Question: How much paint (Humbrol 14 ml) should I get?

[Vark]

Hello everyone!

I'm going to start painting my first helmet in the upcoming week hopefully. I purchased an airbrush with a compressor, but I still need to buy all the paints, so I want to do that as soon as I can.

Only problem is that I have no idea how much I'm going to be needing since I haven't had any experience in airbrushing.

Humbrol sells their paints in 14ml quantities, now I'm sure that will be more than enough for let's say the yellow kill stripes or even the mandibles, but how about the dome (Since the surface area is much larger)? If it's enough for the dome, how many times would I be able to paint a dome again with just the 14ml can? Just curious because I'll probably be painting more helmets down the line, so I might even just stock up on certain colors that require more.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Necronaut]

I bought 6 bottles each of 76 and 78 to paint my ESB armor. However, with thinning, that pretty much doubles how much airbrush able liquid you get. All mixed together, thinned 1:1, it ends up equaling 24 pots. At 14 ml per pot, it's 336 ml, about 1 1/4 cups total. I had a ton of leftover paint, even after doing 2 coats of green.

you will easily get away with maybe 2 bottles of paint. Mixed with thinner, it effectively doubles how much liquid you have.

 

[thebeans]

I know no one will believe me when i tell you that i went through just two 14ml pots for my green armor witch included belly, chest x2, back plate, cod, collar, and butt/kidney plates
1 pot of green 78 and one 76, so it's just my estimation that you will need just one of each color for the helmet.
like Necronaut says thinning is key and necessary for airbrushing. good luck with the paint job!

 

[NemesisCustoms]

I would recommend 2x silver, 2x 78, and 1 pot of each color for the rest. And dont forget 2 bottles of thinner, depending on the age of the paint you will sometimes need a lot of it

 

[syllander]

Just got my paint in and bought one each except the 76 and 78 I bought 2 each. Now just have to learn how to clean the airbrush then how to use it!