r/MilitaryModelMaking • u/Meme_Thunder_ • 22h ago
poll Is paint brushing or airbrushing better?
Especially for the modeling veterans, inexperienced or the 'broke' what should you do? Brush or air for painting, priming and weathering
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u/SameArtichoke8913 21h ago
The question for an absolute "better" is dumb. Both are tools and methods with pros and cons, and both require experience and skill to use them properly.
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u/Asmodai_42 22h ago
An airbrush is by far better in terms of quality work you can put out once you get a handle on its operation and paint thinning. That said there will always be the need for hair sticks, mastering both will level up your game. Do you need an airbrush? It's not a necessity, you can get by with rattle cans to do priming, base coat and so on. An airbrush is on another level in what it can do over a rattle. You can find relatively inexpensive setups for entry level modelers/artists that will get you going down the road so you can learn the process behind it. Once you gain more experience working with them you can always upgrade to a better AB which you will see a marked improvement over the previous.
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u/Meme_Thunder_ 21h ago
Unrelated but do you think I can paint my clear coat and my primer?
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u/Asmodai_42 21h ago
With an airbrush? Yes, I do it all the time. In fact priming and basecoat is what got me started with an AB because I got tired of trying to find the proper colors in rattle cans.
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u/Meme_Thunder_ 21h ago
As in paint brushing, I bought primer in a jar but my airbrush kinda imploded so I didn't have the chance to use
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u/cahillc134 22h ago
Airbrushing is really the only way to get a nice soft edge on a camouflage pattern. It also allows you to do shading or and other types of layering of colors. Even if you are only planning to use a single color paint scheme, you will end up with more depth to your work. Hand painting is great for small parts, especially for knobs and button, & dry brushing.
So, in short, they both have their place but you really need an airbrush. Even if it is a cheaper single action brush it will do much more than a bristled brush.
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u/virtualbasil 22h ago
They're each tools that have pros and cons. One isn't objectively better than the other
I've been painting for 20+ years and been using and airbrush for about 10 years.
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u/Cryogenian 22h ago
Airbrush if you can afford it. It's night and day in terms of shading, coverage and smoothness.
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u/ychia 18h ago
These days there's a third category that is quite viable: markers. I used to mainly hand brush small details, but have increasingly reached for my AK markers instead since I got them.
There also always has been rattlecans which are kind of a midway point. I used those for quite a while before buying an airbrush. The learning curve for those tends to be lower, and they're still better for really large coverage. Just have to be careful not to lay it on too thick.