Hi my name is Scott the miniature maniac and today we’re going to
take a beginner look at the airbrush. What up, mini family? Airbrushes are a double edged sword. On one hand, they can expedite
your miniature painting process quite a bit and on the other hand,
it’s new tool to learn and mess up with. I’m not sure about you guys, but my
learning journey with the airbrush was not as advertised.
I struggled quite a bit. So, where do we even begin? Well, I think we should talk about
the typical anatomy of an airbrush that you find
in the miniature painting hobby. The most recognizable part
of the airbrush is the needle. An airbrush needle
comes in a variety of diameters. The general thought process is that the smaller
the diameter of the needle, the more fine the control but I’ve personally found there to be diminishing returns
the smaller you get with your needle diameter. Somewhere in the .3mm diameter
is the perfect size for your needle. Anything smaller than that
seems to be a little bit too fragile which is a real problem
when handling tiny little needles like this. After the needle,
probably the most obvious next part is the cup, which is not something
found on all airbrushes. The typical style of airbrush
you will see in the miniature painting hobby is a gravity fed airbrush
which places the cup above the main body. This allows gravity to do
the work of feeding the paint to the front of the airbrush
where it will be distributed from there.
The alternative to this design that isn't seen
as often is called the siphon feed. In this design, paint is
siphoned up from below into the airbrush. The main value of a siphon fed
airbrush is that the vessel allows you to use a larger quantity of paint which makes it great to paint
a large amount of models or something very big. The downside of the siphon feed
is that it’s harder to change the paint out. I often find that while airbrushing,
I’m mixing paint in the pot or changing colors and not painting a
huge quantity of models too often so I tend to stick
to gravity fed airbrushes. Generally speaking, a siphon fed airbrush
requires more air pressure to operate because you need air pressure
to siphon paint out of the reservoir and also air pressure to propel
that paint onto whatever it is you're painting. With a gravity fed airbrush, gravity
is helping you, so you can use lower pressure which means you have more control.
You’ll see why later, having lower pressure
allows for more control. As an alternative to both of these designs,
you have side-feed airbrushes which have the value of also not blocking
the view and operating like a gravity fed airbrush. For beginners, however, side feed airbrushes tend to have
a lot of attachments and add-ons and things to buy so for a beginner it makes sense
to use the more simple gravity fed airbrush. After the cup, the other component of the airbrush
that gets the most recognition is the trigger which has various functions
depending on what type of airbrush you get. At the basic level,
you have a single action airbrush. This trigger functions like a light switch. When you push it down,
it’s either blowing paint, or it isn’t. The more you push the trigger down, the more airflow
you get, but I find that most airbrushes, not all have such short travel that
it’s very difficult to get that degree of control.
After single action airbrushes
we have dual action airbrushes. Same idea with pushing the trigger down, but
as you pull the trigger back, you get more and more paint. Lastly, there is such a thing
as a pistol trigger airbrush. Instead of having the trigger
on top of the body, this sits below. For some people,
this is more comfortable of an experience. The cool part of a pistol grip airbrush is that
it manages to still have the dual action of functionality while only having one actionable
button to interface with the airbrush. When you first pull back
on the trigger, you only get air and if you keep pulling you get paint, only some at first,
but more the more start to pull. And then when you let go,
the paint stops and then the air stops. This means that you can’t modulate the amount
of air pressure and paint independently but it does teach you good
airbrushing practices, which we’ll get into later.
Now that we’ve described some of the most
recognizable components of an airbrush let’s go over
how an airbrush actually functions and talk about some of the less notable
components of the internals of an airbrush. For the rest of the video we’ll be talking
about a dual action gravity fed airbrush because that is the most ubiquitous design
you see in the miniature painting hobby. So, what actually happens when you push down
on the airbrush trigger and you hear that hissing sound? Well, pressurized air travels up
from where the hose is to the front of the airbrush.
And because it's traveling in a corridor
that's getting more and more narrow it causes a localized
low air pressure in this portion. Now at this point, the needle is resting
perfectly inside of the needle nozzle not letting any paint
get out into this front element. But as you pull back on the trigger, you pull this tapered needle
back into the airbrush causing a little gap here and now all of a sudden
paint can get into this front area. But why would it want to? Well, it does it via a thing
called the Venturi effect. The air here is at a low air pressure and the air here is that a normal air pressure
and because of that a vacuum occurs sucking paint out of the airbrush
and out of the front in a fine spray mist Now not all airbrushes mix paint internally, the ones that we use for the hobby do. The HP-CS, the Sotar 2020. Some mix paint and air externally, but this
often results in a wider and coarser spray pattern so for painting miniatures
it isn't the most useful unless you're like base coating
or priming terrain, or a large volume of minis.
But what about all those extra tools
you need to start airbrushing? Well, that’s a good question. Let's talk about some of the most helpful
accessories that you can have while airbrushing. Probably the most obvious
of them all is a compressor. Some people have really strong opinions
about compressors, I am not one of them. Just get one with a tank, a moisture trap, and a way to
regulate the pressure and you’re done. Another pretty obvious accessory that I recommend using
is a prefabricated thinner of some kind. You can make your own, but you can also go with the
no fuss solution of just having one that's already done and I'm a fan of Vallejo's airbrush thinner.
You'll need Teflon tape
or pipe dope or beeswax or some way to seal up
the connections to limit air leakage. Often times a roll of tape
comes with your compressor. A spray bottle, a cleaner of some kind, a wrench
or vise grips to unstick pesky airbrush parts some oil to grease the threads
of your components and your needle gloves if you don’t want to get
paint on your hands, and a respirator. Even though most of the paints
that we use are non-toxic it’s probably not a bad idea to avoid
getting any kind of paint particles in your lungs. And it’s also a good practice to develop when you actually do start
using things more toxic, like enamels, etc. You can find all these parts
linked in the description below. So now you know all
the fancy words and all the fancy tools. As miniature painter airbrushers, we use an
internally mixed dual action, gravity fed airbrush. Now with that is out of the way,
let’s get on to some real practical advice. In order to unlock the full potential of an airbrush
the most important concept for you to understand is the relationship between
the viscosity of the paint inside the airbrush and also
the air pressure of your compressor.
So let's start there. Some of the first questions people ask
when they start airbrushing is what PSI should I use or how much should I
thin my paint for the airbrush? Just like with paint brushes, there is
no one answer for either of these questions. Let me help you figure out how to answer this question
for yourself depending on what you're doing. So let’s start with the most basic usage
of the airbrush, base coating and priming. For these applications where you want
coverage quickly, you’re going to use a thicker paint because the more you thin your paint,
the more translucent it becomes. Because your paint is thicker, you need to use
a higher PSI, something like 25 to even upwards of 30. So now we understand
the first part of the relationship, if I want to use thicker paint,
I need to use a higher PSI. This makes sense,
because thicker paint is harder to propel. Because it's harder,
we need a stronger vacuum.
Because we need a stronger
vacuum, we need more air pressure. Now there's a problem with high pressure and that's when
we want to get close and detailed with our airbrush. If you’re base coating,
this isn’t really a problem. The further you are from your miniature, the wider
your spray pattern, the bigger your coverage. This is actually desirable
when you’re base coating but what if you want to be
more accurate with your airbrush? Well, if you get in close with your airbrush
on a high pressure, bad things happen. The pressure from the brush makes the paint
spread which is not at all what you want. OK, so the pressure is too high,
and we need to lower it, so let's do that.
If we lower the pressure
and start spraying what you’ll notice is that now we’re getting
more of a speckled application. This happens when your paint
is too thick, or your air pressure is too low. So, that means if we want a low pressure so we can be closer with our airbrush,
we need to thin our paint more. Now we can be close,
get nice tight lines, with minimal speckling. So, through this little demonstration,
we’ve explored the entire equation. You want to base coat stuff really fast? Use thick paint, and high pressure, and back away
from the miniature to limit spider-webbing. You want more control, to have
more accuracy, and get in tighter areas? Use thinner paint, lower pressure
and get physically closer to the miniature. Obviously there's a spectrum
in between these two extremes. You can go with a medium opacity
and a medium air pressure. It's all dependent on what you want to do. I’ve linked a little graph
in the description that will help you troubleshoot your airbrush PSI and dilution problems
until you fully grasp the relationship.
Now before we start
applying paint with our airbrush, let’s make sure that it’s actually
in a working state right now. Nothing sucks quite like getting
a bunch of nicely mixed paint into your airbrush only to figure out that your trigger
or your needle is stuck in some way. This is pretty simple, just try to run some water
through your airbrush to make sure everything is OK.
If you’ve airbrushed in the past,
what you may discover is that you didn’t do the greatest job
cleaning, and something is gunked-up. It’s a good idea to take care
of these problems now before proceeding. Now, let’s mix up some paint
and actually do some airbrushing. From my personal experience I've never found
a paint range to not work at all for the airbrush but certain ranges work better than others. Most notably ranges
that have a very matte finish aren't the easiest
to airbrush, stuff like Scale 75. Regardless of what paint range you use however,
the process looks mostly the same. Before putting any paint
in your airbrush’s cup it is generally considered a best practice to mix
and thin your paints outside of your paint cup.
This allows you
to ensure the paint is fully mixed as well as easily remove any dried bits of paint
or unmixed chunks that would likely cause clogs. Once you’ve gotten the consistency of paint
where you want it based on what you’re trying to do it’s time to start actually airbrushing. Often times I will test the paint in my airbrush
on something other than my model before applying it to see if the airbrush
is behaving in a way that I expect it to a gloved hand, or some
piece of plastic laying around. You pour the paint into the cup
and begin to gently pulse the paint. Consider a rhythm like this:
air pressure fully coming out gently start to apply paint, gently
stop applying paint, stop the air pressure. All of your paint application should be buffered
by just straight air coming out of your airbrush. You do this for a few reasons. Generally you want to dry the paint
you’re applying as soon as it comes out. This reduces the odds of spider-webbing. Apply a little bit, dry it with the air
of the airbrush, rinse and repeat.
Another reason you apply paint in this rhythm is
if you cut air and the paint at the exact same time you sometimes get a little dribble
on the end of your needle. This little droplet is your worst enemy and when you go back to start painting
again and apply air pressure that little droplet is shot off the end
of your airbrush into whatever you're painting Likely ruining it, it sucks.
YouTube, what are you doing
in my refrigerator, you sneaky little Chad? Well, while I have your attention let me tease a little release that's coming out
on Black Friday that's a little bit vampiric. You have to wait until Black Friday
to figure out what is going to be but it's something I am super excited about. All right, back to the video. Alright, you understand what I consider to be
the fundamentals of using an airbrush at a beginner level but I think there’s some value
in talking through typical airbrush applications. Base coating and priming
is easy enough to understand, but what if I want to get a blend
from one part to the next on a miniature? Let's talk through that.
All right, in today's live demonstration
we're painting a Space Marine because you all know
how much I love my Space Marines. We're gonna paint an ultramarine
shoulder pad and we're starting with Regal blue which is an old Citadel color
from Games Workshop. Again, using that range
because Citadel's more satin than the other guys. We're doing a base coat here so I'm going to make
this dilution a little bit thicker than I normally would. And this particular segment
is playing back in real time so you can kind of see how slowly
and gradually I build up the layers. Now as a reminder, I am doing mostly
air and less paint than you probably think. We're trying to dry each layer
of paint before I apply the next one by pulsing air in between
my applications of paint. And another layer because I want
to get brighter of a blue color. All right, now we're gonna mix in some Hawk turquoise,
which is a turquoise as its name suggests into the Regal blue,
to get a little bit of a brighter color and because we mixed in
thicker paint we need to mix in more of the Vallejo airbrush thinner
to dilute it a little bit.
Doing some backflow mixing to mix it up. And we're gonna test it
on a little holder there. Make sure all the regal blue
is out of the front of the airbrush. And now we'll start to
slowly apply a highlight. I want you to really notice how little
my finger is pulling the trigger back really just doing little bursts of paints
and trying to dry it with air in between. One thing I want to address
is that I am mixing paint in the cup and I do fully admit
that it's not a good practice and I just do it because I'm lazy
and I don't have anything around me to mix paint in.
So if you want to be lazy like me, you can
do that or if you want to do a best practice mix it in a little cup or a little dish or something
and then pour it into your airbrush's cup. All right, now we're gonna mix in
some FW white acrylic ink to develop a highlight, I use acrylic ink to make
my highlights because it's higher flow.
If you want to find out
more information about that you can watch the video link
to the top right hand corner of the screen. Same process, thinning it
a little bit, testing on the handle and then slowly pulsing it
with the top of the shoulder pad. Making sure not to get too much down
in the mid tone and the shadow area. Going really slowly
move my finger a tiny amount making sure to dry each layer before applying
more to avoid spider-webbing. A little bit more a little bit more thinner
as well to get even brighter of a highlight. And even some more
and some more thinner apparently, jeez. Some backflow mixing. And targeting a very small area
super close to the miniature at this point I did turn down my PSI to like 15 so I can get closer
without risking too much of spider-webbing. Now the problem
with highlighting with an airbrush is that you often go a little bit
too crazy with your highlights so we're gonna bring
back the shadows a little bit with some thinned down Chaos black
or Abaddon black it's now called.
So I'll take some black paint, thin it down
quite a bit with Vallejo airbrush thinner and then apply it toward the bottoms of the shoulder pads
to kind of bring back some of that darkness. I tend to do my highlights first and then
my shadows second whenever doing the airbrush. Now I'm targeting the bottom corners
with the airbrush here to bring some more contrast. You could have stopped
at the first highlight we did but it's a little bit of extra credit here
I really kind of stretched the airbrushes legs. Now the problem with this step is that
I kind of have the two areas subdivided a little bit. I have a lot of highlight
and a lot of dark shadow and so to bring back some of that mid-tone
I'm gonna take Guilliman blue which is a glaze to bring back some rich mid-tone.
Now if you were a better airbrusher
than me you could probably skip this step because you wouldn't have gone so ham
with your highlight and your shadow but I'm bad so I'm bringing back some of that rich
mid-tone with a little bit of Guilliman glaze. You could replace it
with ink or just a normal paint too but I like to demonstrate
all the different products that you can use through an airbrush
and there are even more than this. Once this is done, it's the last step and you can see the blend from bright to dark. It's not flawless by any means, you can see
some speckles but it's pretty dang good.
This has been live painting brought to you
by Miniac, the miniature maniac signing out. Alright, we’ve done a lot of airbrushing
today but before we fully quit it’s time to clean
our airbrush nice and thoroughly. I often start by taking a spray bottle and removing
the excess paint from the pot into a cup. Another option would be to spray it all out
but my thoughts here with the spray bottle is that less paint that comes out
through the front of my airbrush the less paint that can get dried
and stick in little areas internally.
Once that’s suitably clean,
I then start to rinse the airbrush with a 50/50 mixture
of ammonia free glass cleaner and water spraying through
the front until it’s clean. Ammonia free glass cleaner allows me
to clean out the internals of my airbrush without running the risk of harming
some of the rubber or Teflon gaskets like isopropyl or ammonia
are capable of doing. I also mix in some backflowing by covering
the front element with a finger and a sponge and blowing cleaner back into
where the needle seal is and agitating it a little bit. The needle seal
is what blocks of all the liquid from entering into the back portion
of your airbrush where your trigger is. Some folks may say that
this is dangerous, and it may be, but if you’re careful
you won’t damage the tip of your needle. On my particular airbrush, the Iwata HP-CS,
I don’t even come in contact with the tip of the needle all I do is put my finger
around the ring of the crown and it works great. Specific cleaning steps
vary from airbrush to airbrush. For instance, on my HP-CS paint gets stuck in between the needle seal
and the cup and it’s hard to get out.
Because of this, part of my cleaning process
is to have cleaner in the cup and then very slightly push the needle in
and out to tease that paint out of that area. Note that I’m not pulling the needle out
so far that it starts to taper. If I did that, I’d be getting paint in my trigger area
which is something you definitely want to avoid. Once you’re all cleaned and rinsed, it’s always
a good idea to take the needle fully out and give it a very thin film
of oil for next time. I use Badger’s needle juice. There’s a lot to talk about
when it comes to airbrushing and I undoubtedly did not answer
all of your beginner questions so I asked some of my patrons for some common
beginner questions that I'll answer right here right now. Do you still need to thin paints
designed for airbrushing? Certain brands like Vallejo and Citadel have paints that are
prethinned for airbrushing usage. But it really depends on what you want to do
as to whether or not you should thin them or not. These are likely ready to go
for applying base coats and things similar to that but if you want to do more subtle work like
layering or a blending or a combination of those you will likely
need to thin them a little bit more.
How much should I clean in between colors? It really depends on what colors
you’re swapping in between. If I’m going from a
light brown to a lighter brown, I’m not too concerned with how much
I clean in between those two tones. But if I’m going
from something like black to white, now I’ll do a much more thorough
clean job like previously described. Can you thin paint with water? You definitely can in a pinch
but what you’ll discover over time is that a thinner does a better job
of preventing clogs from happening and also applying paint more smoothly. These were all questions
from my patrons as previously discussed because this is a new video series
that I'm doing for Patreon. I have a new reward for my acolyte tier which says that you have the ability
to supply suggestions for video topics and also vote on your favorites ones and this is the first one
I'm doing, a beginner airbrushing one. These videos will always be sponsor free
which allows me to shout out some of my new patrons.
So in this video we’re shouting out: OverdriveActive, Austin B, Iron Jiant,
Ryan T Hunyor, MANUEL MUNOZ Dillan Bain, Hunter, Autumn Elliott, Adam Topliss,
Cory Smith, Philipp Eckert, Honeycomb Dreadnotty, Jonathan Kull, A.J. Ello, John, Justin,
Steven Moser, Kit Haden, Minis by Applesauce Taylor Robenalt, Ian Boyte, TheDungeonMattster,
Josh Sharp, KillerLurch, Kevin Wack Kelsey Graham, Mark Asuncion,
Michael A Drury, Matt Fedorchak and Chenster. Thank you guys
for being my patrons for this month and also thanks to all
of my current and past patrons for supporting this absolutely
ridiculous job that I have making videos
about painting tiny plastic toy soldiers. If you are interested in supporting the channel
and supporting these super geeky videos you can find out more about what I offer
on my patreon linked in the description below.
While this video may be incomplete I hope it addressed a lot of knowledge
that you’ll need when airbrushing for the first time. Maybe in the future
we can go over more advanced information. Do you guys think I missed
any essential beginner knowledge? Let me know in the comment section below. If you’re looking for an airbrush to buy
for the first time check out my airbrush comparison video I did.
If you guys like videos about airbrushes
I have a few more that you can find that I'll link at the end of the video. If you guys like the channel and you want to support it
there are a number of ways that you can do that namely buying merch
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and most importantly, don't forget to Paint More Minis! Captions by Nicosubs
