If you have been looking to level up your airbrushing skills, one of our writers shares with you how he did it, just by reading and watching our videos.
One thing I have managed to do during quarantine is level up my airbrushing skills with some help from Rob. I did that by adding three things to my arsenal. An airbrush booth, a new crown for my airbrush, and a set of airbrush specific paints from Creature Caster called Pro Acryl (well and some experience along the way).
If you would like a review of the airbrush and compressor I’m using, click here!
*Note I am not being paid to review any of these items*
Paints:
This is the biggest improvement to my airbrush game, aside from experience, is that for my airbrush I now have dedicated airbrush paints. Before, I was playing a guessing game with mixing non-air citadel paints with thinner, flow improver, etc. to get it to a decent consistency. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. It also added time and frustration to something I should enjoy doing.
After chatting with Rob about it, he said to try out a set of Creature Caster Pro Acryl paints and see if I liked them. I absolutely loved them! Coming from someone who only used citadel paints, the dropper bottle is such a better design than what citadel has now. I am shocked they have not transitioned over. In terms of having to mix, I tried it without mixing anything in and it flowed just fine. I still like to add a drop or two of flow improver to keep it going. The colors are great, (still haven’t used the metallics yet) go on smooth, and blend with one another very easily. I recommend starting with the base set and I found myself grabbing 2 or 3 similar colors to get a nice blend and highlighting.
Overall, having dedicated paints for airbrushing is making my airbrushing experience much better and faster and I would highly recommend them to people. I have the base set which I enjoyed using but my favorite paints out of the set come with the transparent expansion set and have really enjoyed adding those touches of colors to my models.
Airbrush Booth:
Starting with the airbrush booth I picked up the Master Airbrush Brand Lighted Portable Hobby Booth with the hose extension. I really like this booth because it folds together nicely. When it’s turned on it’s quiet enough to where I can listen to music or an audiobook through some headphones. The lights are fantastic and really brighten up what I am working on at all angles. The filter also seems to be doing its job correctly. Being able to airbrush in any room of the house really helps me find a spot to post up in after the kids go to bed where I won’t disrupt what my wife is doing and spend a couple of hours zoned out spraying away.
A couple of things I did not like were the lack of assembly directions, though it’s pretty self-explanatory, and some screw holes that didn’t line up correctly in the exhaust hose extension that I had to fix. Also, I wish I could turn it on without the fan for when I want to brush paint and take advantage of the LED lights. Finally, it is kind of clunky for something that is labeled as portable, so something like a tv tray stand might not work for it, but anything larger will work.
Overall, I’m very happy with it and so is my wife. It prevents any airborne paint from entering my or my kid’s lungs as well as keeping my miss sprays confined within the booth. (No more happy accidents on the table, wall, or floor.)
Crown Replacement:
Rob mentioned in his video review of the airbrush I’m using (you should check it out here) that he loved the airbrush but the one thing he would replace is the crown cap. After using the one that came with it for a year, I agreed: the cap that came with it would get paint stuck in it incredibly easy and made mixing the paint pot with backflow air a pain. So, I hit him up for advice and he recommended a new crown type for me which you can get from spray gunner. It is a .15, .2 mm crown type air cap. Since getting it, I must say I am never going back to the old one. The dried paint clogging up my spray is pretty much gone and cleaning and mixing the paints have never been easier.
Overall, I highly recommend picking one of these up and I’d even suggest to someone just starting out to grab one as it takes some of the frustration out of airbrushing.
There you have it three ways I have stepped up my airbrushing game over quarantine that you might be able to add to your arsenal. Obviously nothing beats experience and that is probably adding to my enjoyment of using it, but when time is low (two kids, no daycare, etc.) having the tools in place to make it easier to just grab and paint for an hour or two really helps.
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