Airbrushing 102

With some of the basics over with I am going to probably have another post or two on any other information I can compile and possibly help people with as well as just have some opinions as well.

So were going to start with my setup recommendations.

Airbrush - In general I would suggest starting with a dual-action top feeding airbrush. Why do I suggest this? The target audience for this blog is 40k and miniature war-gamers and were going to want to use the colors that we are used to thus hobby paints which are generally thicker. So we having gravity help us with getting our thinned paints through our brush is quite nice. Also for us having a dual action brush with let us do fine detail for cool bits and also we can go full blast and base coat.

Air - Get a compressor! Quiet or not you want to get a compressor even if you put down a good deal of cash its worth the constant and in the end free air that you get. There are a few things you should consider about a compressor as well though most of what I mentioned already but were going to cover it all and a little more real quickly.
Moisture Trap - There are two kinds, attached to the compressor and inline, it really doesn't matter which in my opinion but you need one. Moisture traps stop any water from getting out and into your line, airbrush, and thus onto your art. If you don't have a moisture trap water will eventually build up in the line and pass through the airbrush. When the water comes out your paint will spurt and be far too watered down and it will literally spit water downed color.
Regulator - Not as needed but still useful and often connected to the moisture trap. This will let you change the pressure of the airflow where most of these hobby works are done at 15-25 psi there are some people who work even higher. In the end unless you have a compresses that only works at 15 or 20 psi you should probably have a regulator so you can change the psi per application. Lucky for us most compressors come with one built in.

PSI - Speaking of psi like said above you will probably be working in a range of 15-25 but possibly even 10-35 or even further out. You do not want to be working on 100 psi even if your compressor can put that out its just too much. In the end you probably want to get something that can put out a consistent 35 psi just to cover all your bases.

Extras - As with most hobbys there are also things you don't need but are helpful to have and I wanted to help people find some of the ones I have found useful so far.

Quick Disconnect
This is a great little addition so you can just pop the airbrush off and bring it to the sink to clean.

Airbrush Stand
Most of us only have 2 hands and thus its hard to hold and airbrush and mix paint and move things around while one has the airbrush in it. Well a desk clamp with a airbrush holder on it is just perfect.
Iwata-Medea Cleaning Station

This is basically the above plus its a station that you can use to get rid of the extra paint, overflow, and use it as somewhere to spray the cleaner. That's it for right now.

You can check out the previous Airbrush posts below:
101 Part 1 - Airbrushes
101 Part 2 - Air
101 Part 3 - Paint