Inexpensive Airbrush kit - Beginner Level

[R6cowboy]

Definitely need this. Thanks posting.

[GreenBar0n]

I did a few guitars, both were plain-Jane black finish originally, some damage, nicks, gouges and scratches to be repaired...did the blue one for myself and the orange fade for my daughter. I painted and initialed the headstock on mine, too. I upgraded the electronics and did the "Gilmour wiring mod" on both as well, adding a toggle switch so that you can activate the top & bottom pickups, or all 3 pickups, which you can't do with a typical Stratocaster clone.


1A_GB-Malibu-Front-Before1.jpg
5C_PickguardReassembled3.jpg
HipshotTunersInstalled2.jpg
JayTurser_VintageSeries_JT30_A.jpg
Finished1.jpg

Very nice! I love Strats too.


For that Olive Strat, made a pair of quick connect modular pickguards, so I can change from the stock modern HSS configuration, to a 60's SSS with no treble bleed, for Fuzz pedal interaction.


Deans Connectors work great for many things.










Paint will be here today, going to get ready to test things out.

[Coelacanth]

Very nice, I'm not a fan of boring white pickguards...both of the guitar pickguards I showed before were painted with SEM Trim Black, then dusted with some metallics before clearcoating.

[GreenBar0n]

Very nice, I'm not a fan of boring white pickguards...both of the guitar pickguards I showed before were painted with SEM Trim Black, then dusted with some metallics before clearcoating.

I see that now! I couldn't tell why your seemingly single layer PG (on the blue burst), looked thicker than a normal single layer PG, not thin like this single layer Tele Bakelite PG:


You painted your 3-layer PG is why, I like it, well done!

[GreenBar0n]

Will get serious about the airbrush soon, it's cooling off outside here so I should be able to practice out back this weekend, looking forward to it.

[Coelacanth]

You're right, come to think of it...the original pickguards were 3 layers of white, black and white, if I remember correctly. Boring!

[GreenBar0n]

Got the booth together.










Setup on a folding camping table, for easier storage.


Airbrushes that came with MasterAirbrush kit:








The booth is great, fairly loud, but it gets rid of all of the overspray. I may try a Tamiya spray can in there to see if it can pull all of the fumes out, at some point, there really is a strong vacuum in there. The duct goes out my sliding door and gets held by the door.

I'm enjoying airbrushing so far, and having success with the Createx brand paint, straight from the bottle. Didn't use any reducer with the blue paint, and the G22 brush.

Cleaning the airbrush is not much fun, but I'm hoping to learn how to get it done faster and easier. Takes practice and experience.

Been practicing on styrofoam and paper, and sprayed a test scrap of Lexan. Will keep practicing and then try an RC body eventually.

[GreenBar0n]

Duplicate

[GreenBar0n]

If I were to buy a compressor and airbrush kit, all over again, I would do it differently than I did.

I chose the kit that's $130, and comes with (3) Airbrushes, and a compressor with no external tank.
https://www.amazon.com/Master-Airbrush-Professional-Airbrushing-System/dp/B009YNG21U


Knowing now that I don't intend to use those extra airbrushes any time soon, and that the G22 airbrush is all I really needed to begin with, I now wish I would've got the external tank instead, for the larger Lexan bodies.
https://www.amazon.com/Master-Airbrush-Dual-Action-TC-20T-Compressor/dp/B002KSQHB6


For strictly RC bodies, the $170 kit would've been a much better choice. The $130 compressor kit can and will do RC bodies, but the external tank, and extra tips and nozzles for the G22 would've been the better choice for this.

[RogueIV]

Do you really need the tank though? The compressor is pretty quiet and seems to supply consistent pressure.

[GreenBar0n]

Do you really need the tank though? The compressor is pretty quiet and seems to supply consistent pressure.

Yes, I think I would appreciate the tank more.

I can keep the compressor at 20 psi. with the button held down, but there does seem to be a bit of paint lag when holding it wide open for long periods of time. A tank would make those long wide open sprays more consistent.

[Coelacanth]

I bought pretty much the same compressor kit, mine was branded "Timbertech".

[GreenBar0n]

I bought pretty much the same compressor kit, mine was branded "Timbertech".

Did you get the external tank with yours?

[Coelacanth]

Yep, it looks exactly like yours, except it's black.

[GreenBar0n]

Finally starting to get some good results with this setup.

Even though these Createx WC paints are made to be sprayed out of the bottle, I had better results with adding their reducer to paint at a 10% ratio, sprayed really well, no clogs, and excellent for wide open pressure and needle.


These 3d printed mags (rejects) were easy to cover thoroughly, and quickly with the white and black Createx.


This is the driver from the Tamiya Blitzer Beetle, this driver was molded in solid black plastic. I couldn't get the white paint to cover the black plastic using Tamiya spray paint, the Createx covered it entirely, and fast, it's now so white it's difficult to get pics of.


Going to finish cleaning some more 3d prints, and then paint them.




The 3d printed Manx VW Dune Buggy body set for the Sand Scorcher and Rough Rider, looks like a fun project:
https://knightcustoms.com/products/beach-buggy-conversion-set




This airbrush combo, and the booth, are nice for $300 for the both. With the reducer in the paint, it sprays just fine now for me without the external tank, and for long wide-open pressure/needle painting.

I'm enjoying this very much now that I've learned how to more quickly clean the airbrush between colors, and sessions.