Airbrush and paint questions

[Huw333]

I've never used an airbrush before (i've only used spray cans and large scale car spraying equipment) but its something i want to try so after much consideration and searching the forum for advice, i've ordered a AB130 from everythingairbrush. I now have a few questions!

I went to my local model shop yesterday to get some paint (i prefer to see the colour in real life before i buy it!), they only had pactra but i heard people on here talking about it so i bought a few colours so i can experiment.

One of the colours is a metal flake effect, it looks like a laquer with metal flakes on it - i was wondering if the nozzle on the AB130 would be too small for the flakes?

I also understand that the paint is not water-based so wil i need a special cleaner for the airbrush or can i use windowlene?

I also bought some thinner in case i needed it but i've heard that generally the waterbased paints dont need much thinning so is it necessary to do this with the pactra paint?

Thanks in advance

[jonmiller]

cant answer yer q's right at this minute, gotta dash. feel free to add me to msn and i will try to answer any questions you have.

[email protected]



cheerz,

jon

[telboy]

It all depends on what size the nozzle is. If I remember rightly the metal flake has pretty coarse flakes in it. So I would assume that they would struggle.

Pactra do 2 types of paint. Their normal solvent based and their acrylics. You will need solvent/celulose based thinner to thin the solvent paints, also to clean the airbrush.

Water will do for thinning and cleaning the acrylic based paints, but companies like the airbrush company or everthing airbrush will sell proper cleaning agents for the airbrush.

[DCM]

the AB series is a .3mm nozzle, had one, and any thick paint, or paint with particles in it, clogs the nozzle.

[Huw333]

Thanks for your help guys!

The airbrush arrived today, i thought it would be cheap and tacky looking but it actually appears to be excellent quality, a nice surprise!

Originally Posted by telboy

It all depends on what size the nozzle is. If I remember rightly the metal flake has pretty coarse flakes in it. So I would assume that they would struggle.

The nozzle is 0.25mm, i'm guessing this is too small? Is it possible to change the nozzle for a larger one?

The flakes dont look huge, i would say they are smaller than 0.25mm (and i'm a toolmaker) the code on the jar is RC69E if that helps?

Originally Posted by telboy

Pactra do 2 types of paint. Their normal solvent based and their acrylics. You will need solvent/celulose based thinner to thin the solvent paints, also to clean the airbrush.

I'm not sure what type of paint it is, i would guess its solvent based? they all say they can be thinned with RC75E thinner (the one i bought).

Thanks.

[Huw333]

Just an update for everyone - i had a go with my airbrush last night and i'm quite pleased with the results. The metal flake seemed to work ok, i tried mixing it with some paint first but then decided to just try it on its own and it was ok. The nozzle is probably a bit small but only because it takes a while to paint a whole shell - i guess a bigger nozzle would cover a bigger area?

I'm hoping to get it finished tonight so i'll put a photo up when its done