important thing you can do to help yourself be successful at airbrushing...and I can't over emphasize this,  is practice-practice-practice.

Good luck!

Goldelocs Bears Sep 27, 2008

Hi Judi,
Thankyou for all of your help, I took the plunge and bought an airbrush, it has a .35 nozzle not 35 oops 
I'm so excited to give it a go, lots of practice on scraps first though 

Thanks again
Ann-Marie

Judi Sep 27, 2008

Best of luck Ann -Marie! :dance: