I have an airbrush that I paint my aircraft models with. But when it comes to Ship and Armor models I prefer to hand paint them with a brush. Aircraft demand an air brush , specialy with the gloss paints, so I use air on them. But I love the up close and personal technique of hand brushing!
Am I the lone painter here? Or are there others here that favor brush painting ?

Best regards,
Garry

Hi No you're not the lone one. I've never had much luck with air brushes. Of course, the only one I have is a cheap SA unit that's can-powered that I picked up at the local craft store. But even though I've had success at spraying on general 'dust' with it, occasionally, I just don't care to have to fool with it. Such a pain to clean and mix the paints, adjust the nozzle, etc. My personal feeling is that if I HAD to use an air brush to successfully paint models I'd get out of this hobby today.
Now this is no kick at anybody who uses air brushes. They turn out some fantastic work, which brushes can never hope to do, but for me it's just a personal thing. If something is too hard for me to do in this hobby, and it's getting into the realm of more 'work' than pleasure, I don't do it. Period!

Understand that an air brush is manditory for airplanes. Guess this is one of the reasons I don't build them.


Take care, sgrity

I'm of the same opinion as sgirty, I use the airbrush only when I have to and brush paint otherwise. I also agree, there's something more pleasing about getting a good finish by brushpainting.

When it comes to land weapons, I use brush. Why? It's hard to paint such things! They're blocky and hard to paint unlike AC's which a single stroke covers a good part.

Hello
No you are not alone I have brush painted for many years for the same reasons
you bring up. It does feel good when you finish a project and it looks good.

Howdy Garry,

I use everything under the sun, from toothpick's to japanese fan brushes. My allegiance is solely to the 'best' tool for the technique or effect I'm looking to create. No more, no less.
If the brush is what will accomplish that task, that's what's in my hand, if the AB is the champion of the effect I'm looking for.......... guess what's in my hand?

Tread.

I agree w/ tread Depending on the effect I want I'll use ANYTHING.

I wanted a rough look on my T-55 for T2K so I Airbrushed Tamiya Straight out of the bottle (knowing it has a large pigment) I've still got to take pics.

I don't own an airbrush and have no desire to do so.

There are few finishes that can not be achieved to an acceptable standard by brush painting - providing you understand brush painting and use the right equipment.

I even extend my brush painting to full size subjects. My Norton motorcycle has a professionally spray-painted frame. All other parts are handpainted with enamel or nitro-cellulose laquer. The only part that does not have a mirror finish is the frame!

I enjoy the flexibility of brush painting, the ease of clean-up, quick change from one colour to another, or from enamel to acrylic, and the shear satisfaction of completing a brush painting job.

At present I am painting the cockpit of the Meteor and an airbrush would be of no help. So far I have used two different brushes, bits of stretched sprue, a paper clip, the shank of a twist drill, and a toothpick!

Regards Dave

I think you really have to decide what works for you. I started off with hand painting ac and eventually started to get some decent finishes, but thought I had better "get in the big leagues" with an airbrush. now i end up painting turrets and undersides of tanks by hand and airbrushin the hull. It all depends on the situation but i would not be worried about hand painting things, remember its supposed to be fun.

I had an airbrush some time ago and spent so much time cleaning it that I finally sold it. For the past 10 years I used a brush on everything - planes, ships, armor. I will use Tamiya spray for a base coat when needed.

Something I have observed over the decade. Model contest judges have a prejudice against brush painted camo vs. airbrush camo. I have experienced this first hand and seen it in action in a contest. When it comes to armor, not everyone had access to a spray gun in a combat area. For reasons of self preservation there were times when broom, brushes and Heaven forbid hands were used to apply camo. But when you try to portray this on an AFV you lose out to an airbrushed paint job.

So brush away -

i use a brush on my armor but i use spray can for much of the painting

I use the air brush, spray can and regular brush on my kits.

Good topic-

I started out as everybody else did... I hand brushed everything. I bought one of those 20 dollar cheapo airbrushes with canned air and experimented with it.. I was hooked.

I prefer to build the whole vehicle before painting it, and using an airbrush for this is much easier that hand brushing - at least for me. I also like the "fading" you can get using an airbrush. I had a hard time portraying the look I was after with hand brushed paint jobs. Yea - It's a pain in the neck sometimes.... but I guess it boils down to whether you find the extra hassle worth it in the end. Each of us has to make that call on their own - this hobby is about having fun.

Jeff

Dang guy's, I hever would have thought there was so many of us brush painters still in the hobby. We each pick our type of tools we paint with, which ever pleases us and we are comfortable with is the right choice. I realy enjoy brush painting, My good friend realy enjoys air brushing. We each think the other persons modeling looks better!
But I was realy surprised to find out that I am not the Lone brush painter!
Thanks for all the imput guy's!

Cheers,
Garry

I confess, I brush paint my models too. I've just started to use spray cans for some applications, but for the most part it's the brush.

I use Humbrol enamals and am satisfied with the results. The Humbrol matt enamals levels out without any streaks and are easy to use.

I guess it's up to each individual to decide what best works for each of us. I model for enjoyment, so the brush works for me.

I'm still guessing what General Tread has in his hand!

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)

Hi

I just bought an airbrush, and altough practicing a lot my results are not good, so I have to use my brush with better results.

Danmo

I use:
Airbrush for Aircraft
Airbrush for the basecoat of my figures / Paint Brush for the rest of the figure

That is an excellent point! I hadn't thought about that before. Even some modern aircrafts have different color patches here and there. I just re-read my book on F-18 Hornets and more often than not the paintjobs were very rough (excluding the Blue Angels of course). Different shades of "warship grey" here and there. From the looks of it I'd say they didn't use a spray gun every time they fixed some spots.

I just bought and el cheapo airbrush today. Cost me a whole 10 euros. I'll practice with that and see if I want to invest more money into compressors and decent ABs. For that price it doesn't matter if it can only be used for priming.

.................get your mind out of the gutter Sealhead. #:-)

Tread.

BTW, for the (jovial) record, I stand by my qoute...I always have the best tool for the job in my hand, no matter what that 'job' is...