Airbrushing metallics

[mnwildpunk]

I'm new to airbrushing and I'm shooting Tamiya metallic blue (acrylic) and I can't seem to get the color to look even. Any help would be great

[Monty]

I'm new to airbrushing and I'm shooting Tamiya metallic blue (acrylic) and I can't seem to get the color to look even. Any help would be great

The secret to metallics of any kind is to keep the metallic element suspended.

Couple questions:

1) What did you use to reduce your acrylic paint?

2) How long did you mix the reduced paint before shooting it?

[LoneWolf15]

Monty ,

Sounds to me as though tiger striping is occurring ! Needs to have a wider spray pattern coming out of the airbrush ! What size needle / head assembly is being used on what type of airbrush would be my first question .

[crazyjim]

Throw a couple of slingshot ammo things into the bottle and shake it every once in a while during spraying. Or even a marble or stainless steel nut. Just something to agitate the mix.

[mnwildpunk]

I'm using acrylic thinner

Badger 200 not sure on the needle size it is what came with the airbrush

[Monty]

Monty ,

Sounds to me as though tiger striping is occurring ! Needs to have a wider spray pattern coming out of the airbrush ! What size needle / head assembly is being used on what type of airbrush would be my first question .

I assumed he had it dialed in for painting model bodies before he started, so I went to the next step in the diagnosis.

Dave, your instruction booklet should have some basic tips on how to adjust your airbrush so it can do what you want it to. Donn knows his stuff, so it sounds like you may want to open that pattern up. If you have some junk bodies, sheets of white paper & other expendable stuff, practice patterns & width adjustment on those.

[my80malibu]

I'm using acrylic thinner

Badger 200 not sure on the needle size it is what came with the airbrush

According to Badger if you look at the dull end of the needle there are grooves cut into it. One is fine, Two is medium, Three is heavy. With that said, Badger also makes two different 200 AB's. One is 200 detail, the other is the 200NH.

The detail 200 would probably not work very well with metallic paint. I use all kinds of paint thru my 200 NH, and it works like a dream.

I hope this helps you better determine which A.B. you have, and gets you where you want to be with your Airbrushing.

Edited July 20, 2012 by my80malibu

[Art Anderson]

Regardless of the width of the spray pattern of your airbrush, "Tiger Striping" can still occur by not overlapping each pass of the airbrush with the next one. Anyone who's ever painted a real car has had to learn this.

Art

[J Smith]

The only way not to have tiger striping is when you spray your first line of paint,

and when you come back to do the 2nd line you want a 50% over lap.