Learn how to improve your airbrushing skill for miniatures with this great painting tutorial and tips from Hellfire Hobbies- check it out!
Airbrushing has a lot of little tips that can make it much easier and your skill much better! It’s a fun way to get more minis done quickly, but you do need to know the tips to get good and get more minis on the table.
Let’s see how to do it.
Improve Your Airbrushing for Miniatures with These Tips: Painting Tutorial
To start, we’re going to talk about airbrush control. With a brush, it’s how much paint you have on your brush and where you put it; with airbrushing, it’s the same thing! So, you can control two things, your trigger pressure (how much paint comes out) and the amount of flow, or air pressure, you have pushing it out.
So, how can you practice this? Max puts down a piece of cardboard and makes some challenges for himself to improve his control. First, he sprays a little tic-tac-toe game. You can also grab a kids’ coloring book and try to color in the lines. Try to make each line as consistent and straight as possible.
This will help trigger control as you want each line to be the same thickness and also help with wrist control.
Next, he tries to fill an entire square without any overlap. This will teach you how to get a consistent spray on a full area. After that, do the same thing but leave a little black showing around the border.
Practicing Regular Shapes
Next, you want to practice regular shapes. First, he starts with a cone, i.e., less paint to start coming out and more to end. Then, do the same thing but start with the bigger shape. You can then try something like concentric circles and whatever shape you want! Just try to keep your lines consistent.
Moving to Something Harder
Cardboard will absorb the paint, but painting on a metal can, adds a few extra difficulties. A can takes the paint like a model, so you want to practice your trigger control on this.
If you spray too much at once, it will run. First, he sprays a straight line; again, you want consistency, and it’s hard because you have to go around the whole can. Then, he tries to fill in the star; this gives you great practice without ruining minis. You can easily do this whenever you finish a piece to keep your skill up! You can also change up the color to see how you do with highlights.
Be sure to check out the whole video below for a closer look at how to improve your airbrushing with Max from Hellfire Hobbies.
That does it for this one! If you want to see more, check out Hellfire Hobbies’ other airbrush tutorials by clicking this link here.
Go Follow Hellfire Hobbies Here!
Here’s a helpful list of Airbrushing supplies and equipment to help you tackle any project!
Harder & Steenbeck Evolution Airbrush (left) and Colani (right) REVIEW: High-End Airbrushes
- H&S Colani Airbrush– Amazing quality for the price.
- H&S Ultra Airbrush– is Probably one of the best “starting airbrushes” on the market.
- H&S Evolution Airbrush (Lightweight Aluminium)
- H&S Evolution Airbrush (Chrome finish)
- Badger Patriot 105
- Iwata Eclipse Airbrush– An awesome airbrush to get you started.
- GSI Creos .18 Super fine Airbrush Great for the smallest of details.
Tooty No-Name Compressor REVIEW: More Than a Beginner Airbrush Compressor
- Sparmax Compressor– Name Brand Super Heavy duty and quiet.
- Tooty No-Name Compressor– This solid overall compressor comes with an air reservoir if your airbrush didn’t come with one.
- Aspire Compressor
- Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver Makes Airbrushing EASY!
- Vallejo Airbrush Thinner Thinner is great for getting your paints to the right consistency.
- Iwata Airbrush Lube – keep your metals lubed up!
- Grex Airbrush Cleaner – The second you buy an airbrush, you should also invest in some cleaner.
- Goose Neck Bottle for Cleaning AB– Clean your Airbrush from every angle with high-powered water!
- Tamiya Masking Tape For Miniatures: 18mm Large, 10mm Medium, 6mm Small
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
