68KingFisher

Col Sanders pooped out the first egg....all the fried chickens came later. Personally when it comes to airbrushing....I don't care if you airbrush crankbaits or wall murals....I think you need more then one airbrush.....you need a decent brush with a 3.0mm tip or larger that will be used for larger areas....basecoats....fades....blends, etc.....then I think you need a detail gun....0.2mm or smaller. If I still have to choose one of those then i'd go with the 0.3mm gun....and with practice you can learn to achieve details close to what a 0.2mm gun would produce.....definately good enough for any crankbait. As for brands, I'll always recommend staying with the major brands.....Iwata...Paasche....Peak....Badger....Richpen...Thayers and Chandler, to name a few.....each of them will have airbrushes in the price range you mentioned.....use the tip sizes as a guide, and decide which features suit your needs....all are user friendly and parts are readily available. My personal arsenal consists of several Paasche VL's....I still have and use the first one I ever got back in 1974.....These guys are my workhorses for lots of background stuff, but can be used for finer details since you can switch tip sizes.....They are probably the #1 most suggested airbrush for a newbie.....just make sure to get the VL set....it has all three tip and needle sizes so your good to cover most anything. Next are my Iwata HP-BCS Eclipse's......I love these brushes, and have used the crap outta them for several years and they just keep working without any hassles.....parts are not to expensive either......In that same catagory i've also got a Thayers and Chandler Omni 4000 thats not a bad brush at all, although it doen't have the same fit and finish as the Eclipse.....both sell for just under $100 and they are hard to beat for a siphon feed brush. Lastly are my highend detail brushes....Both Iwata's.....my favorite is the HP-SB side bowl brush with a 0.2mm tip.....top quality brush but sells for around $200.....and my ultra detail brush is the CM-SB side bowl Custom Micron.....Lists for something like $575. but actually sells for around $360 or so....although very few crankbait painters would need something that detailed. I've only used just a small portion of the airbrushes available on the market so i'm no expert on the subject.....I used them for alot of years,only just the models shown above....I hope this helped you narrow it down a little.

Seems like I always get asked this.....problem is its a loaded question....you ask which one would I choose, and I have ask back, "choose for what?".....what am I painting?.....cause theres a huge difference is needing a brush to paint murals on the side of Zippo lighters, or paint murals on the side of a motorhome.....you can't choose a single brush that works for both. Having said that if all I was ever gonna paint was crankbaits, that helps narrow it down a bit....but now budget comes in to play.....whatcha lookin to spend.....are you a lowball kinda spender or is money no object?......See what i'm gettin at?....Too many variables to call any one brush "the" brush i'd pick over all others.....fortunately we live in a world where we don't have to pick....decent airbrushes can be purchased cheap enough that every painter can afford a few different ones.....heck they even make an airbrush now thats considered disposable....once the needle or tip wears out just toss it and buy another.....for $38 each you can hardley go wrong...lol.....crap I just received 2 Iwata tips in the mail today...the bill was $86.98 Just don't expect a $38 airbrush to perform like a $300 airbrush.

Thats cool.....I've been wondering what kinda eye options I could use on my own baits.....Do you know yet how the "realistic water" will react to being cleared over with epoxy or uro's? Any compatability problems or have you got that far yet?

Thanks to the tornado, we have a serious stack of pecan sitting out by the shop, and i've been wondering the same thing....would pecan be worth using for a crankbait? I've also been thinking of planting some paulownia trees back in place of the pecans we lost....i've been reading about them and they are super fast growing and a great shade tree....the added benefit is the unique nature of the wood....almost as light as balsa but its a hardwood.....everytime a limb breaks off i'll have some crankbait wood....lol.

Ok, I wanted to add that I went and had a look at the Master's airbrushes you asked about and I have these additional comments. The G44 has a 0.2mm tip.....thats considered a detail brush, and is designed for thin viscosity inks and paints, and I would hesitate to use it with Createx due to added tip clog issues from the smaller tip. The G46 has a 0.3mm tip, and would work alot better with thicker viscosity paints like Createx.....the 3 interchangable cups is a cool feature, but one that you really won't use much so I sure wouldn't pay extra for it. Both of the Masters brushes are gravity feed, while the Paasche VL and Millennium series are siphon feed.....So you'll have to decide what style will fit your needs the best....they both have their pro's and con's......Siphon feed requires more air pressure to draw the paint up a tube, while the gravity feed doesn't need much at all since gravity keeps the paint in the bottom of the cup.....but the cup size is small while you can hang a 4oz bottle from a siphon feed....again what fits your needs?.. Gravity feeds tend to clean up a touch quicker, but not alot......You can change colors in simular amounts of time......the biggest problem I have with the gravity feed cups is that the cup is in my line of sight....so I find that have to pitch the cup a bit sideways so I can see past it, and that feels weird...at least to me....so I prefer siphon feeds for most of my work, but both of my detail guns are side feed, so the bowl is not in my view, but I have the same benefits as a gravity feed brush. Hope this is helping and not confusing you....lol...If ya ask a thousand guys what they recommend your gonna get a thousand different answers....lol....airbrushes are onna those things ya just gotta get your hands on for awhile to decide if ya like it or not.....each one feels, and acts a bit different.....just find what works for you.....hollar if you need more confusion....lol:yay:

I don't know anything about the Masters brand other then its an Iwata knock off.......On the other hand the Paasche VL series has been the workhorse of the industry for many years...parts are readily available and inexpensive....So if it was me, i'd choose the Paasche long before i'd go with the Masters. The only drawback to the Paasche VL series is they have a fatter body than most other airbrushes.....thats not an issue if you have large hands, but if you have small hands then you might not like the way it feels in your hand...its kinda like having a big fat cigar or sharpie in your hand....kinda awkward at first....If the fat body isn't your thing, then i'd suggest looking at the Paasche Millennium series....its has the slimmer body that most folks seem to like.....plus it comes in #1,#3,#5 sizes as well. I highly recommend getting a full set that has all three tip sizes, plus bottles, hose, wrench, etc......Having all three tip sizes is an advantage in the long run.....I use #5 tips to spray primer and clearcoats....most artwork gets done with the #3, and when I need finer details i'll switch to the #1. I hope this helps.....feel free hollar if I can be of more help.

Please don't take offense, but thats not exactly correct....the using equal amounts part that is.....For example...mixing equal amounts of yellow and blue will not give you the secondary color green......you'll get green alright but it'll be way to dark.....the reason being is that the darker blue is too overpowering for the lighter yellow so you can't use equal amounts. Always start with your lightest color and add small amounts of your darker color till you get the color your looking for.

Mixing colors isn't all that hard, but it does require you to have a little knowledge of color theory....Having a color wheel around can be helpful also. Heres a flash video that does a great job explaining some basic mixing principals.....its made with the auto airbrusher in mind and uses House of Kolor opaqe basecoat paints, but the theory applies to waterbased paints as well......You should find it helpful. http://www.baa-direct.com/flv/3_day_course/Day3/3daycourse_day3.swf

Thats really gonna depend on the airbrush your using, but "yes" the pearl particles can clog your airbrush.....specially if your tip is small.....anything 3.0mm or above should be able to shoot pearls without too much trouble.....a 2.0mm tip or smaller is too small.

Thats a really good point......I came into this craft with knowledge of using automotive urethanes, and when I read the above terms they seem to mean something different to me then they do to you guys....so it does get a bit confusing. Take primer for instance.....in the auto world you got etch primers, epoxy primers, 2K primers. They get referred to as primers....primer fillers....primer surfacers and primer sealers, but each do something different......While a "Sealer" is again its own product and there are several of them....My House of Kolor book shows 3 that are labeled sealers and i'm sure each paint mfg has its own type of sealers.....in the auto painting world a sealer isn't always needed....its purpose is to keep something from below the primer from bleeding thru into the paintjob at a later date.....for instance.....covering a dark colored bondo repair on a fender of a light colored car....or there might be multiple colors showing from previous paintjobs.....you'd shoot a primer over the repair followed by the appropriate sanding measures, and then you'd use a sealer just before you apply your first coat of paint....without the appropriate color sealer being applied first it could take way to many coats of a light colored paint to cover the dark area and you run the risk of the repair showing thru the paintjob months later....in fact I think many auto painters concider the sealer coat to BE the first base coat. When tackle builders talk about sealers, i'm never sure if your talking about something like Thompsons water seal, or clear laquers, or polyurethanes made to seal wood floors to seal raw wood, or are you talking about a primer type of sealer that would be used to cover the factory paintjob on a plastic crankbait before you start a repaint or what exactly....lol. Some of ya'll are painting wood, some are painting plastics, some are painting foam and trimboards and I don't know what all else, and each prep and painting process should be a bit different i'd imagine......but in a forum situation where information gets read here or there, and then re-shared here or there, its easy to give or get incorrect info simply because of terminology differences, or in many cases our geographical locations can be the difference between what one person calls a sealer and someone on the opposite side of the planet calls a sealer. BobP, I know you said your not suggesting standards, but maybe thats not a bad idea....if its even possible?

If your lookin for a good siphon feed brush, you might concider the Iwata Eclipse HP-BCS....i've used these for several years on everything from tee shirts to automotive and they've proven to be a tough little brushes. I'd also recommend a Peak X-5....i've used one of these for several years now, and i've been real impressed with it.....its pretty equal to the Eclipse even though it cost a few bucks less. Peak also makes the X-3 model for even less money, but its not near as good a quality as the X-5.....the X-3 feels real cheap when you use it.....I'd stay away from it unless your just looking for something really inexpensive...even then i'd say just wait till you can afford the X-5. I guess I should at least give a nod to the Paasche VL.....they've been the workhorse of the airbrush industry for many years so you can't exactly talk about siphon feed airbrushes without concidering one of them also.

That looks to be a single action airbrush he's using, and that knob he's fiddleing with adjusts how much paint the needle lets thru.....screw that knob one way and get more paint, screw it the other way and get less paint......a double action airbrush doesn't have that knob since the trigger does both functions....down for air, back for paint.....further back you pull the trigger the more paint ya get....much easier than a single action brush once you get the hang of it.

Would this help?

Using a good regulator on a Co2 tank is a MUST, since normal tank pressures run around 860 psi at normal room temps(72.fahrenheit).....as surrounding temps go up so does the internal tank pressure.....No airbrusher in his right mind can use that much air pressure so it must be regulated down. When used for airbrushing, tank pressures do not fall off as you use from it.....instead the pressure remains constant until the tank is right at empty and then the pressure drops suddenly. Getting liquid past the regulator and into your airbrush should never happen as long as the tank is sitting upright, since the draw tube inside the tank is in the vapor space of the tank and not in the liquid area.....turn the tank on its side and all bets are off. I don't know about filters in paintball guns, but the average combo regulator/water trap will catch 5 microns or larger......I know alot of airbrushers that use Co2 tanks to power their brushes for outdoor carshows and fairs and such and these guys swear by them....no complaints of dirty air or icing problems from liquid. Most illustrators use the smaller scuba sized tanks....they aren't as heavy and are a bit easier to handle.....I suppose if your refilling at a scuba center your probably getting a better quality of filtered Co2 then the stuff ya might get from the welding supply guys....I dunno......I just know alot of airbrushers love their Co2.

Ok, this is just too weird.......I had an idea come to me one nite, for a crankbait design that used an oversized face that had some attitude.....And now I see these.....Dang...someone has been in my dreams.....Now, if I ever build one, everyone will think I copied these...lol....What a deal.

Co2 tanks are popular with illustration artists that use airbrushes.....Depending on what your painting, a large Co2 tank (100lbs) or larger will power your airbrush for quite awhile....they are completely silent....and the air is clean....no impureities. The down side is the tanks are very heavy and must be transported back and forth to get them filled.....You can get them filled at welding supplies and sometimes dental supply houses. Most folks rent the tank and regulators setups, but you could purchase you own if you want.

I've read this deal about Bloxygen a few times on this site, so I had to look it up to find out what it was. Once I saw what it was, I thought i'd share a couple of old painters tips with you guys that you may be unaware of. Sign painters enamals are really bad about skinning over on top, once the can has been opened and the paint gets exposed to oxygen, so old tyme sign painters learned to take a straw and blowing slowly thru it, they would insert the other end of the straw into the top of the paintcan as they put the lid on.....their blowing into the can filled it with carbondioxide...the stuff we mainly exhale....the paint doesn't dry because the oxygen that would've been trapped in the can once the lid was put on, is now replaced with Co2.....thats basicly the same thing that you guys are doing with the Bloxygen. One other tip.....those little cans of air in the computer section of Walmart that are sold to spray the dust off your keyboards and stuff.....those cans are filled with Co2...and i'm bettin thats what your can of Bloxygen is.

I have never used DN, but from my dealings with catalized clears, that kinda sounds like 12hrs maybe wasn't enough.....and when you dipped you reactivated what you had sprayed earlier and everything wrinkled.

Yeah man, that one semester of typing class in high school really paid off didn't it....hahahaha.....if only my typing instructor could see me now. Actually my typing speed comes from several years of setting in front of a computer at work....geeez, I really have had my hands on a keyboard for too long haven't I....lol I guess I am gonna have to "put up or shut up" at some point huh?....lol.....I hope I don't make a fool outta my self....but if I do, just remember it wasn't the first time, and probably won't be the last. I have already prepped a couple of my old crankbaits in anticapation of tryin my hand at this craft....I sure wish my shop was fixed.

Yes, Createx makes a clearcoat......No, its not impermiable to water once its dry......I would NOT use Createx or Aquaflow clearcoats on baits that will be in the water all the time.....use on anything else and you'll probably be ok....just not on something that'll be submerged alot.

I've been using DIY paintbooths since I started this venture many moons ago.....for years I used nothing more than a 20" box fan sittin in the window, and i'd put a couple of 20" furnace filters in front of it and spray away.....works great for small time airbrushers working out of that spare bedroom with nowhere else to paint. Now I have a seperate shop from the house and my fan is a much larger home furnace fan....squirrel cage style....moves alot more air.....My filters are bigger and more of them but the same inexpensive DIY booth principal works great and has served me well over the years.....Lord knows i'd love to have a real store bought paintbooth, but I ain't got that kinda money to drop....I'm just a small time hobbiest...not a pro so as dad used ta say....Poor folks have poor ways, but we'll make do.

No hidden agendas or sponsers from me guys.....I'm just a dumb ol' country boy, with a bad heart, and too dang many hobbies...lol. I don't claim to be any kinda expert, but after 30+ years messing with airbrushes and paint'n on all kinds of surfaces with all kinds of paints, i've probably gotta bit of knowledge stored away, and I don't mind sharing. I started airbrushing back in the 70's during the "Custom Van" craze......but apparently it was taboo for an airbrusher to share information with a "wannabe" back then and I was sent down the road.....So I had to learn the hard way....trial and error....there were no books or videos for help on the subject, so I can honestly say I know whats its like to struggle with makin an airbrush work.....So if I can in some small way help you guys with your airbrush struggles, then i've done my job and helped pass on this craft to the next generation....The internet has really opened up the whole world for real artists and craftsman to share their knowledge and a few of their secrets to others with the same passion....and I think the sharing of information is whats its all about isn't it? Whether i'm sharing my knowledge with my granddaughter or with complete strangers online.....its the act of giving from ones self with no expectations of reciprocation or gain. Pete, as for your "beading" problem......Whats happening is probably two fold....first your using a thick acrylic that doesn't really wanna lay down by itself too well, so your adding an additive that will break the surface tension in the water molicules and will allow it to spread out and lay down before it starts to skin over and dry. You've seen a drop of water bead up on the table.....well its surface tension that holds that drop together.....by adding an emulsifier you can break that tension and the drop will spread out. Theres been alot of recipes running rampant thru airbrushing forums in the past couple of years about mixing a better "Thinner" for Createx other than just plain water.....these ideas include the addition of Glycerine obtained in any drug store.....Fantastic kitchen spray cleaner....the original formula only.....Isopropal alcohol....Future floor wax, and more. Folks got to were they were tryin everything under the kitchen sink.....Which is not really a good idea to start atomizing all these chemicals in the air with our airbrushes to breath....Duh? I personally have used Createx's retarder....Isopropal alcohol, and Glycerine to help reduce the beading problem, as well as slow down tip dry issues which plague all users of waterbased paints....or used too anyway.....some of the newer formulas coming from Createx or Etac are said to not have all the issues the old Createx had....Which I by the way have alot of bottles of.....lol....the old stuff. Secondly I believe your other problem is pressure......20psi ain't much for a thick acrylic.....not if you want it to atomize well.....kick your air pressures up and see if that don't help. When using waterbased paints I normally run between 45psi minimum and usually 65psi, and if i'm having trouble I might runner on up to 80psi.....This is also why I always tell folks to get the biggest compressor they can afford....those tiny airbrush compressors won't give you the pressure needed....not in the real world anyway..lol. Now heres the deal.....when your shootin at those higher pressures you gotta make a few adjustments...Move faster...back off a bit from your surface, but not so far that your getting overspray everywhere....Learn trigger control!!!!....tiny amounts of trigger pull will give you better control....better atomazation.....less tip dry.....and better results....the paint will be forced to lay down better because its hitting the surface harder and the tiny droplets can't stay a drop...they get splattered so to speak.....This is also when the name brand airbrushes begin to show why they are better than the off brand no-name airbrushes....control and atomazation. These higher pressures also require you to adjust how much you thin your paints....Its easy to over thin and then your spiderwebbing and blowing your wet paint around on the surface. Using stencils becomes tougher to hold in place under higher air pressures. But if you can find a happy medium between properly thinned paints and high air pressures, you'll find your paintjobs look alot better..smoother..the paint really does atomize and laydown better.....But then again....thats just my opinion and the way I like to do it when I use my decade old Createx....lol....Your results may vary. It ain't easy....there is no magic formula....practice and experience will improve your paintjobs....period Pete, I know all about living in the boonies....We live in a town of 5000.....its 65 miles to the nearest town of 30,000.....170 miles to a real city that really has all the stores and choices a man would ever want.....so needless to say I get by with what I can get my hands on locally too.....If Walmart don't got it I either don't need it or I gotta go internet shopping which I don't like to do....lol I hope this helped. PS....I forgot to comment on the resperator issue.....Personally I don't wear a resperator when airbrushing....I only wear it when I use a full size paintgun and when spraying clearcoat.....BUT.....I have a decent paintbooth that moves alot of air, and i'm sitting right in front of it most of the time so theres no way for the fumes or overspray to get to me, as they are being pulled away from me. Unless you have a ventilation setup that moves enough air, I highly recommend wearing a resperator....not just a dust mask either....a real resperator made for painting....they are not that expensive and normally you can get filter replacements rather then replacing the whole mask when the only filters are dirty. Also....store your resperator in the ziplock bags they came in when your not wearing them....this will help the charcol filter to last alot longer....plus you don't gotta worry about some little creepy crawly critter building a home in it while its not being used....Trust me on this....i've had it happen...put on a mask with baby spiders in it....I still have nitemares bout that...hehehe. As for the airbrushing fingernails question I think its strickly that they are applying such a small amount of paint they just don't have much overspray to deal with......Are they breathing some.....You betcha.....will that tiny amount hurt them......Who knows.....maybe if they do it 12 hours a day everyday of their life....but for that matter inhaling tiny amounts of anything over time will cause some kinda problem eventually.....Its kinda like the folks who smoke cigerettes....Why should they were a resperator when the cigerettes will probably kill them first...lol....I dunno....each to his own I suppose. I will say this.....Like my Grandpa always said....Boy, If i'd of known I was gonna live this long I would've taken better care of myself way back when....lol.

I highly recommend you guys never use windex to clean your airbrushes, and definately never, ever soak your airbrush in windex......Windex contains ammonia, and ammonia will eventually eat the chrome right off your brush so don't use it......water alone is normally fine for flushing out your brush. You could use some of the "airbrush cleaners" being sold by Createx or different companies if you want....i've used them before and now I just use water....its alot cheaper too. I've been airbrushing for over 30yrs and have used most of the paint brands on the market, and I only clean my brushes with either water or lacquer thinner.....occasionally i've been known to use mineral spirits to clean up a brush after using waterbased acrylics....specially if I let it sit in the brush for awhile at start to harden....mineral spirits is a mild solvent and even works well for wetsanding acrylics when you don't wanna use water to wetsand with. The cheap craft style of acrylics paints shown in the pics below are just that....cheap acrylics...made for grandma to use in her tole painting classes...lol. In most applications the color pigments in those paints are not ground fine enough to get used with anything other than a hairy paintbrush....not in airbrushes....But....they can be made to work if you have an airbrush with a large enough noozle.....0.3mm or larger is usually fine......0.2mm and smaller can give you fits with clogging. Thats why most guys use a paint made for airbrushing....the finer ground pigments allow them to be sprayed thru a tiny noozle without much trouble. I don't know what makes you guys think that waterbased paints clean up easier than solvent paints....cause they do not clean up quicker.....I can flush out solvent paints and switch to another color in 1/4 the time of doing it with waterbased.....I guess its a matter of preference. Yes, you'll have solvent fumes to deal with, but a good exhaust fan in a window next to you will take care of that.....Solvent based paints are not really all that deadly to you.....its the solvent based clearcoats that will take you out.....and its really only the catalist that is toxic....the isocyanides in it are the main reason we wear resperators and zutesuits and use paintbooths when spraying.....its nasty stuff and DOES require proper ventilation and precautions when mixing or spraying.....the actual basecoats and thinners are not that bad....yeah they smell, but they are no where near as toxic as the clearcoats.....Heck, even Createx has a smell to it when sprayed....not as bad,but it smells.....I guess I should point out that you should wear a resperator when spraying waterbased acrylics.....just cause its waterbased doesn't mean it won't coat your lungs, so don't be a tough guy and paint without either a real good ventilation system or resperator....or both....and that means using a resperator thats rated for organic vapors.....a dust mask ain't good enough to paint with. For thinning acrylics I use water.....some of the newer waterbased stuff is coming out with its own thinners.....but mostly all it takes is some added water to thin out the acrylics a bit, but its easy to go too thin so do it a bit at a time till you get a feel for what your brand of paint requires....all brands are different and all brands change from bottle to bottle...specially the cheap stuff.....I hope this helped. PS....an airbrush medium is normally paint without any pigments in it.....so adding it will not act as a thinner.....it will act as a carrier and will allow you to mix your own powdered pigments or pearls into it for spraying....you can also use it to make a paint more translucent since its just a clear binder.....I hope that made sense?

i've a boat load of old or bad cds.....what a cool idea....hmmmmmm.

The Alsa chrome paints are the best made, but they too will flatten out to a dull aluminum finish if you don't use their brand of "speed clear".....many guys have tried to use their chrome and then clear with other products, such as PPG, Dupont, Hok, etc,etc, and they all have the same issue.....the best results are when using Alsa's clear on top of Alsa's chrome paint. You gotta remember one thing.....these chrome paints...whether they are Alsa brand or Walmart brand all have one thing in common.....they are not really paint....they are a metal deposition process.....the pigments are real metal not paint pigments. I've clear coated over alot of Aluminum spray can stuff as well as so called Chrome spray can stuff and without fail the shine flattens out just as Fatfingers mentioned......all brands except Alsa's when followed by their speed clear will do this that I know of.