best paints for airbrushing.

[Reuben]

So dad has a fully functional air compressor and air brush kit he uses to spray models with. So im gona start using it for spraying body shells with.

But would like so views from experienced sprayers in what paints they prefer: brand, solvent or water based. etc.

and where to get them from??

[Darren]

I too have and use an airbrush to paint my shells. I use waterbased paint. it easy, run free and makes the job effotless (as i work in a Car repair bodyshop) i can get most colours and its free so if you want i can get some for you to practice with. Chopper jones (mark) has sprayed some shells using it and fines it better as its already mixed. Let me know if you want some and what colours (remember the colours are what real get you to work cars are painted with... so bright greens, yellows etc are not in great demand, but can get pearls and flip colours)

[ian]

ahem... bit late to the party here...

I've used 2k base coats on shells but I normally use an adhesion promoter too, just to make sure they don't flake. If you google search house of kolor you can find people selling small amounts of their special effect colours, sorry kolors. They're great paints from the states used in the custom and effects field, they go on well, you can get any colour you can imagine, but they're thinners based so you'll need to invest in some thinners and make sure you work in the garage and maybe get a mask too. However these are professional automotive paints, so be sat down when they tell you the price cos depending on where you get it from that will be professional too

Alternatively you could use Faskolor, what is it with this american spelling I like faskolor, they do all the colours HoK do, they're cheap, no smell, can clean out with water ( although you can use screen wash too as it won't damage the rubber seals on your airbrush ), and you probably shouldn't breathe them in but if you do, they aren't as bad as solvent.

Aside that almost locally ( on Holton Heath Trading Estate, just the other side of Poole on the way to Wareham ) is www.everythingairbrush.com/, they sell cheap airbrushes which are more than adequate for our purposes and they also sell Auto Air paint, this is near enough the same as Faskolor but in more shades, so it might be worth giving them a try if you need anything for this sort of stuff. Hope that's of some help however late i've posted it ;D

[Samspeed1]

Have the full Fastkolor range at work. I think it is the best water base paint for polycarbonate. Most colours you can use straight from the bottle no thinning. I found you do need to put it though at very high psi between 50-70 depending on colour.

Personally i like to mix paint. I use Pactra (solvent) paint on all my RC shells.

[ian]

When I first started using Faskolor I struggled with them slightly as they're so gloopy and the high pressure meant over spray every where, so I bought a new airbrush ( £30 ish ) from the previously mentioned place with a much larger nozzle than I would use for solvent based paint and it's fine now.

Pactra are undoubtedly good paints but when ever I use them they kinda bobble up on the inside of the shell, the outside looks fine but the inside has the texture of an old house brick whatever I do I can't over come this, lower pressure, higher pressure, some thinner, holding the airbrush closer, holding the airbrush further away, nothing works, so I'm sticking to the water based unless someone can give me an explanation ? I've seen shells by Jon Winter of Racer Mag fame and he never gets problems with it like I do ? Obviously something I'm doing but I don't know what ?

[ian]

Just to illustrate my point, it's embarrassing posting this !



And a close up detail of it...

[gwesty]

too thick material and too high pressure .

[ian]

Cheers for the reply Gwest, I'll give that another go as I find solvent easier to work with.

I've thinned it in the past though and I've lowered the pressure, maybe I need to go thinner and lower still

[Samspeed1]

I agree, paint is too thick. You don't need as high psi for solvent paints as water base paints.

Do you only get this with white? I find you need to thin Pactra white more than any other Pactra colour.

[ian]

I thinned them about as much as I thin the paints I use every day, which are 2pack base coats designed for automotive spraying.

That's what I can't understand, I treated them as I would any other paint, thinned enough to go through the airbrush, adjusted pressure as I normally would, can't remember but I'd guess between 20 & 30 psi which isn't that high, I even tried them in an airbrush with a larger nozzle size for this job.

Will have to experiment some more and see how I get on, I know everyone else seems to get on with them so it must be the way I'm using them...