FP Armor... painting techniques for the clandestine hunter

I've never airbrushed before, but it says you have to mix it 3 parts paint to 1 part thinner. You don't just put it in the airbrush and go? Can anyone elaborate on that?

Wes
 
I'm no expert, but I've never had a problem air-brushing acrylic paints straight from the bottle. Since they're water-based, you can water to them to thin the paint, if necessary.

Not sure about using oil-based enamels through an air-brush, though...
 
Have you ever tried using spray paint without shaking the can up first? It comes out very uneven. That's because the paint is not a uniform thickness. If you are using the paint in an airbrush without thinning it, you can get much the same result as using spray paint without shaking it up. As batninja stated, you can usually use water to thin acrylic paints, and it will work just fine in an airbrush. The thinner just lets the mixture stay a uniform thickness longer, and will not start to separate as fast. If you're painting alot of one color, you may want to consider using the thinners.
 
My armor is fiberglass except for the knees and the kidney strap. I got the US medium green from testors (it is Polly actually). I do thin the paint just a bit. You can use distilled water or you can use Acryl Thinner from Model Master. It actually says on the Polly bottles that you need to thin it 10%-15% for airbrushing. I will admit I don't use a very scientific method for thinning. I just squirt some thinner in there until it looks like the consistancy of milk. I have a cheap Walmart bought Testors Aztek internal mix airbrush that I use with compressed air cans. The testors bottles mate up perfectly with the airbrush caps (same brand and all). I just open the bottle of paint, put in some thinner, mix it up with a little metal rod, screw it on the airbrush and go to town!
 
I also went to the hobby shop in town and got a high flow nozzle for my airbrush. This puts out a lot more paint in a wider pattern and makes covering the large pieces a lot easier.
 
Here is a shot of what I have done so far...
Shoulders still need another coat or two, and the whole thing needs misting and speckles after the decals get here!

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Okay, now I know that I have done something if I got the Seeker surprised face. Thanks for all the comments guys. I will keep everyone posted! Eventually I will make myself do the knees!
 
Here I have tried to experiment with the black speckling. I did it with a small house painting brush and some flat black MM Acryl. It still seems to be missing something. Maybe a little airbrushed rust or dark brown?

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hey, what is FP's email address....my computer won't let me email him from his site. i'm interested in the armor too. ;)
 
Pavespawn said:
Here I have tried to experiment with the black speckling. I did it with a small house painting brush and some flat black MM Acryl. It still seems to be missing something. Maybe a little airbrushed rust or dark brown?

I would say a few washes. Hit it with some washes with Newbrunswick green ;)
 
Okay, I have been kicking myself in the butt cause I got on a roll and did a lot of weathering and sealing BEFORE I applied the decal! It may just come down to me having to redo the right breast plate. I also trimmed the knees and put them together. I will have to fill and sand them before paint.
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Looks great. No way in the world I would touch the right chest piece, just put the decal on and weather it and redull it. Are you going to dirty it up?
 
It has about 4 black washes on it. You can't really tell it though. THanks for the comments. There are also some black specs per AOSW (actually probably a few to many but not bad).
 
Okay. What I did was take 3 pics without the flash and 3 with the flash. You cannot see the weathering very well in the pictures. In person, you can see subtle weathering especially if you move the armor around in the light.
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