Molding an airbrush custom handle with Sugru

  Hey guys,

  Just wanted to share a quick post/tip.  I have a Sotar 20/20 airbrush and I love the comfort handle it has.  Unfortunately, neither my Iwata Eclipse or H&S Infinity have the same thing.  Then I thought about the packets of Sugru I have sitting around.  5 minutes later, I have a nice comfort grip on the brush.  It's actually better than the Sotar, because it is much softer.

  If you don't know, Sugru is a moldable rubber product that you use to do lots of things with.  It dires in about 24 hours and becomes very rubbery, not solid and hard.  It's great for molding handles onto things, I've also used it to make x-acto blade handles more comfortable and less "rolly".  Here is a link to the product on Amazon.

  Anyhow, you just knead it a while, shape it to what you want then apply it.  It sticks to jut about anything (but it can be removed if you hate what you did...).   So I shaped it, put it on the airbrush then went through the motions of using it to get the fit right.  Then I just let it cure overnight and presto, instant comfortable airbrush handle. 

  So, that's it.  Hope it helps somebody!

Harder & Steenbeck Infinity CR Plus 2 in 1 airbrush review (vid)

  Yes, a wish list item arrived today, and even though I'm a bit under the weather, I had to unbox and review it.  And this time, no compressor noise.  I'm getting better at this.  lol.  Hope you enjoy!

Iwata HP-CS Airbrush, unbox and review

  New video up on youtube.  Had to get a replacement for my renegade Krome, something went wrong with it and it just bubbles now.  I went to Hobby Lobby and got an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS, and I unbox and demo it...  Enjoy!

Friends don't let friends bend airbrush needles

  So, guess what happens when you swing your arm around and clip the side of your paint booth with your airbrush!  Yeah, you guessed it.

  Bent the needle on the Renegade Krome.  Damn that hurts.  Took the photos with a celestron digital microscope.

  The lesson... be careful when you have your nice airbrush in your hands.  I guess my zenithal highlighting experiment waits till Thursday when the replacement comes in...  <sigh>

Piecing together an Airbrush Compressor

  Sorry for the delay between posts.  Been sick a while and awfully busy at work.  But, better busy than the alternative... 

  So a while back I bought a Badger TC910 air compressor off of Amazon.  I had heard really good things about them and was in need.  I should say, I was in "want", because I had a compressor, my trusty old Paasche D400R, but it had no air tank and I was always a bit leery of that.  Living in the desert, it does not get very humid, but I still did notice weirdness every now and then.

  Well, I can safely say I am not a fan of the badger compressor at all.  From the day I got it, it has rattled like crazy, even after adding foam and fuzz wherever metal meets metal.  Another issue is a tremendous design flaw where the 90degree angle pipe comes out to mate up to my regulator/gauge.  It started leaking from there and I had to take it apart and put some Teflon tape on it (which it did not come with).  Well, the 90 degree angle pipe is a piece of pot metal crap, and the moment I tried to tighten it (and no, I did not go ape-sh&t on it), it broke.  No big deal, I thought, 90 degree pipes are easy to find.  Except, that all the normal 90 degree bends are too big to fit this thing (The 90 degree union will keep the Compressor from bolting onto the tank).

  I knew then that I had to toss this POS and start over.  I'm not trying to beat up badger, I probably got a bad model, but at the price I paid, I expected better.  So, I ordered a tank from e-bay and got some fittings from True Value.  Lowes supplied the Angle Iron and I added the elbow grease.  I ended up with the rig you see here...  It works like a champ, the tank and airbrush combo held 95 psi for over 1 hour without even a full psi of pressure loss.  Plus, it has the nice quiet Paasche compressor and not the clunky monster that was the Badger.  So, here are some pics with captions...  Enjoy!

The raw materials.  I also got to add a metal blade for my chop saw to my arsenal, added bonus!!

Testing the MDF "floors" for the carrier combo box

Version 1 of the layout, I changed this to have the compressor at the bottom and tank on top.  It gives better access to the tank pressure gauge and to the blow down valve on the bottom.

 More after the break!!!

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

Etched Glass, A building and The Battlestar Pegasus

Wow, crazy times.  And I just had a power failure... so it gets even crazier.

Just wanted to share what I have been working on lately, and by lately I mean the last two days.  With work, traveling to Hawaii (for work) and a myriad of other things, I have been not as busy as I want to be lately.  I also have to admit that I have been working more on the model railroad lately too.  Resurrected that blog too...  But I'm trying to get back to the 40k stuff!...  Here are some projects that came in lately...

First up, my air etched glass.  The logo was a one-off stencil that my wife drew up for me.  I used my new air eraser brush from Master (link to amazon here).  I think it came out very nice.  It's the logo of my space marine chapter.  (But I have to admit, I'm getting all Orky over here...).

I used the aluminum oxide powder that came with it to etch the glass.  This is my very first effort ever, and I think it came out pretty well, for the first try ;)

You have to turn the air pressure up pretty high to get this to work, and I was afraid it might peel up the frisket, but it didn't budge at all, even at 60 psi.

So, I guess I know what everyone is getting for Christmas around here ;)


Next up, was the painting of the Battlestar Pegasus.  I know, I know, it was the Battelstar Galactica that got all famous.  But I liked the old storyline with Commander Kaine and the Pegasus, so mine is the Pegasus... Only things left are the engines, decals and clear coating...

And last but not least, The building I built so long ago is finally getting some love.

Here it is, all grey coated.  I have to say I got motivated by Duncan Rhodes' video on painting buildings, so I am going to try his methods.

   The building is pinned at each level, so that I can use the floors individually or gang it all up into one big ruined building.  Still thinking about whether or not to add a base to the bottom.   Later today the wash goes on.  Looking forward to trying my new mix of Payne's Gray wash.  Hope it works :)

  That's all for today, see ya soon!

Imperial Knight Build - Day 5

  At it again...  Base coating is done.  The gold was a real bear.  I used the GW Balthasar gold for the base, and it was thick.  Then I would thin it out too much and had to add more in.  Vicious cycle ensues... lol.  But it's done.

  All of it was done the old fashioned way, brush and patience.  2 coats minimum for the gold.  The Grey/Purple was sprayed yesterday...

  No update tonight, it's bowling league night.

See ya round!!

 

Imperial Knight Build - Day 4

  Well, it was an unfortunately short painting day for a sunday.  NASCAR and Formula 1 racing took alot of my day and then the plumbing backed up.  UGH!  Still, I did get some airbrushing done on the armor...

  Well, here is the overview of the progress thus far.  I am going with Xereus Purple and the Fang for the main colors.  Oddly enough, I am going to make this a House Hawkshroud Knight, but i don't like yellow (The color or painting it...).  In my fluff, This Knight has been on an extended mission for over 50 years.  I figure in that time, and with his penchant for pinpoint night raids, he toned down the bright yellow.

   I have fallen in love with the Sotar 20/20 airbrush (Thanks Carl!!).  The pinpoint control, as well as my ever increasing airbrush skills, makes it my go to brush for detail work.  Getting a good mix and thinning on the paint and spraying with a low air pressure seems to be the real key with this brush.

  This is the result of the first go on the purple.  For me, this is very little overspray. :)

  Once again, I used the silly putty to mask everything, although I didn't get many pictures of it. I rolled out the silly putty into a thin strip and then used it to mask the lines.  The nice part was being able to use sculpting tools to push it down to make the seal, but also to move it around to better conform to what I wanted painted.

    And again, the finished results.  One thing to remember if you use Silly Putty to mask.  It does flow, and it does not take long to start that flowing process.  Do not mask something and then come back in an hour, the putty will have flowed a bit and you will not get the results you expected.  But if you are going to mask then go right to painting, it's brilliant!  Thank you Les Bursley!!!

  Hopefully, more tomorrow!

Imperial Knight Build - Day by day

  So, what do you do when you have a brand new Knight Titan and a a night or two to fart around with?  You build the damn thing.  I thought I might start a log of my progress just for fun...  Here goes...

Build Day...

  This thing build like a dream.  The instructions are pretty clear and the model is VERY well done.  Hardly any mold lines too.  Super easy and very customizable.  They show you in the instructions where not to put glue, and you should pay attention to that.  I decided to build mine with the body and Melta gun facing to the right a bit, I like the look of it.  The only things I left moveable were the arms, the ion shield and the stubber.

   The four major sub assemblies and the base.  I didn’t glue the torso to the legs until it was primed, as I felt it would be easier to prime in chunks.

All the parts primed.  Yay.  Build complete.

The painting days are after the jump break...

Titan Priming (Reaver and Knight)

  Ahhh Sunday, best day of the week, in my opinion...  Do you know why?  It's priming day.  Spent all day Saturday building my Imperial Knight (Errant version) and then looked over at the "To Prime" pile.  I still have the Reaver Titan and the Necron NightShroud in bare resin and plastic.  So I knew, that Sunday would be priming day.  I learned a few things too.

  #1.  Do not drop your very freshly primed Reaver Titan Carapace onto the carpeted floor.  Especially do not do this if your little dog has just been through shedding...  Yes, the carapace was a total loss (primer-wise, that is) and had to go to the Simple Green Pool for primer removing.

  Luckily the primer was still very soft so a quick hour long bath in the simple green bag-of-doom was enough to just lift off the primer in sheets.  Otherwise I would have been a very unhappy camper.

#2.  The Valejo Surface primer does not need to be thinned at all, really.  It just needs to be sprayed at a higher PSI than I thought.  I found that 25-30 PSI was the magic number to avoid sludge build up and get consistent results.

#3. The Grex airbrush, with the magnetic crown tip is fantastic!  Every time I would get a little build up (Dry-tip) I could just pluck off the crown, run a Q-tip through it and clean it right out.  Pop the tip back on and back in business.  This airbrush was a true workhorse today and even running the primer through it for about a 5 hour stretch, I only had to really clean it once.  I did run some airbrush cleaner solution through it after about every 5 cupfulls of primer though.

#4. Priming two Titans and a Nightshroud will eat up a lot of primer.  Make sure you have enough on hand when you start a session like this.

#5. The blow dryer is your friend.  Seriously, being able to blow dry these parts helped immensely.

So, all in all it was a good hobby day.  Watched the NASCAR race and also the new COSMOS series with Neil deGrasse Tyson (Fantastic new edition, major kudos to the whole team there!!!) and got a large set of items off my KanBan "to prime" column!

The Knight Errant before

And after...

Necron Goodness!!!

Quick Tip - Airbrush cleaning with interdental brushes

  Good morning all.  Just a quick tip for those with, or considering airbrushes.  Rule #1 for good airbrush use is to keep it clean.  That means a good scrub now and then.  Well, I went and bought the set of 5 airbrush cleaning brushes from a well known source and was mightily disappointed.

  First, they tend to loose bristles, and that makes cleaning even harder.  After a few of the bristles come out, I get nervous about using them, because they are rolled wire and I think it may scratch the soft brass of the airbrush innards.  Also, there are three sized of brushes on the ring that you will hardly ever use.  So you pay that extra bit for nada.

  Enter the interdental brushes.  I got my package at a CVS pharmacy, but I'm certain any decent druggist or pharmacy will have something like these.

  The great things about these;

• Cheap - I bought a pack of 36 for about $6
• Graduated size of bristles.  You can use 'just the tip' (sorry Screaming Heretics :) for detail cleaning or stuff it all in for deep cleaning
• Tough - The bristles do not fall out, nor does the wire bend leaving you with a crooked, useless piece of scrap.
• Disposable - use it and trash it.  very simple.

  So, just a quick tip for you to enjoy.  Give them a look, they may save you some headaches.

Review: Vallejo Surface Primer

Vallejo Surface Primers

  So, it's been pretty cold around here lately.  That means no priming, and that means no painting.  I'm not liking that!

  Surfing around the Vallejo website, I came across their Surface Primer line of paints.  I did some research and a lot of people really like these primers.  Well, off to the War Store to get my order filled and a week or so later, I'm in business again!  And what kind of business it this.  This stuff is GREAT!

  I have always been  user of GW's primer line (Chaos black and Skull white) and I have never really had reason to doubt them.  I have always liked the black better than the white though.  The white seems to go on powdery sometimes, and yes, I am not spraying too far away.  I have tried what some other folks had mentioned, Krylon and the Hobby Lobby brands, but I always found them lacking in some way or another.  Either they were not smooth or they were splotchy.  Suffice to say, I always ended up back with GW primer, paying the huge GW tax for the great name on the can.

  There really is not a whole lot you can say about primers.  They need to do some very simple things.  Bond well to the surface your priming (plastic, resin or pewter, in my case) is the most important thing.  They also need to be tough, resistant to damage from rough handling.  If the primer chips off, all your hard work painting goes with it.  Lastly, they need to be thin to not hide any surface detail and provide a smooth surface to paint on.  GW's black primer had always done all that for me, or so I thought.

  Enter the Vallejo Surface Primers. These come in plastic bottles (17ml, 60ml and 200ml).  Vallejo says they can be brushed or airbrushed on.  I tested both, Vallejo is right.  Brush painting the primer on is a breeze (with a decent quality brush... see this post).  It flows on nicely, dries very smoothly and is very thin.  As long as you don't glob it on, brushing this stuff on will yield results much akin to using a rattle can.

  Then came the airbrush.  To be honest, the wife was sleeping and I didn't want to fire up the compressor while she rested.  Once she was up, I was able to break out the older airbrush (an Iwata revolution CR).  I used the Iwata because it is a .3mm brush and the Renegade Krome is a .21mm.  I had heard that the primer sprays better at the .3mm size.  I did thin it about 1 part primer to 1/2 part mix of Tamiya Acrylic thinner (X20) and Golden Airbrush Medium.

  It sprayed on like a dream.  It covered really well and dried very quickly.  I did some drop tests from about 8 inches to my wooden tabletop after letting it dry for 12 hours and no chips.  Best of all, the surface is baby-skin smooth and accepts paint like... well... like a primer.  Best of all, I can paint prime my figs inside without all the hellish fumes!!!  And who cares how cold it is outside?  As a side note, the white is every bit as good as the black, and WAY better than the GW skull white!

  All in all, this is GREAT primer.  If you need it, run, don't walk to get this stuff!

Badger Renegade Krome - The airbrush that makes me look good.

Yeah, that's it.  That's my new Airbrush.  The Badger Renegade Krome.  After listening to Joe from the Screaming Heretics (pre-Accident) and other podcasters, I decided to take the plunge.  Now listen, I'm not airbrush expert, not even that good really, but I am easily swayed to try things.  In the model railroad world, some podcasters convinced me to try the Iwata line of brushes, and I did.  I popped for an Iwata Revolution CR.  I like that brush, it's really nice, but I have to give the big nod to the Krome… WOW.  I got mine from MrJustin over at Secret Weapon Miniatures for a pretty decent price.

Mine came just like you see, a nice black box that housed the brush, plus an adaptor to go from the badger connector to the normal sized air connector, a spare needle, spare tip and a nozzle cover that was nub-less.  I shouldn't say spare needle and nozzle, since they are actually .33mm whereas the one installed is .21mm.  All told, you get quite a bit of awesome with this thing.  I ended up pulling out the fitted foam in favor of being able to store both the Iwata and the Krome in the same box.

The first thing I did with it was take it apart.  Remember, you don't really own it until you can take it apart and understand it enough to put it back together :).  Glad I did to, as advanced and great as this thing is, it needed lube.  After putting it back together, it worked a good bit smoother.