Airbrushing question

fubar

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Nov 10, 2011
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I am in the process of painting up some Realm of Battle terrain boards, yesterday i started undercoating them using aerosol cans of Citadel Black undercoat, i set up an 8' x 8' masked area on the floor in my garage to paint the 2' x 2' board sections one at a time, figuring that was ample protection from over spray. I then sprayed the first board section and left it for about 45m and went back to it, although the board section looks great i have found that the whole of my garage now has a very fine coating of black powder....even areas that are a good 10' away from the painting zone. Is this normal? I'm sure i've used aerosol cans before in quite confined areas and not had over spray this bad.....only thing i can think of is that yesterday was very hot and humid, could that have caused it?

I was planning on using an airbrush to do some work on them indoors but this makes me very cautious now, i have seen many YouTube vids of modellers working at their desks with airbrushes and no sign of extraction....how do they avoid the problem of over spray or paint particles in the air?

Thanks in advance for any help.

TTFN
 
Yup, spray paint gets everywhere - you'll find that it mists in the air around you and then settles as dust. If the surfaces it settles on are damp or sticky then it will stay there until wiped off.
 
Yeah, what Tim said, spray cans put out a large fog of paint, and well over half of it never makes it to what you are painting.

You should have no problem with the airbrush.
 
OK i tried my airbrush this time and still had the same thing happen....a fine coat of black powder around the whole working area but not as bad this time. I'm using the airbrush at 35psi, the black primer is Vallejo and im using the Vallejo thinners with it, the needle is drying out very fast and im constantly having to clean the tip.....im obviously doing something wrong but what? lol

I do have some Vallejo retarder medium but it seems to have turned into a gel.....should i buy more and try it with that?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks again.

TTFN
 
Pressure might be a tad high for the Vallejo primer. I usually run about 25-30psi, just spray it neat out of the bottle (no thinner needed) and unless it is a really hot day (but my basement is fairly cool), I never get tip dry with it.

You might want to invest in a large cardboard box, or plastic tote to spray into...it will contain most of the overspray. Just spraying into the open in your garage, you are bound to get the overspray landing on stuff other than what you are spraying at.

Ideally, you want a spray booth to extract the overspray, but a large cardboard box or plastic tote works in a pinch as well.
 
How about a makeshift spray booth with a fan in the window?


That's how I plan to do my airbrushing. I used to do all my airbrushing in my garage. But since I've moved to a climate I'm going to now do my airbrushing in a spray booth set up next to a window with a fan in the window as an exhaust.
 
Its certainly worth a try, i have a window quite near to my work station.

TTFN
 

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