AIRBRUSH

D

Don Mintz

Well-known member
Painting with an airbrush is a wonderful tool, but at the same time it can be frustrating to master. I learn something new every time I pick it up and I have in excess of 40,000 hours behind the button in the past 45 years. I need to come up with a youtube account so I can post videos. Starting an airbrush has a steep learning curve. I started in 1980 with a badger single action, I fought with it for a few weeks and gave up, no one to ask for help, no youtube, no internet. I started again about a year later and just stuck with it till I could paint a grayling I mounted for my dad.

I've airbrushed with inks, lacquer, acrylic, auto paint, and oil based enamel. Lots of paints that were pre mixed and airbrush ready. For painting over flocking on a decoy intended to hunt, I haven't found anything better than oil based enamel. FYI, the auto paint is deadly and I got super sick from using it for just a few months when Caleb and I painted for Blue Collar Decoys. I paint in a large paint booth with an exhaust fan and wear a cartridge respirator when using any kind of paint, even spray paint.

Paint recommendation is oil based enamel. Since I paint over flocking almost exclusively I can use gloss which is handy since you can get most of the major colors at Home Depot or Ace. I use some flat oil based enamel, but not on flocking since it doesn't matter on flocking it will still be flat. Flat color additives weaken the paint.

Airbrush brands. I've used Badger and Paasche. I've heard good things about Iwata. There are single action and double action brushes. Single action allows you to adjust the spray by unscrewing the needle sliding it back and for till you get the desired width of spray, the button only pushes air. A double action allows you to control both air and paint on the fly just by pushing the button down and pulling it back to add paint, pushing it foreward to close the paint flow. There are lots of brands, but my primary airbrush for the past 35 years has been a double action Paasche VL. It's a real work horse, easy to take apart and easy to buy replacement parts. When using heavy material like oil based enamels you need a head assembly that is made for it. The Paasche VL with a #5 head assembly is what I use. I can do a pass with with my #5 two inches wide and trim it down on the fly to 1/16 th of an inch. The only limiting factor is old shaky hands. Absolutely positively start with a double action, it may seem counter intuitive, but it really is way WAY easier to use.

The best way to learn is to get a piece of cardboard and start working on the operation of airflow and paint flow, going from a big two inch circle and trimming it down as you swing till you get it to fine line. That's really the operation, you've just go to get accustomed to the way the paint flows. Don't try to get too crazy with detail at first, but don't be afraid to push your limits either. For most decoy painting on a hunting decoy you don't have to be super artistic with fine detail. Just start with the basic field markings of a duck. You don't have to exaggerate parts o the birds, they've been finding each other since God created them. Put the color where it's supposed go and call it good.

Color mixing. Since I'm primarily painting out of a can of rustoleum or ACE oil based enamel there is a lot of color mixing to deal with and thinning issues. There is no set percentage to mixing rustoleum, some of it will be almost to thick to pour out of the can when it is first opened and some will be flowing nicely. I also have to add some 100% mineral spirits, some times it's just a little and sometimes it's a lot. The common description is when it's about as thick as whole milk is pretty close. I have run non thinned rustoleum through my airbrush, but that's rare when it's that fluid. That is one of he biggest hurdles. I also run my paint through a filter and if it flows through the filter it's usually about right for the #5 paasche. Mixing is second nature to me, I've been mixing paint for flat art and 3D painting for 56 years. All of my flat art was done with acrylics and the color selection was pretty good, but nothing like it is today where you can buy 14 different colors of brown at the craft store. I grew up mixing colors which has paid dividends when I deal with mixing rustoleum that only comes in a hand full of basic colors. There are websites that help with mixing, in the past I used a pantone book that has thousands of colors that I could plug into my photoshop program and come up with the percentages of every color to come up with the result I needed. I had to do that for Tanglefree when I designed for them so the factory knew how I came up with colors, of course that still didn't help much the paint jobs were embarrassing. So in a nutshell, paint mixing and thinning are the biggest hurdle.

Since we can edit our posts here I think I'll try to put up links to various supplies I get on line to help with that search and would invite anyone to add links they find too.

Feel free to ask questions or give input, none of us knows it all and I don't remember all that well anymore.

My absolute favorite place for airbrush supplies and parts https://www.midwestairbrush.com/

Paint filters are absolutely necessary https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XHSC44C?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_9&th=1

Paint bottles. I use this style of bottle and will go through 3 oz of paint every hour, having little one ounce bottles don't go very far when you are painting decoys. The paasche bottles are expensive and William and I found these that are virtually disposable. I don't fight with them very long before I pull out another one, the paasche bottles and caps get cruddy too but cost way more. The cost of a paasche cap and tube are twice what I can get the whole thing from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BTAOBDC?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2&th=1

Compressor, something quiet like William mentioned, you don't want to sit by a hammer mill when you are fine lining. You want a volume of air so it's not constantly running. This one is 8 gallons and does anything I need it to do around the shop.
 
Interesting stuff Don. Way back when I was doing waterfowl taxidermy and used an airbrush for feet and bills. I used bottled CO2 for pressure. No noise!
 
That's kind of what I used with my badger when I was figuring things out, a can of air. I then got a little airbrush compressor which was a huge mistake, no tank so it ran constantly and still didn't have enough air consistently to paint. I even had a pressure tank I could fill up at the barn, but refilling got to be a hassle. Starting back in the 90's I spent 14 years airbrushing 8 to 10 hours a day and had to use a compressor. Eventually we were sandblasting plastic decoys and I bought a 60 gallon ingersol rand and set up a few pressure valves on a manifold so I could sand blast and Caleb could paint at the same time. Talk about sitting next to a hammer mill. I can't remember where I found the ultra quiet California tools, the first one was decent, but didn't last but a few years, the second one still works, but was getting louder and louder, I've had the new one for about 4 years and it's still doing well and the loud one is still hanging around as a back up. As many hours as I spend on the airbrush I burn through a lot of tools, bottles and even a few airbrushes. Paasche VL have a friction connection for the bottle and over time, maybe a thousand hours or so it won't hold a bottle anymore and I have a roll of masking tape to hold the bottles on, that's where I'm at right now.
 
When I was looking for my quiet compressor, the shipping was going to kill me for one of the California air compressors. I took a risk on one of the fortress harbor freight compressors and it has done VERY well and is going strong for the last 3 years. It sits right next to my paint booth, and often times i put some ear buds in and listen to music while spraying. I dont have any idea when its kicking on and recharging unless I am leaning up against the workbench and can feel the vibration. Even when I spray without ear plugs in, or I have my shop tv on instead, its quiet enough that i dont jump. I originally started with a small 3 gallon tank and when it kicked on, I would literally jump out of my skin because it would catch me so off guard.

I too created a small paint booth and luckily the house I bought already had an exhaust fan installed in the little shop in the basement. I had to replace the fan, but it works nicely. The fan is much louder than the compressor running, but its constant and doesnt make me jump up.

Here is a link the compressor I bought for airbrushing and its been nothing short of fantastic for everything I need.


I also run an adapter to run 3 guns at one time. I have a little stand for all my airbrushes and it lets me move through decoys quickly because I dont have to change colors in the gun as often. I also will run 2 VL5, and then when I want to get into more detail and fine lining, I have one brush set up as a VL3. I find it easier to fine line with a smaller nozzle. The only issue with the VL3, that don has touched on, is that if the paint isnt that milk consistency, you can fight the brush some to get to spray right. It doesnt take anything to mix the paint down with mineral spirts and I bought some condiment bottles off amazon and keep one loaded up with mineral spirits. Before the bottle goes on the airbrush, I see what the consistency is, and if its a tad thick, that condiment bottle nozzle lets me add some pretty quickly and then I can get the consistency just perfect before shooting it through my airbrush gun.
 
I'm going to update a few things before this thread gets completely lost.

Compressors. William, Bob and I have been talking about our compressors lately, I have 3 California tools ultra quiet 8 gallon, I think William has a harbor freight ultra quiet 6 gallon, he can correct me on that. Both are similar when it comes to sound, the california tools is 60 decibels and the harbor freight is 66, both about conversational volume and can be easily talked over. When running properly they will quietly cycle for about a minute 4 times and hour when you are airbrushing, which is good when you have a "karen" living next door.

We ran into a little trouble with two of ours recently, they were not filling properly and dumping 30 pounds of air when they finished a cycle, virtually making them run all the time. Welp, I contacted California tools for help and met mr. AI (artificial intelligence), who didn't seem to know much other than refer me to various links, none of which helped. Then I spent hours on youtube and finally got it figured out on a dewalt video. The problem was the check valve that is between the tank, pump and unloader valve. The check valve is not the pressure relief valve. The check valve was the problem child. It was an easy fix, I let all the pressure out of the tank and unplugged it, there is a spring inside that allows air from the pump into the tank, but is also called a no return valve because once the pump cycle ends the spring pushes a plug back into the line to top air from going back into the pump or unloader valve. All I did per the video was open it up clean off the little plastic plug and kind of stretch the spring a tiny bit, put it back in and two of my compressors are running perfect again. It's a simple fix and may apply to several brands, I guess it wasn't simple enough for California tools to trouble shoot for me.

Another thing that I discovered was the compressor my son uses had never had the water in the tank drained, I kind of thought that was a gimme, but it probably contributed to the failure of the check valve. Drain the water out of your tank regularly. I know it's not very handy, but I've ordered an extension for Caleb to make it more convenient for him to drain and that should help. Ideally it's good to drain them at the end of each day you paint.
 
Min is a harbor freight Fortress 6 gallon. I went with this one because it tucks up under my workbench perfectly. I still have enough room above it to spin it. It has 2 plug ins. I ran a blow gun off one and then I have another main line that connects to a three way fitting so I can run up to 3 airbrushes if I want to. When having multiple guns going, it makes quick work when airbrushing and bending colors. Dont have to clear guns and change colors as often.

I am guilty of never emptying my tank. Its on the to do list when I get back in the shop. Im curious to see what I have in my tank. Again, as Don mentioned, should be a "gimme" but im just a dude figuring all this out on my own. Never had a pops around to show me these little things. I will say, I dont live in a humid environment, and ive owned this compressor for 3 years and never had a single hiccup. I use it damn near every time in the shop too. Anyways, heres a link to the one I own and ive been nothing but impressed with it.

 
In the 1960's and 1970's I used a airbrush to paint everything from T shirts & Sweat shirts to custom motorcycles and trucks. It's how I funded my hunting and fishing outdoor life style. Liked using it but it was a huge PITA to clean and use. Once I put it down I never used it again. They are no where as tactile as a paint brush in my hand. With a paint brush I can make the proper connection to the work. That is missing for me with a airbrush. Plus all the risk factors of the paint being in the air and the proper mask to protect ones self. I had all that I needed to use it but it was just not worth it any longer. My jobs working in steel mills and Westinghouse were tough enough on my lungs I did not need more.

my 2 cents
 
Vince Pagliaroli said:
In the 1960's and 1970's I used a airbrush to paint everything from T shirts & Sweat shirts to custom motorcycles and trucks. It's how I funded my hunting and fishing outdoor life style. Liked using it but it was a huge PITA to clean and use. Once I put it down I never used it again. They are no where as tactile as a paint brush in my hand. With a paint brush I can make the proper connection to the work. That is missing for me with a airbrush. Plus all the risk factors of the paint being in the air and the proper mask to protect ones self. I had all that I needed to use it but it was just not worth it any longer. My jobs working in steel mills and Westinghouse were tough enough on my lungs I did not need more.

my 2 cents
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Clogged guns can be no fun, I agree. The solution, take apart your guns after every use and just let them soak in a container with mineral spirits. My guns work flawlessly and it takes me 1 minute to tear them down and 3 minutes to put them together. Thats taking my time too.

Also, its an art for sure. Learning how to manipulate air pressure through the compressor to fine line and understand overspray is essential. Lastly, airbrushing on flocking is much much MUCH more forgiving than bare flat material, as the flocking absorbs the paint much cleaner. Once good with an airbrush, the painting process goes 10x quicker than a brush in hand. I cranked out 8 geese in about 3ish hours once they were ready for the airbrush phase. No chance I could of achieved that with a paint brush. Especially on flocking.
 
Huntindave McCann said:
I need to replace my air compressor, only because my current compressor is loud enough to wake the dead.
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I got this one because everytime I was airbrushing, with my old compressor, when it kicked on it would startle the hell out of me and make me jump. Even with earbuds in listening to music. Not the most fun when trying to be artistic.
 
William Reinicke said:
Lastly, airbrushing on flocking is much much MUCH more forgiving than bare flat material, as the flocking absorbs the paint much cleaner
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You have my attention,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, My method has been to apply paint and immediately sprinkle flocking into the wet paint, with mixed results. It never occurred to me to reverse the order.
What are you using as a binder to adhere the flocking to the decoy body?
 
Huntindave McCann said:
Also not fun when you are running a wood lathe. Even my neighbors have commented on the noise.
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Ive been impressed with mine, despite being from harbor freight. I wanted a california tools one, but they wanted something like $80-$100 in shipping. So i took a chance. They make ones cheaper that are just as quiet in the fortress series. I just went with this one because it has 2 air chucks. I like having a line for other needs and having my 3 way hooked into the other. After getting that 3 chuck adapter though, I could of lived for one of the cheaper models as I could of just plugged into that.
 
There is a flocking thread that probably helps, but it's kind of lost to the second page of posts by now and likely will be gone from view at some point..

flocking glue is gloss oil based enamel. Flocking is sifted over that, I call it shaking the flocking on, not shaking it off. I want as much of the flocking to settle into the paint as I can. I bump the decoy quite a bit to further that settling and then let it set up. The first coat is a medium color over the entire decoy, I often use grey. Second coats are critical and correspond to the color areas of the species, such as black on the head of a mallard drake, brown on his chest, another coat of grey on his back and flank and black on his rump. Anything white I will paint flat white over the double flock, sometimes twice.
 
Huntindave McCann said:
You have my attention,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, My method has been to apply paint and immediately sprinkle flocking into the wet paint, with mixed results. It never occurred to me to reverse the order.
What are you using as a binder to adhere the flocking to the decoy body?
Click to expand...
Rustoleum gloss enamel paint. Take your bare decoy, paint over the entire decoy and sprinkle flocking over the decoy with a kitchen sieve. Ive found, the cheaper the sieve the better it works. I get mine all from the dollar store, and you want a single wire mesh. Dont get fancy and get the double wire, as it takes more shaking to get the flocking to rain down. You want a nice even sprinkle down of the flocking.

You can go through the workbench threads and see the pvc handles I have on the underside of all my birds. This allows me to manipulate holding the decoy while doing the flocking and airbrushing, without touching the decoy. I can achieve nice even coats. I take the handles off and the same spots I put the handle on, is where I mount my removable keel. I do 2 coats of flocking, the first will be a nice soft texture, like any other flocking you have felt. The second coat is where the magic happens and toughens up the texture and creates a nice "skin" over the entire decoy. Now you have sections or blobs of flocking color throughout the decoy. As you can imagine, we play with flocking colors on certain parts of the decoys. Example... Drake mallard - light gray body, black tails/rump, black heads in flocking. Now you have black and gray duck, but then you can spray over all of that with an airbrush and create your work of art.

Goose, I do black heads, black tails and rump, white lower ass end, goose gray flocking in flanks, and feather brown in the top feather group. You can also play with paint colors under flocking to achieve colors closer to what you are trying to achieve in the final product. Im working on a leustic goose... my head on that goose was black paint with white flocking. Kind of a fun thing to play with.

I forget which workbench thread it is, but I have a picture that im weighing my mallard vs my goose to show weight differences. You can see my goose isnt airbrushed yet, and just at the step of being double flocked.
 
William and I work in the same office, the office of redundancy, lol.

Because factory flocking is so poorly done, people assume that all flocking is weak. I don't see factory flocking as flocking at all, it's basically powder electrostaticly applied over a water based glue. The way I get flocking off a factory decoy is to set it out in the sun for a few months and it comes off pretty easy. That's what I did with these hardcores. I wire brushed off whatever head flocking and paint was left and did a full flocking on them about 15 years ago. The past 8 years they have been behind my mower shed in the weather, dead leaves, temps from 110 to 0, rain, snow, ice, totally exposed to the elements. I dug them out for Caleb to look at and sprayed them off with the hose and this is how they look right now on my front porch. Flocking, done right is stronger than paint. Some people just hope it doesn't work, others won't hunt without flocked decoys, I would be one of those. These geese were single flocked and airbrushed.

My son and I are production painters, so hand brushing is not practical. We make around 400 custom carved synthetic tupelo decoys a year and my son will likely flock and paint around a thousand plastic geese this year and many more varieties of ducks.

IMG_6080.jpg
 
William Reinicke said:
Clogged guns can be no fun, I agree. The solution, take apart your guns after every use and just let them soak in a container with mineral spirits. My guns work flawlessly and it takes me 1 minute to tear them down and 3 minutes to put them together. Thats taking my time too.

Also, its an art for sure. Learning how to manipulate air pressure through the compressor to fine line and understand overspray is essential. Lastly, airbrushing on flocking is much much MUCH more forgiving than bare flat material, as the flocking absorbs the paint much cleaner. Once good with an airbrush, the painting process goes 10x quicker than a brush in hand. I cranked out 8 geese in about 3ish hours once they were ready for the airbrush phase. No chance I could of achieved that with a paint brush. Especially on flocking.
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William,

In my case art has never been about speed. George Williams and I had many discussions about that. He and I were exact opposites. My carving process is slow and old school, as is my painting. As for flocking I've never done that to any decoys I've had or carved. It didn't seem to ever matter tolling birds. Painting by hand is as quiet or as loud (music) as I want it. I love QUIET had more than enough noise in my life.

I was good with a air brush, yet the process lacked the tactile feel of a brush just like a Foredom lacked the same feel. Many folks are very good at both and it takes time to get to that point so I respect that. It just lacks Soul for me. I got fired from a house painting job cuz I took to long and did to good of a job. Did not miss that job at all...

About the closest I get to heaven on earth is when I have a carving knife, paint brush or Fly Rod in my hand.

Best regards
Vince
 
Vince Pagliaroli said:
William,

In my case art has never been about speed. George Williams and I had many discussions about that. He and I were exact opposites. My carving process is slow and old school, as is my painting. As for flocking I've never done that to any decoys I've had or carved. It didn't seem to ever matter tolling birds. Painting by hand is as quiet or as loud (music) as I want it. I love QUIET had more than enough noise in my life.

I was good with a air brush, yet the process lacked the tactile feel of a brush just like a Foredom lacked the same feel. Many folks are very good at both and it takes time to get to that point so I respect that. It just lacks Soul for me. I got fired from a house painting job cuz I took to long and did to good of a job. Did not miss that job at all...

About the closest I get to heaven on earth is when I have a carving knife, paint brush or Fly Rod in my hand.

Best regards
Vince
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To each their own for sure. No right way to skin a cat. You arent going to paint flocking with a brush though. No chance! Not with any kind of detail anyways and you would be at a decoy for weeks before you got the detail that is achievable with an airbrush on flocking.

I hear the argument over and over that flocking doesnt matter on the birds. Location is key on this, but you hunt high pressure and not on the "x", I think it very much a need. Also, I will intentionally not hunt the X sometimes, and let the decoys and calling work birds away from it. If it is not found by others, I can go back to the same spot over and over, week after week, and keep shooting my limits without burning it out. I did this 2 years ago, and hunted the same hole for 80% of the season and shot limit after limit and never needed to find anything else. Just preserved the spot for the season.

Take some plastics on a blue bird day, set your spread, run down the lake or river a few hundred yards towards the sunrise, and look back and tell me if you see black silhouettes or shiny glass mirrors. Ive seen first hand the shiny glass mirrors down the lake 300-400 yards from the spread. Made me wonder how many ducks were flaring before they even got close to my decoy spread.

Ill be the first to admit that I had my doubts about flocking and holding up. It wasnt until I read through Don's work and his process and I had to give it a shot. Flocked decoys were really good for me, for half a season and then they were so beat up, they were essentially back to just being plastic decoys. I wont hunt without flocked decoys now, knowing the durability that is achievable with flocking.

As far as quiet goes... well these california tool and harbor freight air compressors are pretty darn quiet.

As far as closest to heaven... well id have to believe in all that to get close, but to play into the figure of speech, id say cold mornings with mallard working down in the spread or a big flock of geese low on the deck moaning the whole way into the spread just sick to get with the group of decoys I have set. I also really really enjoy pushing the limits and getting in areas most would never venture. Those areas where if something goes wrong, you're flirting with mother nature and her power. I like that vulnerable sick feeling that comes with that thought, but the peace you find in those areas is indescribable.
 
Huntindave McCann said:
I'm close enough as it is, no need to rush it. :cool: :ROFLMAO: It's not something I dwell on. It's not something I plan around. Anything I buy now, will be "like new" when my grandkids inherit it.
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LOL I dont really think much about it either. Enjoy the time you got and live each day like its your last. Would love to believe I have MANY years in front of me, but in healthcare, you realize just how fragile life is. Have a coworker, recently diagnosed with brain cancer. So rare, all the major cancer centers and universities are trying to get a sample of her biopsy. Unfortunately, she will be lucky to make it to the end of the year, and shes leaving behind 3 little ones and shes only 43. My heart hurts everytime I touch base with her and her husband. I talk to her about once a week right now, and im kind of a mess every time I get off the phone with her.
 
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