Acrylic Craft Paint In Airbrush

[Silo1688]

The nearest Hobby Lobby is ~45min away and has only a few basic colors of createx paint. And I wanted other options. Micheals is really close, it has a good colors selection and I really don't want to pay shipping for a couple of bottles of paint. I completely agree using airbrush paints would be hell of a lot easier hehehe, but I'm looking for other options.

As always, thanks Ben for your help.

[beeman]

Hello, everyone!

 

First post here.  I am glad to have found this sight!

 

For those of us who struggle with mixing the right color for our work, may I suggest the book, "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green" by Michael Wilcox.

 

He debunks the notion of the traditional color wheel and talks about how light works to give us color.  His book is easy to read and has a number of exercises for learning to mix the right color every time.

 

Long story short, all colors can be mixed from the following "primaries".  Plus tints of Black and White.

 

Orange Red -- Cadmium Red medium

Purple red -- Permanent Rose or Alizarin Crimson

 

Blue/Purple -- Ultramarine Blue

Blue/Green -- Cerulean Blue

 

Yellow/Green -- Hansa Yellow

Orange yellow-- Cadmium Yellow light.

 

Createx has all of these

 

You'll not be diappointed if you buy and study this book.

 

Miles

[mark poulson]

Thank you Miles for the list, and the suggestions.

Welcome to TU!

[beeman]

You're welcome, Mark.

 

I come from the duck/birdcarving world.  All of my carvings have been avian related.  Now I am trying fishing lures/plugs.  My son-in-law will be in a fishing tournament mid-November at the Outer Banks and asked if I could turn, paint, and rig  some plugs for him. Stripers, mainly.

 

Suggestions from you TU members on what to build for him would be most appreciated.

 

TU has been a great resource for me thusfar and I appreciate all of you experienced makers sharing your knowledge on this site.

 

Regards,

Miles

[mark poulson]

I'd ask him what baitfish the stripers feed on and what size, look up some pictures online, and then go from there.  

Typically, out here in SoCal, the local saltwater baitfish that school and get eaten, by bonita and tune out here, are either sardines or anchovies, both of which are long and thin, and are silver with green and violet accents.

Once you know what you're trying to imitate, there are bound to be people here who can offer suggestions.

One word of advice I would give you is that salt water fish are much harder on fishing lures that you're probably used to with duck decoys.  Plan to make everything stout, with heavy stainless steel hardware and 3X hooks.  Those stripers are big and strong.

Edited August 12, 2013 by mark poulson

[PondBoss]

I use Apple Barrel and Folk Art paints, which aren't specifically designed for air brushes.  From what I've learned here, that means there may be larger pigment particles, which clog the small passages in an air brush.

Because I'm lazy, and only paint for myself and friends, I thin those paints with Auto Aire 4011 reducer until they are like skim milk before I use them.

When I do get a clog, I usually just backflush the paint back into the cup a little to clear it.  If that doesn't work, I pull the needle back a little to make more room for the paint to pass.  It's not scientific, but it works most of the time.

If I were going to screen the paint, I would thin it first, because it comes out of the plastic bottle way too thick to use anyway.

I agree with the above.  I do use a few Createx paints, but the selection is so limited and so far away that Folk Art from Wal-Mart usually takes the cake.  One thing I would recommend though would be to use colors like white, black, and red from Createx.  Those colors always seem to give me the most issues from non airbrush paint.

[gone2long]

Anybody have experience with Etex over craft paint? I have a brush with an .66 tip/needle and have no problem with spraying craft paint as I do not use it for detail just background or throat patch, things like that. Just curious if there are any caveats to using Etex with craft paint, I would think since Createx and the like are acrylic as is craft paint I should be fine. I mix my craft paint with acrylic medium to stretch the paint then thin as needed, seems to work very well I feel this way I can heat set even the craft paint now that its mixed with the medium, anyone else tried this?

[bassguy]

I've used the Folk Art paints and others I can't think of right now, that I've had success with through the air brush. I did have to thin them down quite a bit but just with tap water I have in the shop, nothing special. Besides, when that paint is $1.29 on sale at Michael's, why not take the chance on a color you don't have. I too strain the paint the same way Ben does with the nylon stocking material.

 

Jerry