paint sprayer?

[ManicMan]

I always prime my figures (mostly with Vallejo Surface Primer (German dark Yellow as it's not to dark as to high the details on the model, and not too light as to use white as a base, so seams to give a good base). But when you need to base a whole bunch of figures in a go, painting on the primer is just.. ugh.

Anyway, So I was wondering about a spray gun or something which I could load up with my favourite Acrylic primer to just spray the figures. I do have access to an old and I don't think ever used Citadel Spray gun but... yeah.. I'm not saying it's as bad as everyone says but I don't think it's that great, even if you only take half of what is said as true (or it all being half as true).

One option is a air brush but I kinda don't want to go into that way, even if that way would kinda open up more of a path IF I wanted to go down that way.. which I don't..

So... anyone know anything which you can load up with Acrylic paint from a bottle and just use it as a spray to batch prime some figures? or just better to slog through painting down figure after figure to prime them in a single uniform colour?

 

[twisted moon]

any reason you're not considering spray cans?

 

[ManicMan]

Do they sell that primer in spray? I like that primer, it works well. And kinda more interested in something where I can use whatever colour I wish so its more multiuse then a normal spray can..

Just looking, Vallejo do some sprays but not this colour and it's a very limited range. Looking around at more atomisers then airbrush (which are kinda the same thing but.. oh well), it looks like air brush is kinda the only way to go for such a thing.. but then that goes to the whole needing gas bottles or a pump or.. all stuff which just seams stupid and overly complex for just saving a bit of time and effort (and bloody boring me to death when I can get in the mood to paint a batch)

 

[EricF]

If you're only going to be priming with an airbrush then you can probably afford (as in the "get away with" sense) to just get something cheap and cheerful. The the bulk buy cheap clone stuff on Amazon or similar £60-80 would get a full set (thinking this kind of thing or the larger set - no idea if any of those are any good!). I've not used them, but I'd expect event that little one to be much better than something more hacky.

If you want something a bit more professional then the entry point compressor from Sparmax is about £140 (they also have their cute Beetle). Granted you'll pay the same again for a reasonable airbrush, personally I like Harder & Steenbeck ones as I find them easier to clean. Any compressor running without a buffer tank will be noisy and a bit more limited on runtime, but you'll add the best part of another £100 to the compressor to add a buffer tank and maybe at that point you start to wonder if you should be all in and so forth I've bought from that Airbrush shop (the links above) quite a few times, very helpful on the phone. However it does all start to add up on the airbrush front very quickly Still once, you've got it ...

If I were just priming I think I'd probably have tried a punt on one of the cheapo options and seen what my milage was. I expect there are some reviews of some of those out there on gaming websites (YouTube review for instance of the tiny set) as others must have tried them out and especially those really little ones could be tidied away in a drawer easily. From the couple of reviews I just skimmed over I think I'd chuck £55 quid at Amazon and give it a go!

 

[ManicMan]

not a fan of most video reviews, specially amazon ones.. alot of people don't bother with there 'paid adverting labels' and alot of them are pretty.. bias and love-love even when they paid themselves to try to ingrain themselves.. but I can see how some are fine.. it's just with how 'anyone can do it' media is, you get more rubbish then good and it isn't always that clear which side you fall on.. of course, this isn't just with video reviews but.. there seams to be more of them when people can make money from posting a review.. funny that..

kinda still need to think about this. oh and idiots.. you can't use an airbrush for a tattoo.. It can't dance, nor can it get under the skin.

I was looking at an interesting little guide on how to make your own Spray cans.. they have limited pressure but you just need to repump them (basically, you use the atomiser from a spray tin, put your paint in a drinks bottle, put in a valve, pump it with a bike pump and spray.. a bit more then that but interesting..

mm.. that first one claims 240volts, runs on built in lithium battery.. erm.. 1000mAh will allow it to run for atleast 70 mins.. AH then does say runs on battery OR AC.. wish it would state it's power consumption.. or feed rate.. but anyway, I need to think about this and is it worth it..

 

[EricF]

It'll be a generic product turned out in the who knows how many from China. I remember seeing Warcolors flogging one similar a few years back. The sellers are just either shifting containers of stuff or drop shipping for the most part. Still sometimes these things turn out remarkably good. Roll of the dice...

that first one claims 240volts, runs on built in lithium battery.

Nothing that odd, my phone charger is 240v and runs on a lithium battery, I think it's just the PSU that's 240v!

you can't use an airbrush for a tattoo..

I suspect they mean temporary face painting type skin art, lost in translation as they say. These things seem to be marketed to a whole slew of hobbies.

Can't say if all the videos on YouTube were paid for or genuine, but that's about the best "eye's on" you'll get with anything like that. I was surprised how quiet it sounded (but maybe that's faked?), thought it might be more like our little car tire compressor.
Anyhow I'd probably try that kind of device myself over DIYing an old drink bottle and bits, but if it intrigues you, you do you, could be interesting ... do post your results.

 

[ManicMan]

^_^, the DIY bit is pretty cheap and worse case, nothing of interest, but debating it..

the confusing bit to me was before I noticed the AC bit.. cause if it ran on 240volts with 1 build in lithium cell, that's.. very odd since lithium cells are 3.7 volts. It would need to be a battery of about 65 cells (if you didn't know, a Battery is more then one cell.. techinally a AA battery, isn't it's a AA cell (it only has 1 cell in it), a Battery is (of course) a collection, thus why you refer to a unit of stuff as a battery etc..

and erm.. phone charger probably accepts 240volts, then depending on how good it is (hopefully not just a capacitive dropper, it would drop it down to probebly between 5 - 10 volts before it goes into your phone, which has the cell inside it. I do get a bit too nick-picky about electronics and stuff at times.... (also knowing that alot of stuff ACCEPTS 240v but runs on far less, is what can make confusing from mains to battery powered soo much easier. For example, My Sega Megadrive (Genesis in US only due to trademarking, Megadrive to any sane place) runs on 9vs (same as the Megadrive Mk2) but the mains adapter adapters it from 240volts (or 120 or something in the USA due to the whole split phase stuff), so if someone said it ran on 240volts, that would be completely wrong and sound very odd to me. I would hate to think of the problems with having an internal transformer in a megadrive... hehe, just think what would happen if you did that for mobile phones?

anyway.. it claims 5db noise rating.. that's... mm.. if you are in a quiet room, and you listen to yourself breathing normally, that's about 5db.. it is kinda impossible that it blows a decent amount of air with only 5db.. pretty much all modern air compressors are around 50-60 db I believe..

I wouldn't say all video youtube reviews are paid but.. it's just tons don't bother to say they are.. youtube rules for paid advertising does say if someone gives you something of value for free to review, that is still paid advertising. yet alot of people have that but don't tick to say it is.. which is either them being pretty stupid (and not reading pretty clear rules for what they are doing) or being very dishonest.

 

[twisted moon]

Do they sell that primer in spray?

sorry, i hadn't realised you were asking for a specific brand and colour.

 

[ManicMan]

well, technically not but as that is the one I use and am very happy with it, I would greatly prefer it ^_^ though you comment did get me to check with them and they do some spray versions of some of there paints, which is interesting to know.

 

[ManicMan]

decided to try that cheap generic one currently £54.. £50 is still £50 but oh well, lets see..

 

[EricF]

I've been wondering about getting one myself actually since posting. Wondering about having something portable to do some more work on our Halloween props outside (we go to town a bit on decorating the drive) since I can't exactly fit 2' XPS gravestones in my spray booth indoors! Last year I just ran my airbrush hose out the window, but it was a bit of a faff.

 

[ManicMan]

I got a cheap spray booth years ago.. Used for many a spray paint tin ^_^ (yep, good enough for that, and it was cheap.. In fact, I don't think I can find a like one that cheap).

Should be here Thursday.. so might get some testing on the weekend.. I take it pour in normal paint or do you need to dilute it? and just wash it out normally afterwards?

 

[EricF]

Dilute normally, have a bit of a YouTube rabbit hole trip and you'll get a good idea of what to run. Although I've quite a large set of "lazy man" Game Air and Model Air paints to save me those precious moments it takes to dilute! Anyhow a google around will show. I don't dilute my Vallejo primers much, but I do layer them on very thinly and build up the layers to avoid flooding the model. As ever have a play on something you don't care about - any random bit of plastic packaging should be good enough to get a feel for it.

Rinse through with water, there are squeeze wash bottles with a curve "spout/tube" that are useful to just pop a bit of water in the paint cup. Ideally you'll want to run some cleaner through it after finishing. Vallejo do 200ml bottles, but you can buy cheaper 1L ones. I do that now and just refill the smaller Vallejo bottle since that's more handy. There are airbrush cleaning stands that let you just easily spray through water/cleaner without mess. I expect the Chinese import marketplaces are filled with variations on these that cost a fraction of the linked one. Personally I wear a respirator as well since I'm moderately fond and attached to my lungs (and I put a lower CFM fan in my spray booth for noise so it's not as good)

 

[ManicMan]

mm.. turned up Early.. pretty damn quite really (though the compressor will be nosier on a table or something due to vibrating. Haven't tried paint yet.. Looks like most say a mixture of 1:1 water to paint (or get a fancy paint thiner.. water is fine with me ^_^). though I might wanna check the bottle of primer I got right now cause that's pretty watery.. it might be kinda one that is already fine but.. I'll check. Though the manual says 1:2 ratio of solvent..

minor notes in the instructions that it's a bit of cheaper one (nezzle cap, needle CaP, giving the paint pot a few different names (fluid cup / paint cup / Color cup (no u ¬_¬)) but I've seen some stuff like that in big brands at times. (Oh, love this bit when it tries to say you want the paint to have the viscosity of milk 'Depending on the paint, if the viscosity is lower than that of milk, the paint will not be beautiful enough').

The electronics sound... okay but a couple of bits I would change if I felt like it but it's fine (need to turn the main power switch on to charge, about a 3 month self-discharge, which means there is some leach drain.. both of which in theory aren't too hard to deal with but nothing unsafe or anything..

I'm not 100% sure on a couple of bits like adjusting the screw at the back for adjusting line width or something.. also.. erm.. remove the needle cap for just using it, fine.. that makes sense as it's a plastic cap covering the whole tip.. then there is a .. nozzle cap? I think that is only taken off when you want to change or clean the nozzle.. okay.. and there seams to be spare o-rings.. never a bad thing that..

atleast the manual has some better power stats in it.. 12 volts at 1.6amps, with a 1000 mAh battery..
Might get some time on the weekend to play around. I got some scrap figures I can try with, or any metal can easily be stripped afterwards if I screw something up (the scrap figures are resin.. one company that 3D print ones aren't fantastic sculpts but they joblot 'defected' models.. often these have no problems, or minor, just haven't made up to there standards so cheap job lot ^_^)

 

[ManicMan]

Vallejo primer:
"Primers can be used directly or diluted with Vallejo Airbrush Thinner of Flow Improver."
(I'm guessing that 'of' should be or) but sounds like should be okay to use without diluting it, or atleast fine to see if that works fine

 

[ManicMan]

well, able to give a bit of a test today.. Started with a, I think Old school Minis figure.. No, I'm an idiot, It was from Knightmare Miniatures.. I believe it was first released for a painting contest they did, and it is clearly the 'eavy Metal 'Chaos' Knight. Which for a painting contest, its a perfect choice. Can't remember if Citadel ever released a figure based on the logo but either way, it's a good model. Happy with how it was turning out, I primed a batch of Skaven I got to do. nice smooth coat, used way less paint then I expected. cleaning was.. mm.. well, slightly annoying but of course it was ^_^

probebly need to work on my skills or something cause sadly the bases are all primed so I need to paint the edges of them later but oh well. (or maybe sand them)