Down The Airbrushing Rabbit Hole

Last night was my first true leap into the airbrushing rabbit hole as I sprayed an actual model. ‘Oni, in your last post you said you made progress airbrushing terrain, what gives?’ Well, that’s terrain and in my book it doesn’t count because you can fudge it up and it’ll still look nice. Write that down in your notebooks faithful blog readers… Always practice on terrain first. Anyway, here is my Ultramarines Vindicator in a stylish Mordian Blue motif.

Not only is this infinitely better than using a standard bristle brush, I found that using the airbrush made it incredibly easy to create natural shadows by simply angling the airbrush and spraying across the model at about a 45 degree angle instead of directly onto it. After just this one use it became apparent why so many love and can’t live without their airbrush.

Let me start this last segment covering the topic of thinning the paints in an airbrush. Citadel paints absolutely have to be thinned as the paint needs to pass through a fluid nozzle with an orifice literally the size of a pin head. Water alone will not work. Why? Because the paint should dry within micro seconds of hitting the surface. If the paint mixture is watery it will pool up and run. Some people will tell you to use Windex (Yes, the blue stuff used to clean windows.) as it has a quick dry agent in with the overall chemical mix. I tried this and they’re right, it does work. The problem however is that Windex contains ammonium hydroxide. This can cause premature wear on the elastomer seals inside the airbrush. So I do not recommend using Windex. In fact the instruction manual strictly forbids  the use of any ammonia containing products in the airbrush. Here’s your solution for thinning the paint…

Liquitex Airbrush Medium. This stuff works like magic. It’s worth noting that much more is needed when using the Citadel Foundation paints… A lot more. The foundation paints are thick and will clog up the airbrushes fluid nozzle quickly if not properly thinned. As to how much the paint should be thinned; I’m still learning that to be honest.

That’s all for now, I’m off to spray another tank. I’m thinking the Predator is next. Thanks for dropping by. Cheers!