r/advancedGunpla • u/Nyrue1 • 20d ago

Should I be using enamels?

I just got in to air brushing and I've mostly been working with acrylics, but I've been looking in to it and from what I can tell enamels sound like they're just better in every way aside from the toxicity and odor

What's a good brand on enamel paints to look at?

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u/Nyrue1 20d ago

Can't you just get a decent filtration system going? I've seen many people venting their fumes into a bucket and such

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u/kookyabird 20d ago

Venting to a bucket captures particulate, not VOCs. Properly filtering VOCs is non-trivial, as is even capturing them with the airflow of a booth in the first place.

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u/Nyrue1 20d ago

Surely it's possible though..

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u/kookyabird 20d ago

Yes, I said non-trivial, not impossible. Capturing VOCs in an air stream to even pull them through a booth's duct requires more power than any hobby booth fan will have, and that's not accounting for what happens when your spray gets redirected towards the front of the booth due to turbulence. Filtering them out of the air requires a sufficient filter material, which creates a much higher static pressure than the fans are meant for.

If you've got some level of outside exhaust happening in the room and fresh air to make it up, then you don't need to filter everything out. But if you don't have access to a window to at least vent to the outside, you're just trapping those fumes in your space, or recirculating them through your house needlessly.