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.
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.