I'd like to do airbrush.
Painting on paper is easy, pre-mixed Opaques View attachment 485768
But mixing Acrylic to airbrush ??
I tried last night at mixing, painting but couldn't get it above the consistency of English Breakfast.
Good my. Hull looks mighty fine. Occre veneer can be brittle but looks like you owned this. Cheers GrantI remember someone whom I greatly admire and respect on here mentioned to me at the start of my planking to my darling ship that it was a "dog of a job"
Now I can totally agree 100%
I have learned a lot more lessons than I ever envisaged the quantity of mistakes I was destined for, but I have to say, as much as a dog that it is, the real sense of satisfaction, achievement and those warm fuzzies only come at the very end when you look at the completed hull and just think.........."yeah".......
Would I do it again? I most certainly intend to; would I have a crack at PoF one day? Sure, why not.
A constant reminder to myself that the Hull of the Endurance is painted Black, I didn't stress too much about a few irregularities along the way, knowing I could add wood filler without showing too much sin.
Getting excited now because I will hopefully see fairly swift results from my efforts and start to show progress - don't get me wrong, but you know - jeez - one plank, and another plank, let's do another one, I have an idea, put a plank on, oh what the hey, put 3................
View attachment 485766 View attachment 485765
Great advice again mate, I have more than enough spare planks to test on
"Toylike" is precisely the look I'm desperate to avoid, so your mixing suggestions is another winner mate.
You legend of a manYellow ochre. Try for a pale cream colour. They were using linseed oil as binder and turpentine as thinners, both slightly yellowish and lead carbonate for pigment which has red and yellow undertones.
I always break off my boat’s beaks. The only reason I haven’t done it on Alert is that it hasn’t got one.
You legend of a man
Good morning. I’m with Smithy. Took me a couple of breaks and repairs to learn this (clearly I’m a slow learnerI need to remind myself from here on in that she's a delicate soul and needs to be shown respect, not clunked around the shipyard like I probably did during planking
). I generally leave protruding parts off my ships until I absolutely have to. Cheers Grant
"Try" being the word of the week!
That Yellow Ochre is possessed I reckon !
"Try" being the word of the week!
Wow, what a day that turned out to be
I put a healthy glob of white into a mixing glass and thought I'd add the Ochre gradually until I was happy with the colour.
I must have just put the tiniest amount of the yellow in there, and the white turned yellow - like - Yellow!
I added more white - nope - more then - still nope - a lot more, how's that? - meh, maybe, ok then, twice than a lot more - getting there.
I wanted a 1914 White, not a 2024 Cream - not sure what the difference is come to think of it - so I got the big guns out.
My darling wife is an absolute legend at colours, interior decorating and coordination is her superpower, so she helped me get that 1914 white I was after, and while she was in that mode, helped me achieve that "old" black that I wanted.
Game set and match - I hope.
I won't send pics, I was going to, but then there's no way they would have showed what we see here in the pots.
So, after all that, a BIG thanks once again to Smithy and Co. here in SOS, all your help, advice and suggestions are always hugely appreciated
T.S.C.
The brand that I mixed is Vallejo, Occre did supply a bunch of small pots, well, Bials really, and some colours are in there that I've
The brand that I mixed is Vallejo, Occre did supply a bunch of small pots, well, Bials really, and some colours are in there that I've
no idea where they're intended for.
Airbrush? Hmmmm - nice thought - but to be honest I'm thinking twice about it.
Like I said previous, when I was doing portraits, it was only ever Black, White and Grey ink, easy-peasy.
I had a crack at thinning down a white the other night but jeez, to get it go through without tip-dry every 15 seconds it was practically like water.
Are there any pre-mixed airbrush paints on the market? - But then again - they will be stark white and black as black I guess.
I've taken a pic of the Black, really unsure how it's going to look on here but here goes
View attachment 486079
On the left is the Occre as is.
Actually, the sample on the right is not far off from seeing it "in the flesh" so to speak.
Hmm. I've done a lot (like, a LOT) more plastic modeling than wooden ship-building and I rarely use anything but Vallejo for airbrushing. It's true that it suffers from the same drawbacks as all other acrylics, but I prefer acrylics because it's easier to spray and cleanup indoors without generating a bunch of HAZMAT. That said, start with a good primer coat (I use automotive primer in a rattle can and you don't need to worry about adhesion (at least for a model). I will say I've had some bottles of Modelair that shot straight, and others that required a bit of thinning. A drop of retarder medium really helps flow and prevents tip clogging.Ooh, I like that ‘black’ I’ve seen that on old canal boats (I’m a long way from the sea). Just the job.
Vallejo paints are tricky to spray. Their main market is brush painting figure modellers. I love their game colour range - so vivid! The Modelcolor range is also good on a hairy stick, though the colours are inconsistent between batches and often are nothing like what it says on the bottle. Not really a problem for us but aircraft guys hate it.
Vallejo do a pre-mix range. Modelcolour Air but I found it still needed a bit of thinner.
Airbrushing paint needs to be as thin as the inks you are used to. That means you need a paint with enough pigment content to stand the dilution without becoming ridiculously translucent.
Several thin coats are the usual thing. Don’t expect the first coat to cover well - if you do, you’ll put too much on and get runs.
If you spray it on THIN, especially in your summer climate, by the time you’ve finished the first coat, stood up and had a stretch, it should be almost ready for a second thin coat. Honestly, it took me years to get airbrushing right and the mistake I made over and over again was under-thinning.
Thick paint dries on the tip causing stoppages. It dries in the brush’s cavities making cleaning very difficult. It dries in the air before reaching the model giving a sandpaper finish. It dries on the model too fast for it to level out making orange peel.
Do an experiment with any paint you want to airbrush. Thin it to water consistency and then thin it again. Try it. Thin it again. Find out how thin you can go before it splits. Then use it just this side of its breaking point.
You also need very finely ground pigment so the particles will not clog - that’s why artists paints are no good.
You also need a strong binder that will hold everything together when very diluted. That’s Vallejo’s weak spot. Their paints are kinda rubbery for days after drying, while they cure fully. Even after curing Vallejo is easy to scratch. I believe the binder is chemically close to latex(?). If it’s over thinned it ‘splits’, falls apart chemically and turns to porridge.
Vallejo bottles are hard to stir. You can only shake them and if you don’t get the binder, solvent and pigments properly distributed, you are doomed. Nothing will be predictable. I put the bottles in my pocket in the morning and let a five mile dog walk and the body heat put them into prime condition.
I no longer try to spray Vallejo but use them for all my brush painting. I spray Tamiya.
Tamiya paints are awful on a paintbrush but spray like fairy dust. They use a water/alcohol thinner and so can be thinned so they are wetter than water alone. They dry and cure fast to a tough hard finish. Gunze Mr Color paints are very similar but better still. Unfortunately v pricey here and hard to find sometimes.
Dammit! I knew that if I started talking paint I’d ramble on like the pub bore. I’ll stop now and get me coat.
