Airbrush paint

[nolatron]

Hey folk,

Back in january when a local hobby shop was closing I picked up an airbrush kit, compressor, etc..

Finally got around to playing with last weekend as I'm building my refinery kit right now.

My question is, what's the usual method for using then storing paint? The kit I got came with one small bottle, one large bottle, and little metal cup.

Do you only pour a little paint, mix with water/etc.. into a bottle or the metal cup, do your sprays then clean everything up with paint cleaner, and proceed to the next color?

Seems like you could just have one jar at the ready for every color you have.

Silly questions, but I'm just wondering what's the best way to switch between colors without having to clean the same bottle every single time you know.

Thanks yall!

 

[doctorwayne]

You're right; it's a lot easier if you have multiple bottles so that you can simply switch bottles when changing colours. I have a Paasche VL, which came with a large bottle (2 or 3 oz.) and a small bottle which is the same size as the small (1 oz.) bottles that Polly S paint came in. More importantly, the thread and cap size is the same, which is also the same as Polly Scale, Floquil, Testors ModelMasters, and SMP Accupaint. As I use up paint, I clean out the jars and caps, then use them to mix colours for airbrushing. I then add the required thinner and cap them for storage. I usually have about 12 or 15 1 oz. bottles of mixed and pre-thinned colours on the go at any one time, and lots of spare bottles and caps if I need to mix a new colour. If your airbrush doesn't use a similar commercially available paint bottle, you should be able to purchase additional bottles from the maker of the airbrush, but make sure that you can also get standard lids (without the paint siphon built-in) so that you can close the full bottles for storage.

Wayne

 

[nolatron]

The airbrush is a Paasche H-Set I believe.

So it looks like I should probably get a bunch of jars and caps for the colors I have now.

I'm guessing you store them using a solid top cap, then switch to the tube cap when using with the airbrush? Seems like you can probably just have 2 or 3 of the tube caps and just dunk 'em in some cleaner when you're all done.

Thank for info, Wayne!

 

[doctorwayne]

I have only one cap with the siphon tube: if you plan your colour application sequence properly, you can just run a little thinner through the siphon cap between colours. I only do a complete cleaning of the cap if the colour change is drastic, like a dark colour to white or yellow. If I need to spray a clear finish after spraying any colours, I clean the entire airbrush and cap. And when you've finished painting for the day, even before you start removing masking tape or get involved in something else, clean your airbrush thoroughly - the longer it sits, the harder it becomes to clean. ;-) It shouldn't take more than a minute.

Wayne