struggling to get any sort of detail with my airbrush

[frigid hound]

Hello, I've been trying to use my airbrush more for shading rather than just basing/simple top-down highlights, but whenever I try and get any sort of fine control it just doesn't happen how it looks in video tutorials. Tutorials show thin translucent layers and I try to replicate and am finding it simply covers too much at once and a second pass tends to be fully opaque. If i thin down the paint it is far to watery and runs all over the model. I tried to recreate the cult of paint tutorial video for deathwing bone (the terminator pictured last) but it really doesn't look anything like it. Is this something that looks obvious that I'm doing wrong? (H&s evo 0.4mm, 2bar, paint is armypaints fanatic bone spikes thinned about 1:3 thinner to paint)

[south abyss]

what are you thinning with?

[frigid hound]

vallejo airbrush thinner

[south abyss]

you running the same pressure you would be for priming?

[frigid hound]

yeah 2 bar

[next turtle]

it wont be the thinness of the paint

itll be how MUCH paint youre spewing out

the amount you push down is how much air comes out

the rate of air so to speak

and when u pull back thats how much paint comes out

so try pulling back less

some airbrushes have a fun little thing on the back of it that limits the maximum amount u can pull back

so maybe see if u cando that

[south abyss]

you could totally be using too much pressure as well

with priming you're aiming to cover the whole model, so if you want to be doing detail work and getting closer to the model you'll want less pressure so you don't just blast the model

[frigid hound]

thank you, I'll try it with less. I have found my airbrush is stuttering a bit, the o ring in the back looks a bit worn but otherwise I've deep cleaned it several times and I'm not sure why it's not smoother operation

I can pull the trigger slightly and it'll be fine, then nothing, and then a larger burst and then nothing again

[south abyss]

that's concerning; sounds like something not quite right, but I don't have the expertise to diagnose something like that

[jovial prairie]

The stuttering, not getting any paint and then a blast suggest paint dried on the tip of the needle, or chunks of dried paint in your cup

For the needle tip, it's just a fact of life with acrylics. Get in the habit of cleaning the tip with a brush or qtip and every now and then, go full blast (not on the model, obviously), to clear it

For dried stuff in the cup, usually the culprit is either bad paint with impurities, or going between colors without rinsing the cup. Dried paint builds on the inside, and when you add more paint, you scrape some of the flakes off into your paint. Can also happen if you're working a large area, or just for long, and need to add more paint to the cup over time

[frigid hound]

thank you, it has been very frustrating

[jovial prairie]

Thin paint running all over the model = you're spraying too much paint, too quickly. Pull the trigger less, lower the pressure, or go from further away. Or do shorter bursts, so it has a chance to dry

Mind you, some paints are a bitch to airbrush and it won't work no matter what you try. I have no experience with Army painter, but try with a different color and see if you get the same problems.

[frigid hound]

I wonder if lots of it is way too high pressure and like, putting on too much paint at once

need to get used to lots of coats

[jovial prairie]

The variables are pressure, distance, trigger action and paint dilution.

Paint running all over the model = too close and/or too diluted and/or too much trigger and/or too much pressure.

Play with the variables you can control (distance has to be kept close with detail work) and see what difference it makes.

A lot of airbrushing is figuring out what works well with your particular airbrush, compressor, paints and climate

Once you get speckling or paint not coming out, you're at the other extreme of too little pressure, too little trigger or too little dilution

[frigid hound]

ty very helpful

[wanton cypress]

2 bar is about 29psi, which is too much for a thinned down paint applied close. I would try 1 bar with a thin paint. But really, a MAC valve will save you a lot of hassle.

[frigid hound]

thank you, I'll look into a mac valve as I've no idea what that is

[wanton cypress]

It's like a little air pressure tuner that you can control the airflow with at the line and make small adjustments. That way you can just keep the compressor at 2 bar and then turn the air down on the MAC