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So, since I just bought a new airbrush and compressor, I hit up the Craft and didn't have anything there jump out at me. Anyone have any helpful tips? What levels you thin your Reaper paints out to, stuff like that?

So, I have an Iwata revolution cr, the kind that has the nozzle that screws in place on the body. Well the threading broke off INSIDE the airbrush body. I need to get the nozzle threading out without damaging the body itself. Any ideas?

So My wife found my old Paasche VL airbrush that I bought back in 1998. Since I was looking into buying an airbrush to replace it, I was happy it was found. However, it has sat in a box and from the look of it, I don't think I cleaned it well enough back then. The needle doesn't move with the trigger ike it's supposed to and I can't remove the needle or the air cap. I vaguely remember that the needle needed replacing so I plan to buy a new needle, tip, and aircap set in all 3 available sizes. (I plan to use this again for more than just mini's so I'll use all 3 sizes eventually) and I think the air hose is shot. However, are there any tips for cleaning out decade old dry paint from an airbrush? Or is it not worthwhile to repair and I should still look into a new one? Thanks! Dried paint in the pickup socket: Hose doen't swivel like it used to.

So, I've been thinking about painting some of my CAV in a camouflage pattern. I've got an airbrush (though haven't tried using it yet), and was thinking I'd find a digicamo stencil in about the right pixel range. Then I saw the CAV art work in the book and had a thought. Turns out that someone makes a hex camo stencil set (Anarchy Models, they did a KS a while back and are still around and selling online). However, I wasn't quite sure how big their hexes were and how well they'd translate to CAV's scale (They look a bit too big). Does anyone have experience with these stencils? Else have a good hex camo stencil set they can recommend?

So very confused. I haven't measured the fittings involved so I'm going to say they are either 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch throughout this post, just bear with me if I'm wrong on that though. I have my compressor, which came with an adaptor from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch, male to male. In fact, I have 3 of these adaptors. My airbrush is 1/4 inch male. My hose is 1/2 inch female to 1/4 inch female. My regulator attaches just like the picture to the adaptor on the compressor, and has either a 1/2 inch female out, or using an adaptor, a 1/4 inch male out. The 1/4 inch male makes sense, but then my hose would have to be 1/4 Inch to 1/4 inch. What am I missing? The only thing I can find online is quick releases, which are essentially just crap at the end of the hose near the brush which doesn't change anything, it goes 1/4 to 1/4, pass through style, so I'm not wasting money on that until I figure out what's wrong with my current setup. Any help?

I was doing more unpacking/sorting of my hobby stuff last night (I have too much) and was going through my paints. My father passed away several years ago, and I inherited all of his old hobby paints and stuff. Among all the other brands, I have about 20-25 bottles of something called Badger Accu-flex. I know that Badger makes air brushes, but know nothing about this paint; the logical guess would be that it's air brush paint. Is it specially formulated for airbrushing, I.E. already thinned to the proper consistency? What's the deal with this stuff? Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. BUGLIPS,BUGLIPS,BUGLIPS, I summon thee!

Hey all, I've decided to show off a little of what I've been working on lately. I got both kits of the Flying Frog Productions wild west horror game, Shadows of Brimstone in their Kickstarter. My group's been playing through the City of Ancients (unpainted) while I paint up the Swamps of Death minis. Since these will be stored in the original box without any real protection, I am not going to knock myself out with anything much above table quality, so you'll see mould lines and assembly gaps on these. Also the pics are a little darker than I wanted. My light box is a translucent file folder box lit by my painting lights. I set my self the goal of using only the airbrush for the critters in this set. That's the Slashers, Tentacles, Hell Bats and the Harbinger. Only hair brushes for details like eyes and teeth. So far, I'm really happy with how the Slashers and Tentacles turned out. Unfortunately I plowed through those two without taking any pics beyond the whole box of stuff primed. For these guys, the airbrush was a good fit. As a bonus, I got a chance to learn a lot about mixing the SoB branded Army Painter paints for the airbrush. (Compared to MSP, these are thick sludge) The Slashers came out just how I wanted. The Tentacles are pretty decent too. I think some washes could bring out more contrast, but this is how far I got with the airbrush, and I'm happy with how they've come out. They're purple, with a lighter blue for the sucker areas. This is about the muddiest of the pictures. The Hell Bats will be tough because they have fiddly bits in a cramped mini. I figure I'll tackle these guys before I get to the Harbinger. I have the wing membranes done with bone. I'm still psyching myself up with the idea of painting the little support vanes with the spray. I think the wing vanes and membranes are going to bleed colors together. I was planning for bone membranes with dark green vanes, but that may have to change as I see just how much control I can get in that close. The Harbinger is just going to be flesh colored with the tanned flesh triad. I think something this big is going to be creepy with human coloring. I'd like to work in some purple shadowing around the vanes as well. I'll have to hit that with a very light touch. We'll see how that goes after I knock out the Hell Bats. For the Hungry Dead, I tried to copy the ink work Froggy the Great was doing. This didn't come out half as well as I'd hoped. I tried the Daler Rowley inks, but my local art supply only had the primary set with the cyan, magenta, yellow, green and scarlet (which actually turned out orange when applied.) I started with the female's (I'm calling them Lucy) skirts and they came out an orange color I did not like. They got slightly better looking when I went over them again with the magenta but it wasn't right yet. I jumped over to the prospectors (Old Stinky Pete) and tried the cyan on the pants, and it was a little too washed out. My wild west zombies are not shambling about in denim that faded. I'm sure the DR inks I have are illustrator quality, not the darker ones I really needed to use. Today I picked up the P3 inks in blue, green, yellow and red. These worked a lot better than the DR inks for what I wanted on the guys. They're still lighter than what I want, but they're close. Looking at the picture on my monitor, these look darker than they do here on my desk. Except the Lucys, the rest of these would be awesome if I could get that level of saturated color. The Lucy's are far too bright after I went over them again (!) with the P3 red. The color's what I wanted, but it's a solid coat now. I think I'm going to give the Lucys a wash in watered down Secret Weapon Sewer Water, then one more pass with the P3s for a highlight only. For the guys, I might be able to get by with just another watered down pass with the P3s. At this point, Lucy probably needs to be simple greened and begun again, but I don't want to give up on her yet. Pete's just about there already. Once I get the colors right, I'd like to try a shot at a green glow in the eyes on all these guys. Anyway, that's what I've been working on lately. Comments, constructive criticism and helpful suggestions are more than welcome.

So this is a rat pack poison pot thrower. I spent a while doing the nmm part yesterday. When my wife just calmly looked up from her book as I eagerly thrust it in her face for a critique She said, "looks nice." SO i guess i wanted the opinion of some fellow painters about the shadows on the barrel. If I draw a dark line under the shadows and add another reflection will that actually help? Do I need to define the main shadow along the big barrel more? Does the weathering make sense? What does it all mean?

I know a bunch of you guys use airbrushes for various projects. I have the crappy EE hand flamer version, and it's fine for terrain, but I want the real thing. I have a small collection of large models I want to paint, not to mention C'thuhulu and those dragons that are coming next Spring and I want to be able to do these models justice. what do I need to get started? what kind of brush? what kind of compresser? what are basic do's and dont's of mixing the paint? any other really good advice? I appreciate any input you airbrushers are willing to provide.

Has anyone tried these paints on the bones yet? Just picked up an airbrush and was wondering if anyone used these yet.

Hey there everybody. It's coming up on my birthday and I'm thinking of picking up an airbrush rig. What I need to know is how well reaper paint sticks with bones when it's run through with a little Liquitex Airbrush Medium, or any other types of thinners? I'd hate to pick one up and find out that the largest batch of my minis can't easily be primed/basecoated without brushing first. I saw Wren's Basecoating guide, but in all the page, it really only mentions one quick blurb "For those who prefer to use spray primer, the best option is to use an airbrush to apply a coat of acrylic paint to the Bones figure. Reaper Master Series paint thins well with Golden or Liquitex Airbrush Medium, and maintains its strong adhesion, though I have found that adding airbrush medium does noticeably increase the drying time of the paint." This is good to know, but is there any further practical information on this I should know? How well does this compare to the other options? What are we looking at for drying time? Can alcohol be added to speed up the dry time, or does that ruin the paint in some way? Thanks in advance for any advice the community can provide.

I came home from work today, and discovered that Nissiana's been out and about... That's an air compressor...and now the old Badger we've had sitting around forever can actually do us some good! Apparently she got it pretty inexpensively at Lowes...went to Michael's first, 40% off coupon in tow, and they had no such item in stock. At Lowes, this was the smallest, least bell-and-whistley compressor they had, and it was about half the price and twice the useful as the best model at Michael's. Now...which dragon to paint first...

In my years of airbrushing I have found that certain thinners aren't really thinners. Windex, Ammonia, and Isopropyl alcohol are not thinners, but they are solvents. They will break down your paint, and they will cause clogs more often. (Ammonia will slowly destroy the brass parts of your airbrush.) Also these three liquids are pretty poisonous when aeresolized. They are great for cleaning your brush but aren't the best for thinning paint. Yes airbrush mediums/thinners are more expensive, but they are made for paint. They actually thin without breaking down the paint. They are less poisonous then the above liquids. Now believe it or not you can thin with just water. It's not the greatest of things to thin with but it is better than alcohol, ammonia, or window cleaner, and by far the cheapest alternative.

I recently read an article on the internet where some who seemed to know what he was talking about recommended using a solution of 50% Simple Green and 50% water to clean airbrushes, That would be a LOT cheaper than buying airbrush cleaner. Although I realize "It was on the internet so it must be true". I was wondering if any of you have tried it. I am all for saving money, but would hate to mess up a costly airbrush trying to save a few bucks on cleaner.

Hello, I recently finished making a UFO invasion game using minis from around the globe, but quite a few of my terror and more powerful alien invaders came from Reaper, so I thougth I would share. I dont consider these competition pieces, just fun pieces for tabletop. 99-100% airbrushed as usual The UFO: Incursion response force is meant to play similar to the old X-com series and I had quite a bit of fun trying it out on new players at tacticon last week. I think my best compliment was the repeated comments of how some of the nastier turns in gameplay mirrored the old xcom game, such as when a gray takes over a sniper on a tower, and makes him drop a grenade wiping out him and his rocket launcher buddy cleaning off the tower. =) Or the rookie who saved a civilian, only to be taken over and shoot the civilan in the head. The bulk of the Grey army was Gray's from Zombiesmith(cute attitude and enormous heads) but the alien overlord had to be the reaper overloard. He plays the part so wonderfully well with the glowing eyes. Next time itll be a terror mission against the rest of the mini's shown here. Happy gaming/painting!