Dave G.

Actually if you just have propel cans you can put the can right in warm water so as to not freeze up while spraying. The Aztek brushes can spray fine, there are a few videos on using them. You need to thin the Testors paints enough and for that I mentioned before using lacquer thinner thinned just short of 50/50 thinner to paint ( hardware store lacquer thinner is fine just be sure it's not synthetic "green" stuff).. Can't stress thinning enough. An Aztek will do fine. As money sees fit get a compressor, actually with it you will save money in due time as you won't be buying the cans any longer. Yeah eventually you may want to replace the Aztek brush but not everyone who entered into their use has done that. It's more about technique than the brush itself......

No never tried it, Mike. I have tried various clears that were supposed to be primer capable and to me non really were like actual primer with pigments. I've already mentioned my go to primers so won't repeat that info. Suffice it to say I use them for a reason though. I do use Createx clear base coat on dark textiles before trying to airbrush light colors on to dark but that's another topic. I believe you're supposed to be able to use 4030 in that base and use that as primer on plastics but never tried it. Least not as yet.

Yes I'm telling everyone that 4030 and 4011 are the products to use when spraying to hard surfaces like model cars with Createx paints.. In fact in this forum there are a few threads where I suggested this. Additionally you can use 4050 in place of the 4030 plus it can be a UV protective clear coat later on if you choose. The 4030 is not a top coat but you can use it as an intercoat between colors. But you will notice a difference in your paint with the 4030 in your colors alone. I got my information from Createx as well so I'm not making it up lol !! I've most lately been experimenting with 4030 in craft paints and high flow type acrylic artist paints as well....... Just experimental at this point but results thus far have been quite good.

Around here Southern NE all or most of our dryer vents use the gravity louvers outside. And just inside the louvers is a screen. We drop the vent hose down, cold air doesn't rise. I'd do the same with a permenent booth vent and if you feel better still use the manual back draft block.

I tell everyone it's a must to clean the airbrush immediately when done shooting Stynylrez. I go right to the kitchen sink and get the water running full hot water. That and alcohol 91% are what I use. And it takes some scrubbing. My alternative primer is Mr Primer Surfacer which just melts away with a few shots of hardware store lacquer thinner. Both are excellent primers but my go to is Stynylrez, despite the extra work of being sure the airbrush is truly clean. The very hot water helps though.

For me the picture never came in. But spitting paint is generally too thick a paint for the needle size or/and too low a pressure. How much did you thin the paint and what pressure did you use ? In another message I mentioned both criteria at least that I use for Testors enamels.

Well if you re read my post I believe I said you put some paint on a palette. But that's ok someone else has addressed this. You will catch on soon enough. This is going to make a big difference in your brush painting so hang in there !

Ok try this, test it out on some scrap plastic. Get a few drops of your testors paint on some surface, maybe a plastic plate for instance ( we will call that your palette). Now dip your brush in some thinner, you don't need to dip further than the tip. Now pick up some paint with the brush and brush it on to your scrap plastic. Se how it flows out, if it's too loose and runny then when you dip your brush in the thinner wipe some of the thinner off the brush just on the side of the cup or what ever you used to put some thinner into. The other thing you can do is dip the brush in thinner then mix that thinner with some of the paint on your plate/ palette. you an see right there if it's too thin or still thick and add more paint if too thin or thinner if too thick. Testors enamels spray really well. I thin them with nearly a 1 to 1 ratio of lacquer thinner to paint ( almost equal parts). I get better flow and gloss with lacquer thinner than with mineral spirits. I mean you can see yourself in the finish. So that's 1 part paint to nearly an equal part lacquer thinner. The enamels are not ready to airbrush out of the bottle, someone has that mistaken unless they heat the paint then spray at high pressure, like 50-60 psi. To do that you need both the airbrush and compressor that would keep up with that kind of flow ( by the way this has been done with enamels in real world automobile painting, sometimes adding an oz or so of castor oil, long since past I might add !). Most of us thin the paint someplace between 60/40 paint to thinner or 50/50 paint to thinner. I thin mine just short of 50/50 ( slightly more paint than thinner). I shoot Testors enamels at around 30-35 psi using a .5 or .7 tip. That's for car bodies. You may notice that I said the same thing twice using what sounds like different ratios, they mean the same thing. 1-1, 1/1 or 50/50 are all the same, equal parts paint to thinner.

Decent brushes make it easier but I agree 100% they don't have to be high end. Yesterday ( for art work) I bought a #10 Royal and Langnickel level 1 or student grade if you will, flat brush for working out cloud formations. But that brush would be awesome for larger surfaces on a model. With the 40% discount at Micheals I got the brush for basically $2. That's not a high end Windsor that would probably be more like $10 or even $20. But you can get nice brushes in the sets too, Micheals or Hobby Lobby ( Artists Loft or Masters Touch). It's more about how you use them anyway ! You just want brushes that are formed decent and don't have bristles shooting off in different directions or stiff as Brillo pads is all. Get just decent brushes, treat them well, they will treat you well.

I just use an open palette or you can get one of those inexpensive painters palettes with the little pockets around the edge and a center area for mixing. I do the same for initial mixing of my own colors as well. But pipettes are your friend, yes whatever way you choose to go. Some folks like to wet the brush with thinner and then just grab a little paint, it mixes as you go that way. If it's too thin pick up more paint on the brush or on the next pass just wipe a little thinner off the brush before picking up the paint. You have a lot of control this way, lot's of ability to vary the mix. The 35% I mentioned is just a number, if it goes 30 or 40 it's not the end of the world. I use mixing bottles in advance of airbrushing colors, all cut to ratio etc. That's the case be it enamels or craft paints/acrylics. This could be the day of the shoot or a month in advance.

I use a lot of crafts paints, some Createx ( I have and use Createx for textiles anyway) and also artist acrylics in either the student range or soft body level 1 paints. Also Goldens High Flow paints. Let me just say right up front that you need primer for any of these on hard surfaces like plastic models. And they all stick well to primer and primer to plastic. All are capable of a nice finish but you will likely want to clear coat. In Createx do yourself a favor and get their 4030 and use about 10%-15% of that in your blend ( this converts the paint to a poly acrylic and also improves flow and Createx formulated it specifically to convert their paints for use on hard surfaces), along with about 15% 4011 reducer. This will insure good flow and make your paints ready for hard surfaces. I make my own reducers for the other lines, I have two formulas. I personally use Stynylrez primer or Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 as my primers. Just keep them mixed well, especially the Stynylrez. Mr Primer is lacquer, think big stink but short lived as it dries rapidly, Stynylrez is a Poly Resin Acrylic primer with nearly no odor and what there is is not offensive. Both bond very well to plastic. Also as an add on here, right now I'm experimenting with the 4030 in the other acrylics besides Createx with good results. And by the way you can also use their 4050, it just might produce more satin sheen where you might have wanted a flat for instance. 4050 is basically the latest and greatest one up from 4030, it's slightly thinner and more glossy when dry is all and can be used as top coat with uv protection where 4030 doesn't have that capability.. Anitas is good quality craft paint, still needs primer under it..

Testors enamels will brush fine thinned about 35% or so with mineral spirits or even hardware store paint thinner or a combo of each. For a hood like that or other broad areas get yourself a soft artists flat brush or a soft filbert brush that are rated for oil and acrylic paints. Only slightly over lap your strokes. If you get Tamiya acrylic paint thin it with their retarder and butt the strokes together, don't over lap. The paint will flow together. Small parts need smaller brushes.

You might try the black bottle Testors liquid. It too is not as thin as a capillary action cement but it holds/welds real well, cures in about two hours and gives a few minutes working time to reposition. It's what I use on things like door hinges and such that need to really bond tight. It's not like the orange tube Testors that if need be you could pop things apart, the black bottle cement is there to stay once set. Just a suggestion but I've also never done what you're doing.

You have the right attitude, if you want to learn the ways of a given paint then work with it. Keep investigating and trying new approaches from what your original concept was. That's how I conquered craft and artist acrylics. I've been perfecting airbrushing these for several years now. And now Createx ( also acrylic) is coming right along. I haven't abandoned solvent paints but rather added to them.

There still is Testors enamels thus far. Both MCW and Scale Finishes offer enamels. And I do quite well decanting other enamel spray cans, thin a bit more and airbrush. We aren't locked into hot lacquers. Even craft paints once you learn the ropes of spraying them work quite well for base color coating then clear with a mild clear coat.. Many options besides hot lacquers. The thing about acrylics is they make a good barrier to lacquer clear coats. But if you're gonna use Zero and other hot lacquer you need to find that zone where the paint is wet but in a mist coat. This takes a pressure balance between air and paint flow, that the thin mist goes on pretty wet and doesn't get gravelly. Distance from the subject and speed of the passes enter into this. And you still might get a bit of sand scratch swelling here or there. The good news about that is once dry you can lightly scuff and shoot another coat. Hot lacquer is not my cup of tea but I do use it here and there. Everybody pretty much seems to be base coat clear coating with these lacquers so the color coat drying matt is basically of no concern. To me that being the case then I can base coat in acrylic, no danger of burn through, still use whatever clear. If you clear right, not going for the infamous wet look but a realistic impression you can get to a good classics era car look and nobody knows if it acrylic or lacquer under the clear. The same end can be said for enamel shot straight up as color only ( no clear) and get a nice OEM or even restoration or museum finish ( non of which by the way are the same). If you want to get there with hot lacquer and no clear which also would be accurate you will rub your brains out. Hot lacquer to me except maybe for radiators or certainly metalizers boil down to a big PITA. Just my honest opinion. Now if they had not moved to hot acrylic lacquer and kept it nitro lacquer I'd be on board because those you can almost spit polish the color coat, so much easier to work with.

My years of 1/1 painting taught me most trash getting into a repaint was already hiding someplace on the vehicle, door cracks, vent grills etc. Part of the winners circle comes from a good blowing off and wipe down etc. So I can only agree with you, as you said " even outdoors".

Ya I think so which is why I mostly don't use mine. I tend to just paint into a trash can. I'm not scientifically proving or disproving anything, Lets just say my most dust has been with the booth and my best paint jobs out of the booth.

Most model photographers suffer more from proper light control, perspective and composition than they do from lack of good equipment. Any of the modern cell phone cameras are quite good. And that said My A20 was sufficient, now my S22 beyond what is really needed. But the S22 with 3 lenses is handy for most all my photo needs. I don't even use my Nikon D SLRs any more, the cell phone is sharper, has more dynamic range, is better in low light and has more resolution, plus fits in a pocket. It's nuts !! But good photography has always been up to the photographer and still is. Learn to properly compose.

Same price at Amazon for Quick Shine, 64oz for $11.57 and free shipping to prime members.

Clearly Tamiya colors over Rustoleum primer is a bad option because I've seen a few posts now speaking about how it back fired for various people. So the answer as to why or why not is simple, they aren't compatible. When I want solvent based primer I use Mr Primer Surfacer 1000, which is lacquer primer made for plastic models, resin etc. ( I didn't say Mr Surfacer, I said Mr Primer Surfacer, there is a difference according to their own web site). No guessing if it will work, Never an issue. The same would hold true for Tamiya primer. Krylon primer used to be pretty decent except the coat was thicker than with model paints. But it's been so long since I've used it I can't recommend it because it could have changed in the last 20 years.

You should hop over to FSM forums under military aircraft, without doubt someone there would know. They aren't real active forums there but the knowledge base is quite amazing when it comes to things military.

Just wanted to update one thing on this Createx and my spraying. Where I had said I used the large tip on the Paasche H with great results, well I've since shot it with a Paasche VL both medium tip and small tip or known in the world of Paasche as the #3 (.73) and #1 (.55) also with good results but with more instant control. That's it, just updating.

No I've not had clumping with any of the colors I use including the white.. At their 10% ratio I have had minor thickening as the paint sits but I seem to think that was blue, black etc.. But no clumping at any rate. I have not had the thickening at 20% reduction or when adding in 4030 balancing clear as is suggested when painting Createx over hard surfaces like plastic model. Or 4050 rather than 4030 for that matter. Now I mostly shoot Createx on to textiles with no additive, reducer or otherwise.. On models I use 4011 and 4030, about 15% each. But I rarely use Createx on models. Well anyway, no clumping.

5741 looks to be pretty close to the photo color. Just needs the right lighting. But that just an opinion.

Yes lighting really effects that color, in some images it's almost a peach tone. Great subject for a build though and good pick for a color too.