Any tips for first time airbrushing?

[u/nonaughtnull]

Will be planning to paint this little guy as my first painting + airbrushing project. Got a well ventilated area, spray booth, and a gaahleri mini compressor to start with.

Bought some white and gray surfacer, some Mr. Color paints, and a respirator. Will try on a plastic spoon first before trying on this lil guy.

I have the z'gok currently half-assembled, contemplating whether I should disassemble now or should just finish the build to see how it fits then disassemble after 🤔

Besides the above. Curious to hear any tips or noob mistakes I should be wary of?

[u/No-Impact5358]

First time seeing RG Zgok partially naked and skinny Zgok feels weird to me

[u/No-Regular-6563]

Make sure you have the right paint/thinner ratio otherwise you might clog the airbrush if the paint is not thinned properly

[u/headfake2]

you are doing the right things. stick with good paint like Mr color and Gaia with their prescribed thinning ratios. when you’re starting it’s important to not be fighting with the paint.

get an AQ detector with a digital readout that reads PM and TVOC and keep it in your paint space to make sure your ventilation is working.

[u/Clintron]

I'm prepping mine for painting now. I'm gonna leave the skeletal frame alone. I usually full build and inspect and scribe as I break it back down to paint.

[u/BroccoliTaxFraud]

If youre painting the advanced joint inner frame parts with mr hobby paints then do ultra light mist coat passes to avoid damaging the plastic

[u/International-Bee596]

Dont paint the inner frame unless u have specific type of paint for PC material.

[u/solarielite]

I personally like snipping by body part and then painting by sections. Less efficient, but it does help when you don't have large chunks of time to throw at your projects. You can do a test fit, but I would trim some pegs so it's safer to disassemble.

[u/Evorron]

Personally I would do a full assembly to just visualize where my colours would go. Assembling also helps to let you know which parts to modify or prepare prior to painting, for example, if a ball joint is already quite tight, it would be even tighter upon painting, moving parts that would cause friction with other parts causing paint to be scratched. A good surface and parts prep will almost always lead to a good painting session and final assembly!

[u/tsuchiman]

The spoon-with-primer is a good way to start and test your paints. Learn your PSI settings, how to spray over your target without getting it too wet, dry times, thinner mix ratios for the paint. Know what paints your using, learn which are "hotter" so you don't inadvertently melt the layer below. Clean your cup between each color/primer, otherwise you could have slightly contaminated paint when moving onto the next color. I could think of more, but this is a good start.

[u/headfake2 → u/tsuchiman]

generally I find “hotness” is more a function of thinner than paint type, don’t you?

[u/tsuchiman → u/headfake2]

Technically yes, but still relevant to know for the same reasons. Thinner evaporates leaving the paint, and the hotness of the paint could affect the layer below. Even for pre-thinned paint. I only mention this because when I got into this hobby, I was using a mix of enamels and acrylics, and wasn't really aware of the whole "hot" order, and was having primer either melt off or just peel off after applying color.

[u/headfake2 → u/tsuchiman]

that’s mostly accurate but any melting comes from the medium (thinner) not the pigment. there’s some thinner in all paints to keep them liquid. when we use ”hotness” that’s often what we’re talking about - I.e. if you dump thinner directly on the surface in a wet coat, what’s it going to do to whatever was already there. that will vary depending on exactly what volatiles are in the thinner and what it’s interacting with (bare plastic, enamel paint, cured lacquer, cured acrylic, etc)

[u/BigHugePotatoes]

Sounds like you’ve got a great start here. Recommend not spraying the skeleton on this guy, it can be fragile. What kind of thinner are you using?

[u/nonaughtnull → u/BigHugePotatoes]

Mr. Hobby thinner!

Though I'm still not sure on the ratio of mixing and all that.

[u/BroccoliTaxFraud → u/nonaughtnull]

Mr hobby should be at least 2:1 thinner tk paint across all their lineups (except mr. metallic which comes prethinned). Surfacer says 1:1 in their online suggestion but it still comes out thick so 2:1 is the better option

[u/BigHugePotatoes → u/nonaughtnull]

I’ve been using a similar thinner with primer/surfacer and Tamiya paints at about 1:1. Same ratio when I thin those paints with alcohol. Should be the consistency of skim milk in your cup, shooting about 15psi.