Quick Tip: Airbrush practice with cardboard and milk??

  Hey guys, just a quick tip here...  I have seen a bunch of video's and posts lately on practising with an airbrush to get better control.  now, I don't now about you, but I'm a cheap bugger, and I hate wasting paint.  When you start practising your dagger strokes and dots, as well as fills and swipes, you go through alot of paint.  There is also a huge group of folks who always tell you to get your paint "thinned to the consistency of milk" for best performance.  I don't know about you. but for me to judge the "consistency" of something is pretty tough.  Here is what I did...

  Spray milk through your brush onto cardboard.  Yep, you heard me.  A small glass of milk will last you a long time of practice.  The cardboard needs to be the kind from cereal boxes or the like.  It will absorb the liquid, and show you how your doing, but it will also dry reasonably quickly so you can re-use it for hours.

  Why milk?  Well if you spray water, you'll get the same practice on your strokes and designs, but it dries very quickly and you don't get a feel for the effect of the right consistency of paint.  Water spiders very quickly, the milk doesn't.  By using the card and the milk, you can semi-duplicate what it will be like to shoot real paint on a real model.  Just keep in mind, the model will not absorb the paint.  You will get alot of practice and be able to try different pressures and distances from the object.

  So, if you're just getting started with airbrushing, or you want to do more than basecoat, give this a try...  You'll be glad you did.  And at worst, you can spray it into your mouth and try atomized milk?  LOL