airbrush techniquues

[live4chrome]

hey,

I just purchased and airbrush and am still trying to get the hand of it. Does anyoone have any tips/tricks to using the airbrush for a novice? I will be using it to paint trolling spoons for lake superior.

[solbes]

I hope you get some great responses here, because I'd like to hear them as well.

I've been using one for less than a year, but here's some of the tips I've picked up:

- Make sure you have a dry & regulated air supply. An inline filter/regulator placed between your compressor and your airbrush is necessary. They have these at big home improvement stores.

- You need to practice with air pressure and distance from workpieces a little before getting into serious spraying. If you want to spray finer details you need to be fairly close to the workpiece and be spraying a fairly low pressure so that it doesn't splatter all around. To do this you need to have the paint in the proper thinned state. Wider spray patterns are much more forgiving on air pressure and distance.

- Thinning the paint. You can buy paints that are ready to spray, like Createx water based transparent colors. It will have consistency of the thinner milks (think 1% or skim). Their opaque colors may need a little thinning. Their pearl and iridescent colors will need more significant thinning and also frequent and vigorous shaking to keep in suspension. There are many options to thin each paint, but I would do some research on what works best for the paint you buy.

- Make sure you clean your gun with regularity, both in between colors and before you put it away. I have an Iwata HP-C that is fairly easy to clean. I use straight water & Isopropyl alcohol in between colors (even straight water would work for water based paints). I kind of back pulse the tip with my finger to force air back through the paint passage and then let it spray again (alternating numerous times). This helps get all the paint out of the passages. And a water/Windex mix to clean out before putting away. Make sure you get the windex without ammonia, or it will eat away at the chrome finish. If you have a bottle feed, your cleaning will probably be different (mine is a gravity feed).

- If you are using solvent based paints, you need a ventilation system and need to be very careful of it's flammable nature. Solvent based paints have some advantages, but I spray in my basement so I prefer the safe water based paints. If you spray water based paints, you need to heat set each layer with a hair dryer for a short amount of time (say 30-45 seconds). Without it, it will not bond properly. After you are done and let it cure for a couple of days, you will need some kind of topcoat, like 30 minute Devcon 2 ton Epoxy or dip in Richard Nite's.

Good luck!

[harvey lee]

Solbes about nailed it. The amount of air pressure is huge for any detail.

[Northlander]

Live for chrome I looked into this and found its cheaper just to buy spoons and jig heads but of course you dont get exactly what you want. I still may do it to get some sticks/cranks just the way I want them for the big lake. It seems like no matter how many spoons, sticks, cranks we have we always need another crazy color scheme that we cant buy.

[harvey lee]

Not only that Steve, but when they quit a color, one can repaint another to look almost the same as the original.

[live4chrome]

I just painted up 75 spoons for a grand total of about 90$, including the price of airbrush,paint,stickers, trebles and split rings.

they came out pretty good for the first time I ever tried using an airbrush.

[live4chrome]

Live for chrome I looked into this and found its cheaper just to buy spoons and jig heads but of course you dont get exactly what you want. I still may do it to get some sticks/cranks just the way I want them for the big lake. It seems like no matter how many spoons, sticks, cranks we have we always need another crazy color scheme that we cant buy.

I am very happy with the colors and patterns of the jims flashbacks and needle noses but at 5-7 bucks a pop I just cant afford to replace them, especialy since I always seem to loose one or two every time I go out.

[Northlander]

Try Northwest Outlet they have small and mag Finlanders on sale for $3 and $4. Great spoons only like 8 colors left.

[Surface Tension]

live4chrome, I airbrush my LS spoons and stickbaits as well. Jim's Flashbacks are some of my favorites.

The paint over bright is what your looking to do I take it.

Jim won't tell me how he gets his paint to bite on bright.

I suggest you start with acrylics and practice. You can wipe and wash off the goof ups.

Less hassle of cleaning the brush as well. In between colors just run water through the brush.

When your done you'll need to take it completely apart and clean it.

I use passche dual action, its not the best but it is plenty good for what I need it for. Got a Badger single action but haven't needed to use it.

I use the gravity cup and very rarely use the siphon bottles.

With that you'll be experimenting with pressure and thinning paint.

All paint is different and you'll get used to adjusting both.

Let the paint dry between colors and using shields and stencils is OK and at first you will need to shield what you've painted. If your painting over brite think translucent especially when getting two colors to make another color.

Practice your dotting, nothing worse then getting the paint job nice and you good on the dotting.

I remove the hooks and spit rings then put the spoons in a canning jar with acetone or MEK to strip the paint off.

The top coat is going to make the paint pop and turn the acrylics into neon lights.

I use a rattle can in either lacquer or acrylic and not the airbrush. No sense in cleaning the brush for that.