New Airbrush Painter ???

[KelpKritter]

I purchased a Badger Cresendo bottom feed brush a few weeks back and have been practicing a bit on paper and scrap wood. The kit came with three color cups and three different sized tips. At this time I am only planning on painting a few baits at a time and do not want to paint them all the same although my patterns will be limited to probably three schemes. All of the paints are Folkart waterbased acrylics. The instructions did not come with any info on thinning or storage of paint. Here are my questions.

1) What ratio should I thin the paints with, the pearls are much thicker, if I am using Windex and is one tip size better than another?

2) Once the paints are thinned should I leave them in the color cup and store them this way or should I return to a different type of container for storage? I do not want to return thinned paint to unthinned. It would seem that I would need to invest in more color cups and simply store and attach to the brush when changing colors. This would include a cup for cleaning the brush between color changes.

Am I missing something simple with regards to color changes and storage?

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

DaveB.

KelpKritter

[strictly esox]

Folk art paints are not exactly designed to go through an air brush. I do use a couple of them because the color right from the bottle is perfect and I dont need to mix and match. You will need to thin them alot, windex does work well. I used the Folk art pearl once in my bottom feed gun, it took me forever to get the little pearls to clear out while cleaning, the Folk art metalics are even worse. I wont be using either ever again. These paints are not milled as thin as real airbrush paints.

I dont use a ratio for mixing, I keep adding windex and mixing until I get the consistency I'm looking for. Some people say the consistency of milk, I tend to run it a hair thicker depending what I'm doing. This all comes from experience, I've been spraying for 2 years and I'm still learning. I mix a little more than I plan on using then dump the extra.

I sprayed with a bottom feed for about 2 months with alot of frustration, then bought an Iwata gravity feed by the recomendation by almost everyone on this site. I have not used my bottom feed since nor will I ever again. The gravity feed is so much easier to clean and sprays 100% better. If you really get into painting I highly recomend switching.

As far as what tip is better someone else will have to answere that one for you.

Hope this helps, John:twocents:

[BobP]

I have a Crescendo and only use the fine tip. When I used hobby paints, I thinned them with water only. Squirt paint into the siphon cup, shoot some water from a spray bottle into the cup and mix it with a plastic stick (the little stick that comes with a D2T syringe set is perfect). You want the paint about the consistency of milk. No harm pouring any unused paint thinned with water back into the paint bottle afterward. I don't store paint in the cup or in the siphon jars that come with the airbrush because the siphon tubes eventually get gummed up and can release chunks of dried paint into the airbrush.