GOOD ADVICE!
Bill Winans
This started with a question nobody has answered: how do you make a
terrible finish with water based acrylic? Depends on why it looks
terrible. If it looks rough, mottled, extremely flat, etc, it is
probably because the paint is drying before it hits the model.
Acrylics dry much faster than lacquers and other solvent based paints.
I hold the airbrush closer to the model and I use higher pressure when
spraying with PollyScale. I use distilled water for a thinner. I tried
alcohol, but this makes the paint dry even faster. It is easy to have
the paint dry as it travels from the airbrush to the model, which
actually can create some interesting weathering finishes, like dirt on
the lower edges. The thing people don't usually realize about acrylics
is that "drying" is not what you want, you want the paint to
polymerize on the model, and it actually has to be wet for that to
happen. It's like concrete, you want it wet while it hardens, but you
also don't want to trap water under the paint. It is tricky, but so is
any painting. Practice, practice, practice. (I teach piano for a living.)
If it looks bad because the paint is uneven, not covering well, it is
probably too wet when hitting the model, usually because the brush is
too close, maybe because it is thinned too much. Worst case of this
will cause buildup in corners, maybe even runs. A classic mistake for
beginners is putting too much paint on, although I think Rusty will
say that most people put too little on. Practice, practice, practice.
Dick thought I might have said how to keep the brush from clogging. If
it was I, I guess I would have said (1) I use an external mix
airbrush, a Paasche Model H for all water based acrylics, (2) I never
use paint more than a month old, (3) after I spray paint, I never
allow more than about 20 seconds before I spray distilled water
through the brush, (4) I disassemble the airbrush and clean it for
each color change, using an unhealthy amount of lacquer thinner.
-Michael Eldridge
-San Jose
-Temporarily working on other people's models, due to go to the paint
shop Saturday if all goes well (yeah, right, like it ever does).
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