Airbrushing.... my journey from Enamels to acrylics... so far

[John TAYLOR]

Hi Steve,

Yes they are good for weathering but they need servicing before you start. If you go on Amazon and look up Fengda FE-130K I`ve done a picture review of what to do. ( they are not solvent proof unless you change one seal, the nozzle one, which I replace with a thin strip of PTFE tape wound round the tiny nozzle)




And polish the needle...............................

You would be better off getting the very capable Gaahleri GHAD 39 which has the floating nozzles and has PTFE seals at all paint contact areas.

Currently £ 44 on Amazon ( sometimes is special offer at £27) and you get spare ptfe seals , lubricant and 0.35 and .05 needles and nozzles, two sizes of cups. Far superior to the Neo.

Actually I cheated a bit on the loco body. The tender was airbrushed with the bd-130 , the loco body with the GHAD 39 Just to compare...

The top one below.................

This has English sub titles but is the only one that has the bd-130 doing fine lines

 

[steve50]

Thanks for that info, the GHAD 39 looks interesting, with 2 needle sizes and spares. I've found the Neo a bit limited with only a 0.32mm needle.

 

[Tim Hale]

Hi,

How do I remedy these ‘patches’ when weathering RTR painted models? The paint was Humbrol, thinned with water, applied with a Cotman 12mm chisel, not an airbrush because I am sensitive to airborne paints.




Tim

 

[paulc]

Hi Tim , i would remove all the paint from the roof with a light sand , make sure to do the whole roof . This will give you a surface that the new paint can bite into .
Then apply undercoat and new paint .

 

[TheSnapper]

I would leave them and just blend them in.
I think they look really good as they are!
Cheers
(Another) Tim

 

[Tim Hale]

I would leave them and just blend them in.
I think they look really good as they are!
Cheers
(Another) Tim

The roof patches are rather fetching and I have absolutely no idea of how to create them, so, they stay as is. Otherwise, just pick out the tie-down hooks in ‘knacked yellow’ and some brake dust around the relevant areas of the underpinnings.

Tim

 

[paulc]

The roof patches are rather fetching and I have absolutely no idea of how to create them, so, they stay as is. Otherwise, just pick out the tie-down hooks in ‘knacked yellow’ and some brake dust around the relevant areas of the underpinnings.

Tim

Sorry Tim , i took your posting as you wanting to remove them .

 

[Max M]

Assuming it is the original base colour(?) then I'd use masking fluid and peel it off once the weathering paint has dried.
Alternatively if you wanted to repeat the effect over more of the roof you could use a flexible stencil like this?

 

[John TAYLOR]

Well, all was going well with priming with Mr Hobby suface 1500...........



.............but then with the loco body I had a senior moment and used the wrong laquer and too thick a mixture and ended up with a gritty finish
................ So !

I can today , thoroughly recommend this paint remover from AutoTek......




One more application and I can begin again !!!!



It`s a learning process................................

 

[John TAYLOR]

Back on track this evening.................


Repeat of the SMS lacquer `gripper` coat.........







I decided to try the SMS lacquer `filler` surface primer as ther are a few micro blemishes on the whitemetal parts




Livery application next using mostly Railmatch acrylics

 

[paulc]

Back on track this evening.................


Repeat of the SMS lacquer `gripper` coat.........

View attachment 238153

View attachment 238156



I decided to try the SMS lacquer `filler` surface primer as ther are a few micro blemishes on the whitemetal parts

View attachment 238154


Livery application next using mostly Railmatch acrylics

Hi John , can i ask why you mixed the grey with the etch primer ? Was this so you can see where you have sprayed or another reason .
What did you think of the surfacer black ?

 

[John TAYLOR]

Hi John , can i ask why you mixed the grey with the etch primer ? Was this so you can see where you have sprayed or another reason .
What did you think of the surfacer black ?

Hi Paul,

Yep ! purely so that I can see where I have sprayed , particularly on loco builds where there are a multitude of `nooks and crannies ` and if eyesight is compromised by aging !!! I messaged SMS and that`s what they do as well. I don`t bother if spraying individual small to medium bits.....

Their Black Surfacer is so convenient to use as it`s airbrush ready, but it is very sensitive to nozzle size and psi setting . SMS recommend 0.3 at 12-15 psi..... if you use a bigger nozzle size...say a 0.35 ,you need to use a lower psi setting....probably 10 - 12 psi.... I sprayed plastic spoons to test beforehand. If you want to thin it even more use Mr Hobby Levelling thinner as it won`t compromise it`s self levelling qualities.

 

[paulc]

Hi Paul,

Yep ! purely so that I can see where I have sprayed , particularly on loco builds where there are a multitude of `nooks and crannies ` and if eyesight is compromised by aging !!! I messaged SMS and that`s what they do as well. I don`t bother if spraying individual small to medium bits.....

Their Black Surfacer is so convenient to use as it`s airbrush ready, but it is very sensitive to nozzle size and psi setting . SMS recommend 0.3 at 12-15 psi..... if you use a bigger nozzle size...say a 0.35 ,you need to use a lower psi setting....probably 10 - 12 psi.... I sprayed plastic spoons to test beforehand. If you want to thin it even more use Mr Hobby Levelling thinner as it won`t compromise it`s self levelling qualities.

View attachment 238194

Hi John , I've used the Mr Surfacer 1500 black aerosol for black locos which gives a wonderful finish . In fact i just applied transfers and a flat sealer coat to finish the job .
I'll try the SMS etching primer plus grey on the next loco .
Keep up the good work .

 

[John TAYLOR]

First coat of Railmatch Acrylic mixed 50/50 with Ultimate thinners.

Airbrush on duty Iwata Takumi Eclipse 0.35 @ 15psi.

Probably another two coats to apply.

 

[Kev T]

I've been trying to paint this for quite a while and now I've got around to it.
I've painted the black, red, and etch primer in acrylics, and found them to be really easy to paint with. The techniques are posted extensively online, on modelling forums and of course this thread. The only reason not to paint the green was that I couldn't find a good match. I used the products recommended on here and got them from SMS who were nicely responsive.
The only issue I had was trying to get the finish coat after I'd put the transfers on. It turned out to be a real hassle. The gloss coat was VMS XXL and very thick so I decided to thin it with Mr Hobby self levelling thinners. That caused the varnish to turn to gel and totally messed up my airbrush. An hour later after cleaning it I tried gain. I'd tried mixing the varnish with a variety of thinners all to no avail so I found the video online of the owner of the company. Following his method I used it at 30psi from a distance of about 4" with a 0.5mm nozzle and it worked okay...ish. He puts a lot of varnish on, and I mean a lot. So after a few test pieces I used it on the Pannier Tank and it did work. A few blemishes but nothing I can't sort.

Overall I'm very pleased with the acrylic paints, i find them loads easier than enamels or cellulose, but I'll research car body varnish finishes for next time

 

[Mike Trice]

On this test piece an old piece of pipe has been sprayed with Precision Doncaster Green, the gloss being a final coating of Klear. I appreciate the original Klear formula is no longer available so this will probably result in thread drift for which I apologise in advance.

Klear airbrushes straight from the bottle.

 

[John TAYLOR]

View attachment 250304



View attachment 250305



I've been trying to paint this for quite a while and now I've got around to it.
I've painted the black, red, and etch primer in acrylics, and found them to be really easy to paint with. The techniques are posted extensively online, on modelling forums and of course this thread. The only reason not to paint the green was that I couldn't find a good match. I used the products recommended on here and got them from SMS who were nicely responsive.
The only issue I had was trying to get the finish coat after I'd put the transfers on. It turned out to be a real hassle. The gloss coat was VMS XXL and very thick so I decided to thin it with Mr Hobby self levelling thinners. That caused the varnish to turn to gel and totally messed up my airbrush. An hour later after cleaning it I tried gain. I'd tried mixing the varnish with a variety of thinners all to no avail so I found the video online of the owner of the company. Following his method I used it at 30psi from a distance of about 4" with a 0.5mm nozzle and it worked okay...ish. He puts a lot of varnish on, and I mean a lot. So after a few test pieces I used it on the Pannier Tank and it did work. A few blemishes but nothing I can't sort.

Overall I'm very pleased with the acrylic paints, i find them loads easier than enamels or cellulose, but I'll research car body varnish finishes for next time

Nice loco...

With regard to the use of VMS varnish.... it is an acrylic product so you cannot thin it with Mr hobby levelling thinner as it is a lacquer thinner. you need VMS designated thinner. I`ve lost my notes on VMS but I`m sure I thinned it with Ultimate Thinner last time I used the gloss varnish as it is thicker than their matt and satin.

These thicker varnishes say you need to use a 0.5 needle/nozzle..... but not all 0.5 nozzles are what they say from one airbrush manufacturer to the next , so I use my Badger 105 0.7 or my Gaahleri Barbatos Rex 0.8

 

[John TAYLOR]

This journey became shelved last year, due to many errors in learning the dark art of thinning acrylic products and the correct choice of psi settings and needle/nozzle sizes. I ended up applying a very poor primer coat which left a gritty finish.

So it was back to the beginning...........



Along this journey I discovered the ease of using Lacquer products as an etch primer and a replacement GWR livery colour match.

I used Railmatch Acrylic GWR post 1928 as the `standard` colour and found that mixing the following SMS colours was a close enough match and by increasing or decreasing the amount of SMS foliage green, post and pre 1928 became possible.....




So, this weekend I`ve returned to completing my Vulcan Dean Goods loco, having finally mastered and improved my airbrushing standard.

I`m pretty happy with the clear lacquer etch primer which can be tinted to suit and it just needs two light coats to be effective.


.

This time I continued priming with two coats of Tamiya X18 acrylic semi gloss black thinned 50/50 with Mr Color Levelling Thiiners.





However I had to revert back to Railmatch Enamel 601 so as to match the already painted Tender. This was thinned just short of 50/50 with bog standard white spirit.... All the aforementioned have been airbrushed with either a 0. 28 or 0 .3 needle/ nozzle.....



.... might need a second coat........