Airbrush Adventures

 A few years ago (7 years.  How has it been 7 years?!?) I was gifted an airbrush for the first time.  Not an expensive shiny one, because I’d never had one before so didn’t know how much I’d use it, but an ‘entry level’ kit, as seen in the lovely pictures below.  It was great, I used it a fair bit at the time, mostly for painting 15mm German late war camouflage on my Flames of War vehicles, and rather super they look too if I say so myself.  However, it has been languishing in a cupboard with most of my modelling kit for a long time now. 

Until last month that is when, having watched some ‘Eons of Battle’ YouTube videos I decided to get it out and see if a). It still worked, and b). would it make my current (Wars of the Roses ) project more interesting/impressive.  So I whipped it out and stuck it on a table.  I tested it and all seemed fine – compressor worked, buttons worked, fingers worked pressing the buttons, and air shot out of the airbrush nozzle (a 0.3mm version in case you’re interested).  I laid out newspaper paper, I created a cardboard box backdrop to catch stray droplets, and I even got myself a facemask so I didn’t breath any in, which was oddly something I never thought of first time out.  Luckily there are many facemasks around at the moment. 

I loaded paint, aimed at the first victim…..and nothing happened.  No air, no paint, and nothing would make it clear.  I assumed there was an old blockage of dry paint so went about taking the airbrush apart, and found, well, no obvious blockage.  So I put it back together, only to overtighten the nozzle which promptly snapped off.  After some choice words I prepared to buy a new brush, but I was fortunate enough to air my frustrations on a gaming Facebook group, and a friend who’d had a similar occurrence gave me a link to a video on fixing exactly that problem.  Less than £5, a few days, and a new nozzle and needle dropped through the post.

Having installed them I put it back together and readied myself…..and the paint came out!  It looks as if I hadn’t pushed the needle all the way into the nozzle after cleaning it originally.  The fix came just in time for me to change my interests to Warhammer and my Undead (more on that another day) who were the reciptiants of a coat or two of lovely paint. It’s going to get a fair bit of use, and I’m also looking forward to trying out some new techniques I’ve seen online – YouTube really is a wonderful place, and for anyone new into airbrushing I can thoroughly recommend watching a few videos.  More results when they happen.  Or not.  Or not.