Trouble seeing paint when airbrushing

[BaconRaygun]

As the title suggests, do any of you modelling gurus have a trick to help see the paint I'm laying down?   I'm having trouble when I get to the later stages of layering, especially with lighter colors.  I cant really see where the paint is ending up, and it's causing me to sort of go by feel.  This causes me to occasionally put down a bit too much (pooling), or to add too much opacity to areas that I want some translucence (like edges of panel lines). 

 

I can get a better idea of where I need to add paint by looking at the model from a few feet back and at a steep angle, but that is not conducive to actually spraying. 

 

Thanks in advance, 

 

-Igor 

[dnl42]

I use a grazing light to see where the paint is hitting the model. To do this, I airbrush near a bright light and hold the model at an angle to the light so that I can see the slightly wet paint as it hits the surface. I also spray in quite close, 1/4 to 2 inches at most, at about 15 PSI (1 atm), adjusting the paint flow for a very thin coat. Finally, I thin paint to about a 1% milk consistency to that I can use the lower pressure and lay down thin coats.

[BaconRaygun]

I do all of the above when it comes to the actual paint and airbrish (thinning, low pressure, spray very close). More or less what I've gathered from watching youtube videos and searching through forums.  

 

Bit confused about the "grazing" light, though.   If I understand correctly, grazing lighting is lighting done at an extreme angle to accent features on whatever you are illumination in the form of subtle shadows.  I tried an extreme angle, and I tried a shallower angle that gives me a more direct reflection.  It does help, but that also caused a whole other issue for me.  I'm free-handing three tone light blue/grey camo, and when using reflection, this effectively makes the colors indistinguishable, or at least in my case where the tones are all washed out blue/grey.  I would occasionally get into an area that I didnt want to paint because all I see is reflection. 

 

I suppose a solution here may be to use blue-tac as a mask when at this stage, but I fear the blue-tac may cause issues during removal.  Are my fears justified?  I'm using GNZ Mr. Color and MRP lacquer paints. 

 

The other issue I ran into with reflection sort of stems from the above.   I was trying to harden the edges of each color as I had them a bit too soft in some areas.  I was doing this by removing the cap on my airbrush tip (forgive me, I'm a noob and dont know all of the terminology yet) and getting in very close to give me a fine line.  Works great, but I started running into that same issue of where I can no longer see the paint hit the model, and this reflection method wasnt really helping me aim.   I think I did OK going by feel, in very short increments, but, as I said, I'm a noob and honestly dont know what I'm doing, so here I am asking questions. 

 

Sorry for the long post. 

[Britaholic]

I airbrush standing up close to a window so that I can see the paint hitting the model, you can see it as wet patches, at night I do the same but stand back from the light, again looking at the paint hitting the model.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[dnl42]

The extreme angle is the light hitting the surface. You are looking at the model at whatever angle you want, so you should be able to get exactly the view you want. It may help to have an articulated light so that you can position the light relative to the model.

 

I'm able to get pretty fine control of where the paint lands with this method. Having written that, I do use masks for camo with silly putty ropes along the outline for soft edges.

 

I can't testify to the resilience of MRP, but Mr Color is very robust. I've never had a problem with silly putty or Parafilm. I do de-tack Tamiya tape by sticking it to the palm of my clean hand before attaching to the model. I only use other masking take atop Tamiya or paper, never on paint. I also give plastic a wash with 91% isopropyl and prime with thinned Mr Surfacer.

 

 

[Doppelgänger]

On 12/14/2018 at 3:30 PM, dnl42 said:

Finally, I thin paint to about a 1% milk consistency to that I can use the lower pressure and lay down thin coats.

 

What would your paint-to-thinner ratio be like to obtain that 1% milk consistency, 20 to 80?

[dnl42]

Depends. 1:1 to 1:3. I do this by eye, stirring the paint with my mixing stick. Since Mr.Color ages well, I sometimes need more thinner with older, thicker paint. 

Edited December 20, 2018 by dnl42