airbrush nozle size??

[T. van Vuuren]

Hi all.

I need to get a better quality airbrush for better painting on my planes.

I have seen one with a 0.3 mm nozle and a 0.25mm nozle ( more expensive though).

I would like to know wich one would be the better buy as I can't afford both

I mainly do 1.48 scale.Would the featheres edge on cammo eg. be scale/small enough on the 0.3mm? How much of a difference in "fan size" is there between 9.3 and 0.25 anyway?

If it is to fine, I recon you could have a hard time doing large base collours?

Thanx

Theuns

ps. the make I am looking at here in SA is "Air Craft" with a gravity feed double action trigger.

 

[john]

I've got a 0.5mm nozzle on and can get a nice fine line, but the line is quite sharp and if there is feathering it's not that noticeable, as for 0.3 to 0.25 isn't that about 0.05 I'm no expert but would you see that much of a difference?

 

[stona]

I don't think you'll see much difference between the two. If you are spraying model paints I'd stick with 0.3 as the smaller the nozzle the more blockages you may get. My two main brushes have 0.3 and 0.35 nozzles and I can't honestly tell the difference.

Steve

 

[Ian M]

I know its a tad fiddly, but get an airbrush where you can change the tip and needle. One airbrush three tips and needles and you have every thing you need.

As Stona pointed out realy fine nozzle is = more frequent stopages as the media drys up in the hole.

Another thing to remember is that a finer nozzle will need more air pressure, so its either screw up and down on the one regulator, use two regulators or find a happy middle point and use that. (not the best way. To much for one and to little pressure in the other = not good results in either. Note to self; buy a second regulator valve!!!

 

[T. van Vuuren]

Ok thanx guys, one of my questions sorted.

I would still like to know if the "overspray edge" on these 0.3 mm nozles give a realistic finnish on 1.48 size without having to do the "rolled worm mask" trick?

Theuns

 

[stona]

The edging is very much a matter of opinion. Any WW2 British camo at 1/48 would appear hard edged,whether sprayed with masks or to the permissible limits laid down in Air Ministry orders. Some modellers like to give the edge a slightly out of scale softness as a sort of scale effect and it can look very good. You'd struggle to do it free hand.

I'd say the same for factory applied Luftwaffe schemes with the exception of some mottling (like the loose,almost cloud like,"blobs" applied at the Erla factory). Field applied stuff is another story,some was very loose and thinly applied,definitely possible freehand. Infact the word "overspray" is sometimes used as part of camouflage descriptions in crashed enemy aircraft reports. "Dapple" is probably most popular.

Cheers

Steve

 

[T. van Vuuren]

Thanx for the replies. I mean the edge of the brown and green for example on a spit or hurricainn

Theuns

 

[stona]

Thanx for the replies. I mean the edge of the brown and green for example on a spit or hurricainnTheuns

That was a pretty hard edge at 1:1 scale. At 1/48 it would certainly be hard. I don't think it can really be freehanded. It did vary in the real world but in scale...hard.

Real world camo demarcations:

Hard

Medium

Softish

Cheers

Steve

 

[T. van Vuuren]

Cool thanx Steve.

If I look at the first two pix it looks like the plane was masked off and then painted.

The last pic has a "soft" edge to the paint, but still only very thin.I believe you are right, it will have to be masked off to get the effect on 48 scale.

Who is the F/ Sgt. in the last pic with the dog?

I assume he was from Canada or USA volenteer sqn?

Theuns

 

[stona]

Hi Theuns. The pilot pictured is W/O Joseph Hyde. He was from San Juan in Trinidad and was one of more than 300 men from the Carribbean who flew as aircrew with the RAF during the war. He flew for 132 Sqn. He is shown with his aircraft,a Spitfire IXe,serial PL316,coded FF*S. Sadly he was lost with this aircraft on a sweep over Nijmegen on 25/9/44,he was 27 years old.

I am planning to build this aircraft as a tribute. It all started when an old friend with roots in the Carribbean asked me if there were any black Spitfire pilots. At the time I had no idea so decided to find out for him (and me). It has been an interesting journey to discover the history of a few of "the few".

The little dog's name was Dingo.

Cheers

Steve

 

[T. van Vuuren]

What a story!

Yes I guess we all mostly remember the famous pilots like Barder and the SAAF's Sailor Malan yet there were so many others who never got the limelight but paid dearly.

Same with the crew that maintained the planes.

Thanx for sharing!

Theuns

ps. I am amazed at how glossy that one spit is, was it a public relation pic?

 

[Fenlander]

There is often a fine line between reality and what, in your own opinion, looks good on your models. It cannot be argued that a masked pattern on a real aircraft must, in scale, be a sharp edge on a model of any size. But for some, myself included, the sharp edged camo on RAF fighters and bombers does not look 'right' in scale as it is a soft pattern I suppose. The 'splinter pattern' on some german aircraft, especially on the wings, does look 'right' hard masked because it is a hard pattern.

I accept that most real modellers try to capture the accuracy of the real thing, I am one of those Sunday modellers who likes to get a certain 'look' rather than reality. If you look at the final pics of my 1:48 Spitfire, the camo is indeed soft edged, it was airbrushed totally freehand, no masking at all. In full size pictures this is quite evident. As I look at the aircraft from where I am typing this, about 8 feet away, the soft edge cannot be seen, it just looks like natural flat colour. Sometimes at small scale sharp edged patterns can have the appearance of layers, on stuck on top of the other.

There probably is no right and wrong answer to this, like a lot of things it is down to personal interpretation.

 

[stona]

Hi again, the middle picture is one of a series taken at a press day at Biggin Hill. All the aircraft look spic and span for the photographers and I don't believe for one second that Spitfires were pushed about the airfield by groups of pilots. As you suspected Theuns,posed press photos.

Graham I couldn't agree more about modelling a camo edge. A lot of people like to give a slightly soft edge as a sort of scale effect.I do it on grey/green but not earth/stone or earth/green which is just a personal preference and has no logical reasoning. I still use a raised mask when I do do it (on a late war Fw190 for example) to prevent the excess overspray. By adjusting the height of the mask,whilst spraying at a right angle to it,you can vary the effect. It's maintaining the spray angle that leads to twisted wrists!!!

Cheers

Steve