Thread: Airbrush Tech
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Old 12-18-2008, 10:08 AM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ScaleNut
ok I have lurked quite a while now but I have to put a rant down on this one.


I have painted nearly all of my rockets with an airbrush and have none of the issues mentioned.

I can easily spray at the volume(and more) of a spraycan
no mess
watercleanup in a few minutes(just spray water thru)
no bad fumes
no issues with blushing, cold weather ,humidity,heat
can mix colors to an exact match( for scale models)
cheaper
no layering of paint dust on everything
I have to really go crazy to get a run in the finish
quality airbrush paint color is designed to be deep and brilliant under clearcoat
unlimited supply of colors
acrylics can handle just about any brand or type of clear, no compatabillity issues
acrylics can go over nearly any brand or type of paint ,no compatability issues

with Createx I have never had to mix one drop of thinner, not in 4 years of airbrushing , it sprays perfect strait from the bottle . no thinning

usually I plug right into the bottle the other end into the compressor and spray
I can mask and spray several colors in one session.

I use the color cup for small amounts , the bottle for large amounts and have sprayed 4" dia rockets (including extensive masking, decals and clearcoat) in one session

I can create finishes that one can only dream of with a spraycan

my rockets have won beauty and scale contests, and fly just as well as spraycan models

did it take some trail and error and practices ?-yes
was it worth the effort ?-absolutely !

I don't look down on people for using spraycans.
I take pride in my building, I give the same effort to my finishing.

all I can ask here is...don't knock it just because you can't or don't want to airbrush a rocket, it's not an instant gratification thing but It works and it does the job very well.
I have a garage full of rockets to prove it

I have read post after post on many forums over the years about problems with painting rockets.
I can say that for me airbrushing has eliminated 99% of them


That's good to know and this topic is worth a thread in itself...

I've only used rattle cans for painting rockets so far, but I bought a cheapy airbrush at TSC just to give it a try... I've got a full farm shop at my disposal with an industrial compressor and have sprayed several cars and TONS of farm equipment, including combines and cotton pickers the size of a small house. (Nothing like hanging one handed on the edge of the slanted roof of a cotton picker basket with a spray gun in the other hand crouched over painting the edge when an F-4 Phantom flies over just shy of supersonic at treetop level, but that's another story! ) I've been thinking about getting a touch-up gun for smaller jobs than breaking out the big spray gun, and for rocket stuff too, to cover ground faster than an airbrush...

Main thing that has kept on rattle cans so far is just the cleanup issues... seems like I spend as much time cleaning the gun after doing a paintjob on the farm as I did doing the paint job itself... goes with the territory I guess...

What kind of equipment are you using?? Inquiring minds want to know... OL JR
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