help needed

[wingers]

I've finally got around to airbrushing my first shell and it’s not gone well!
I’ve got some ideas as to what some of the problems were but others I'm not so sure so I’m after some advice.

The first problem was the paint being blown around the surface of the shell (is that “spidering”?). This got much worse if I held the airbrush closer, but seemed just about manageable if I held it 15cm or more away from the shell. That was a sort of work-around but I can’t see how any detail work could be completed from that distance so there must be a better way. I guessed that the pressure might be too high so tried reducing it (to less than 20psi) to stop it happening but ended up with lots of large paint droplets coming off the nozzle. I think that’s because the pressure was too low, so I think there must be another problem causing the spidering instead. I also tried reducing the airflow to help stop the spidering, but that only seemed to make the “blobbing” worse.

Another interesting point was that I had to open the nozzle as far as it would go to get any reasonable amount of paint onto the shell. Again this seems odd, and may be a clue as to where I’m going wrong?

I'm using Faskolor paint with a 0.25mm airbrush and sprayed black first (without any real problems) then red, silver, white. The silver and white were by far the worst but red also suffered a little.
I haven’t tried thinning the paint at all but the thicker paints (black) seemed to flow better than the thinner ones (white) so I’m doubtful of that being the right thing to do.

What is a good distance to be spraying from? Looking at some designs that I’ve seen on here I would expect it to be a couple of cm for the detail work, further back for general colour filling.

Wingers

[RichyUK]

I'm no expert but I paint quite a bit, so here's my 2 p's worth.

The fact you have to pull the trigger all the way back to get paint out suggests no.1 that the paint is too thick (confirmed by the fact you say you haven't thinned it), and no.2 you've probably got a paint build up inside the nozzle, which gets worse on non thinned paint.

Also, you should be able to spray at around 10 psi for detail work, but the paint needs to be thinned even more for that to work, and that's why you're getting the paint spattering out, as its not atomising because you need more pressure due to the thicker paint.

The spidering you are getting is likely due to you trying to use too high of a pressure. Try thinning the paint and reducing air pressure

[Mike Parker]

Where abouts are you doing your painting mate and storing your paints??

If it's in the garage at this time of the year, the cold is a major factor as it thickens up the paint which doesn't help. I go through this everyday at this time of year and there is nothing like it!

I do a couple of things -

I get all the paints I'm to use and stack them on the radiator to warm them through. This helps a great deal - It doesn't matter how much you thin it if the paint is stone cold when your loading up the airbrush.

Also I warm the areas I'm about to paint with a hair dryer as it helps with the initial bond of the first pass with the paint onto the lexan, and with the first coats spray at a relatively low PSI. Keep the hair dryer going as this flashes the WB paints off and will help when building up the coats, this will help stop the spidering

[wingers]

Paints are stored in the house and I was painting in the living room!
If you ask the other half she may mention something about paint on the table/walls/TV but those allegations were never proven...

I hadn’t thinned the paint as I was reading some threads on here and people were saying not to do so with the Faskolor paints. The white was slightly thicker than milk but only just. Before seeing these comments, I did try another coat last night with the regulator turned up to 35-40psi, and the flow rate restricted by a separate adjuster on the airbrush. That seemed better, but might have only been better because I was applying paint onto paint, not bare lexan.

I’m surprised that 10psi is the recommendation though, elsewhere I’d read more like 30/40psi and upwards. How much are you thinning the paint to be using that as a pressure?

Wingers

[RichyUK]

Originally Posted by wingers

Paints are stored in the house and I was painting in the living room!
If you ask the other half she may mention something about paint on the table/walls/TV but those allegations were never proven...

I hadn’t thinned the paint as I was reading some threads on here and people were saying not to do so with the Faskolor paints. The white was slightly thicker than milk but only just. Before seeing these comments, I did try another coat last night with the regulator turned up to 35-40psi, and the flow rate restricted by a separate adjuster on the airbrush. That seemed better, but might have only been better because I was applying paint onto paint, not bare lexan.

I’m surprised that 10psi is the recommendation though, elsewhere I’d read more like 30/40psi and upwards. How much are you thinning the paint to be using that as a pressure?

Wingers

i'll only be that low when building up shadows with very thinned down black so you get a nice fade and less overspray. other than that i'll be up around 30 psi or up to 45/50 for hammering on a large area of colour.

[wingers]

OK. If I understand correctly, to do detail work you thin down the paint, reduce pressure and spray from close range. To get more paint down quickly and evenly, you increase pressure, use thicker paint and spray from a greater distance (more like a rattle can finish).

Wingers