Airbrush Miniature Painting Tips I WISH SOMEONE TOLD ME

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In this week's video, I'm going over everything I wish someone had told me about airbrushing! Easy basics like Air pressure, paint consistency, airbrush control, and more!

00:00 Intro
00:33 Trigger
2:03 Distance
2:35 Practice
4:09 Paint Brush vs. Airbrush
4:55 Air Pressure
5:39 When is it "Right?"
6:03 Needle Size
6:54 Mess Up Your Gun
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My Tools (some of these may be affiliate links):
My Tools (some of these may be affiliate links):

[LylaMev]

What has been your biggest airbrush fail?

[ajosepi]

I have been airbrushing 30+ years and 7 were professional on motorcycles, and cars. Everything in this video is correct, but as you progress you will find exceptions to some of what is in this video, and you can get away with more things as skill progresses. So this is a VERY GOOD starting point! Good job! To tighten your edge work, practice by painting a grid of dots, connect those dots with lines as thin as possible. Then like with the circles paint gradients from bottom to top, left to right, top to bottom, right to left, diagonal from each direction, and so on. Use the angle of the tool to get a crisp line on the dark side of the gradient. Replace your smooth caps with crown caps or take a rotatory tool or file to cut slots in the cap. When you get the airbrush close to the object you get a backwash of air into the cap and this disrupts the paint spray pattern. A crown cap will allow that backwash to mostly go around the tool. You can also remove the cap for tight work, but you run the risk of damaging the needle. 0.2 mm Needle can do hair lines, but 1.5 mm makes that easier at the cost of lower max volume. You can pretty much do everything with a 0.2 with practice. I think playing with air pressure is something people need to do more. If you are getting "pulsing" in your paint from the compressor, get a tank in line and or a disposable air filter. You will need to up the pressure a bit for the filter. This is normal. If you are getting water in your line, get a long hose from the compressor and put the tank or filter on the end of that. 25 feet is what I used, but you may need longer or shorter depending on what your air is like where you are. This allows the air to cool before it gets to the airbrush and will condense in the filter or tank. If you get a tank, CLEAN it every day. Also if your compressor can not push enough air in a long line, use an ice pack on a shorter line, or just a cold wet cloth. You need the air cooler in the line before the filter so it will be water and not wet air. There are a lot of simple cheap tricks to getting good air. My best setup at home was, air compressor with built in tank, 25 foot of airline, small tank, filter, regulator, airbrush hose, then airbrush. This is not needed in most cases, but gives you great clean consistent air. There are a LOT of ways to do this. Mine works for me, but that doesn't mean it is right for everyone. The only thing that is 100% right for everyone in every situation is practice, practice, practice! Sorry for the novel. I just have a lot of experience in this area.

[pebblesthecat]

Thanks for this video. My husband very kindly bought me an airbrush set up for my birthday 2 years ago. I took it out, checked everything was there, and put it away. The fear of messing things up stopped me from even trying it out, but after seeing this video, it doesn't seem as daunting as it first did, so I'm going to try and learn how to use it. Thanks.

[mikeuziel]

Great video! One other alternative with the needle--- Push it through from back to front and pull it out that way. Aside from not dragging paint through the airbrush, you also don't run the risk of getting a burr on the tip when you reinsert it. :)

[raytheron]

Great video! Thanks for sharing your experiences! One thing I stopped doing a while ago is to pull the needle out to the back while cleaning it. Instead I remove the nozzle and push the needle through the front of the airbrush. That way you don't drag paint onto the seals and don't risk damaging the needle tip, especially with smaller sized needles. I clean the whole needle of any paint it comes out the front with, and repeat until the needle comes out spotless. Every few months or so, depending on how often I use the airbrush, I put it in my ultrasonic cleaner to get rid of any hidden gunk. It always works a charm!

[marksminis]

I got the cleaning down to 3 min. The trick is to fully clean and flush out the cup before anything else. I use a water squirt bottle to blast out the paint and one swab to mop it good. Get the cup totally shiny clean! Then proceed with the rest of the cleaning, which goes really fast. A couple blasts of cleaner and a mop of the tip usually finishes it.

[firebert]

as far as removing the needle while there's still paint, one trick I saw from an old automotive painter was to always remove the needle through the front of the brush, not from the back. That keeps the paint on the side of the seal that paints supposed to be on, instead of trafficking it back the other way.

[stevenborman]

I have a small dish and a sponge that I keep damp with water and every so often press my airbrush into the sponge and pull the needle in and out, I find this is better to get rid of tip dry.
Get yourself some interdental brushes as they are far better for cleaning your brush than what I saw (desigend for your mouth, so less chance of damaging your brush) also, pipe cleaners, not the craft ones as they lose fibres. Use laquer thinners for cleaning, and a final blast of expensive airbrush cleaner when finished.
Your points on practice and paint mixes was so spot on, especially with acylics :)

[tinyfishhobby]

Love my airbrush! That bit about ignoring your advice if it doesn’t work is spot on. Every airbrush and batch of paint is going to be different, and often it’s just a matter of experimenting until you find what works for you.

[Sundaydish]

FINALLY! Someone that actually explained the airbrush properly. I have watched dozens of "Airbrush Tip" videos and all they talk about is paint! Grrrr.

[AlexEding]

Expanding on Lyla's cleaning tips for new airbrushers: Learn how to clean and maintain that airbrush. Know where your brushes' trouble spots are, as well as how to really get in there and clean out the needle nozzle if you get buildup.

I'm a big fan of LA's Totally Awesome (I learned this from Goobertown Hobbies) to do a deep clean on my brush parts (and for stripping minis) that are allowed to be wet. I even have a cheap sonic cleaner to help with this.

[ElPrezAU]

Great video for airbrushing neophytes.

The only thing I'd add that I think is important for new airbrush users to learn is that there are three factors (assuming equal air pressure) which determine paint flow - the trigger and distance (as shown in this video) but also how far down you push the trigger. When you start it feels as though it's a binary equation, either you are pushing down and making air come out or you aren't and air isn't. But even though the range of movement is tiny, over time you can learn to control air flow by how hard you press down on the trigger. This is super helpful when glazing small areas or doing other fine work.

That said, I'd suggest to airbrush users to get comfortable with all the other aspects first, but to still keep this in the back of your mind as you do.

[SCAnski]

One thing I like to do when not painting for display is to first brush on really over the top dark shadows + highlights then go over with an airbrush to change the color to what I want it to be. This also blends the mid tone shadow and highlight very nicely. Very nice when you just want to paint something nice and quick. I usually go back with a brush to add texture afterwards tho..

[damianchenot]

I'm glad to see the Paasche Talon airbrush in your video. That's the one I personally use and really enjoy it. It seems like many channels drive new airbrush users straight to the Iwata Eclipse or Harder and Steenbeck models. There are plenty of affordable and good quality brushes out there that suit our purposes well for a fraction of the price. The Talon is one of those brushes!

[YanniCooper]

If you use contrast or speed paints, I highly recommend mixing up a large batch of your favorite base prime color. I've used an old 200ml bottle to mix up something that's pretty close to Wraithbone. Mostly white primer w/ a little bit of brown and yellow mixed in, and enough airbrush flow aide that I can just pour straight from the bottle into the airbrush cup and since it's in such a large quantity I don't have to mix a new batch every time I'm priming new models yet I can maintain consistency easily between projects (and if I need to do touchups later I can always put a few drops on my palette )

[dianemarieevans]

Thank you so much. I Just received my new Airbrush & excited to get started. I'm 68 years old & trying something new. I could understand your video well. Thank you. 😊

[AndrevwZA]

Very detailed info. Great job. The only thing I saw you did and I would definitely advise against doing it, is in the end of the video where you used that metal core brush to clean the front of the gun. With guns with floating nozzles like the Iwata Eclipse range and Badger 105 range, the nozzle seating area is very important. It is soft brass and that brush has a hard steel core. If you scratch the brass, you will not get a good seal with the nozzle and you will get bubbles in your cup. You will have to use sealant if you want a good seal again.

[Gorillasecret]

I love how concise and quick your instructions are. Really appreciate you making this video it helped me a lot!

[mattdeeley]

Had an airbrush for over a year. Follow many of the popular mini painting channels, this is the best, most consice airbrush beginner tutorial I have seen so far. Thank you lyla! You rock 💕

[MKotnis]

was skeptical of title, but, it's not clickbait, actually just a lot of good points