Weekly Update - 2nd Week of January - Zenithal Priming

I know this can be done with a rattle can and I've tried it that way before.  But for some reason the air brush made me think of it again.

I have a bunch of third edition GW Wood Elf blood bowl players so I thought I'd give it a try on them.  I primed them with black in the air brush.  I sprayed them and thought I was done.  Then one tipped over.  The went from black to silver in an instant.  I'm not sure why I didn't think about it earlier but spray from the top obviously wont get on the bottom.  I went back over them to make sure the underside was covered.

Layer One

Single Fig

My phone crapped out on me last week so my search to find the correct way to photograph these miniatures is starting all over.

Here is the grey and white part:

Things I learned:

1.  Don't thin too much.  Finding the happy medium will come in time.

2.  Hold the trigger steady, let the pressure gauge do the work.  I did better with the grey and white.

3.  Tip the models to get all sides for dark color

4.  Cleaning the air brush is tough but I'm getting more confident.

Weekly Update - 1st Week of January - New Toys

Over Christmas, I received two new toys to use for my hobbying.  The Proxxon Hot Wire table for terrain and an Iwata Neo airbrush.  I intend to do a bunch of cleaning and reorganizing first... but I was too anxious to get to playing.

For the wire table, I cut up some foam scraps I had lying around.  These pieces might find their way into some future projects.  We'll see.

Harder than I thought.

The current rip fence I have (the one that came with it) is not heavy duty enough for me.  I think I'll look into other options.

Before the holiday I never considered getting an airbrush, but I got one and now I'm super excited about it.  I bought a lot of the goodies to go with it.  Special thanks to a buddy that helped me out with what I needed.  My first use of the airbrush was just learning on some paper.  I cant wait to do more!

The extras:

Compressor.  I went with a cheap airbrush compressor.  From what I could gather it has all the options I was suggested to get.  Station.  This was a simple but important suggestion.  I didn't even know about them.  Protection.  Respirator, gloves, and the compressor is super quiet so the ear plugs were overkill.

Fluids:

I will be spraying with a vent and in my "cold room" eventually, but that room needs to be reorganized first.

I know I'll find more stuff I need but this is a start.

I looked up suggestions and recipes for making your own air brush thinner and cleaner.  Here's what I'm going to start with.  All ratios are approximate and subject to change:

DWFA: 95% distilled water, 5% flow aid; this is a base mix I'll be using for a lot of things.

AB Medium:  70% DWFA, 30% matte medium
AB Cleaner:  40% DWFA, 40% glass cleaner, 20% isopropyl alcohol

I decided to do some priming too:

First lessons learned:
1.  Need practice with the trigger.  I either let out no paint or way to much.
2.  Keep moving.  Avoid webs and puddles.
3.  It takes more paint than I thought.  Took 12 drops to prime that cargo box thing.
4.  Maybe I need to adjust the pressure?
5.  Paint dries on the needle very fast.  May add retarder to my ABM mix.

I'll be playing more and trying to learn.  Both of my new tools will take some getting used to.