I used an Airbrush for the First Time | Gen Con 2019

I just got back from attending Gen Con. It’s a four day, tabletop gaming convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. During the convention, I took a 6 hour class on the Art of Airbrushing. The class was taught by Caleb from CK Studios. It was great! I learned a lot and I’m now going to save up for an airbrush so I can continue the techniques I learned there at home.

This blog will mostly serve as my notes from the class.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  That means if you purchase an item via one of these links, I’ll receive a small commission at no added cost to you.

The Airbrush

For the class, we used a Harder & Steenbeck Evolution airbrush with a 0.4mm nozzle.

As far as airbrush nozzle sizes goes, apparently 0.4mm to 0.5mm are good workhorse brush sizes. If you wanted to use the airbrush to paint finer details go with a 0.15mm to 0.2mm nozzle size. The 0.3mm nozzle is a middle ground brush, but is not encouraged.

The best setup is one workhorse brush and one detailed brush.

I think I’ll save up for the 2 in 1 Evolution airbrush. That airbrush is on the high end but its the one I learned with and I’m on team #BuyOnceCryOnce.

The Paint

For the class we used Citadel’s Air paints. These paint pots have the word “air” clearly labeled on their bottles. They’re airbrush ready and don’t require any thinning.

Airbrush Hygiene

Before jumping into spraying, Caleb shared a few tips to help maintain the airbrush quality.

1. Don’t overfill the gravity cup: risk of spilling and you can’t spray the paint fast enough before it starts to dry
2. Fill it to a third or a quarter of the cup
3. Don’t disassemble the airbrush to clean up the brush, instead flush the airbrush

Flushing the airbrush

You never want to pull the airbrush needle out of the brush if there is something in the gravity cup.

Supplies for Flushing:

• A tattoo artist bottle
• A cup
• water

To flush the airbrush:

1. Grab a dump cup
2. Hold brush upside down over the dump cup and blast out any loose paint
3. Add water to gravity cup about 3/4 full and back bubble (Seal the nozzle and press the trigger. The water in the gravity cup should bubble)
4. Dump the water in the cup and do another flush
5. Add more water and spray until the water is clear

Tips for painting with an airbrush

Caleb shared some great tips on airbrush control:

• Use nice smooth movement
• If your hands are cramping you’re not airbrushing properly
• Inch worm finger for good trigger control with the index finger
• Mix colors in paint cups
• And forget about saving paint with an airbrush. It’s just not worth it.
• Move the airbrush about 60 degrees in any movement
• Move the model around the brush
• Use Blu Tack or a pin vise to hold the model
• Turn the air on off the model then slowly roll the trigger to apply paint onto the model (This avoids splatter)
• Blue up to opacity. Airbrushing has inherent transparency.
• To avoid dry tip (a clogged nozzle), every 30 – 40 seconds come off the model and give it airbrush a full burst. This will flush the dry paint.
• Airbrush about 1.5″ – 2″ away from the model (a light feather may be further away)

Painting the Model

Before jumping into painting, we covered a little color theory about the value scale / gray scale.

Our model was primed black and we started off by picking a mid-tone color (mid range on the gray scale). This color acts as our base coat.

With the airbrush, the value scale does shift a little towards the lighter end. One color with an airbrush can cover a huge range on the value scale.

The Base Coast

1. Start 4″ away from the model
2. Spray directly down on the model, perpendicular to it (terminus point)
3. First Layer: cover the whole area, then a little less getting closer and closer to the model until it finally become opaque

If you make mistakes, like I did, and need to go back to adjust the contrast of the shadows, take advantage of the terminus point on the model and spray a shadow color.

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Airbrush Filter

1. Use a filter that matches the mid-tone color
2. Filters harmonize the colors
3. We used a GW contrast color

Painting the Model’s legs and arms

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1. Coat with a burnt umber ink (primer)
2. Base coat of brass (downward stroke on the dry brush)
3. Add a silver dry brush (brass to silver gradient)
4. Return to the airbrush, and with burnt umber ink spray from beneath the model to reintroduce shadows and add shape (around the joints)
5. Follow up with a little blue and purple inks
6. Add one final (very light) dry brush of silver

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Adding a burn effect

To add a burn effect to the guns:

1. Spray burnt umber starting halfway down the barrel
2. Spray purple ink a little further down
3. Finally, spray blue ink even further down (use a nice vibrant blue)
4. Overlap the colors just a bit

I had to leave the class a little early. What’s remaining is painting details like the trim and eyes of the model and assembling it.