I picked up an airbrush for the first time last week after wanting one for probably ten years. My new TLR 22T needs a body painted so I figured I'd give it a go. It's obviously nowhere close to done, but I figured it would be fun to post an episode of photos as I finish each section one by one. So far I've got my black down and the purple on the hood. I plan on painting it in sections so I don't overwhelm myself. Next I'll do the roof and doors, then the highlight colors and fades. Wish me luck and check back in a couple days!
Hey Nexus, thanks for the post. I've also been wanting to try doing some airbrush painting. I got a airbrush but not the compressor yet. I've got my eye on this Grex 1/8 HP: http://www.amazon.com/Grex-AC1810-A-Portable-Piston-Compressor/dp/B002XQ2K6Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333506972&sr=8-1 What compressor are you using? I look forward to following your progress.
Right now I'm borrowing my brother's little DeVilbiss compressor. It has a tank on it (maybe two gallons) so I can fill it up and turn it off and just paint with the pressure in the tank. Personally, I wouldn't buy a compressor without a tank. I would hate hearing it run the whole time. This is my first foray into airbrushing although I've painted a hand full of bodies. What I'm finding difficult is no so much painting as cutting and trimming the mask.
Hey Guys, I have a badger "silent Air" compressor designed for airbrush, i also have a couple smaller airbrush compressors (noisy). you can come by my work and check them out. think the silent air is like 199.00 obo
It took a few days, but I got a few more coats down on the doors, roof and the bed. I knew I shouldn't have trusted the stock window masks, it look like they bled a little. Hopefully I'll finish it up this weekend.
I usually get some bleed-through on my window masks too. there are a few things you can do to prevent that. but after it's happened , i will peel the masks, exposing clear window. then cut the cute fluffy end off a q-tip, then i go in and manually remove as much of the color as you can (with sharp q-tip). i've never tried adding removing agent to the q-tip, but it might help some. I'm impatient when it comes to painting bodies, and i use a space heater to help dry quicker, if your paint coats are thick and very dry, when you peel masking you risk peeling more than jst your mask area (this happens to me 9 of 10 times), so i try to get all my masks removed before paint is completely dry. good luck
Thanks for the tip (no pun intended) with the Q-tip. I haven't cut the end off but, I've used the fluffy part before without a ton of luck. I've got a few more photos with the green down and the final layer of mask peeled out. Now to pinstripe the "flames" and do some color fades.
Thanks. One color left, actually. There's a pinstripe of silver that goes around my "flames" and there's a silver-to-white fade that fills in everything else. I just laid down my pinstripe and the brush was acting up on me. Perhaps I didn't clean it well enough, but it was sputtering and howling. I may have blunted the needle :-\ Anyway, I'll get a couple more photos up in the next day or two once I've got it finished. Then I'll add my stickers and show off my new ride before it gets covered in dirt and doesn't look freshly built.
What do you mean by "blunted the needle"? I've never used a airbrush but really want to give it a try. I got a iWata airbrush but not my compressor yet.
That's a nice looking brush! I almost went with the HP-C before I decided on the Badger. I have nothing against Iwata (most people seem to love 'em) but when it came down to it, I wanted to keep my money in the USA so I went with the Badger Renegade. I just with Team Losi was still building stuff in the USA... All airbrushes and spray guns have a "needle" that is tapered at the end and retracts into the body as you pull the trigger. Pulling it back is what releases the air from the nozzle and atomizes it with the paint. My brush has a super-small needle (0.2mm at the point) and I dropped it and dulled the point just a touch. It still works just fine, I can just see that it's a little tiny bit duller than it was. Otherwise, I finished it up tonight. I got antsy and kinda rushed it at the end. I ran into some difficulties since my white was pearlescent and I used the same white to mix my silver. So as both colors went down to fade, they both looked the same on the plastic. My white looked silver and my silver didn't stand out. So I backed my silver with black and it started to stand out more. Then I backed the whole thing with opaque white and then I realized how heavy I was with my shading. Oh well, not bad for a first try, I think. Besides, nobody is going to be able to tell when I'm flying down the track at 150 MPH, right?
Great work! It turned out really good. On the back of the body it looks like the body mounting posts have conical body protectors, or am I seeing it wrong?
You're not. The rear body posts are the same as the wing mount for the 22 buggy, so they give you the little conical washers to prevent body/wing ripping, which is nice.
Part TLR8201 They're a little on the thick side though, so if you don't have enough space between the mount and the body it might not pin down.
