VE6AB Technical
Not A Paintbrush
This photo finds me airbrushing railroad tie brown acrylic paint on to the ties and rails of the addition to my HO industrial switching layout. Once the addition to my existing layout is complete I'll weather the paintwork giving it an authentic look of a hard working yard. Although the painting could have been done by hand with a paintbrush, the airbrush allows the painting to be completed much quicker with a far nicer finish.
If your not familiar with how an airbrush works, the airbrush that I'm using in the photo is utilizing compressed air passing through a venturi, which creates a suction that allows paint to be pulled from the interconnected paint bottle connected to the airbrush.
The high velocity of the air atomizes the paint as it blows past a very fine paint-metering needle assembly, with the paint covering the area being airbrushed.
The airbrush being used in the photo has a single-action mechanism where the depression of the trigger actuates air flow through the airbrush. The airbrush's color flow and spray pattern are adjusted separately from the trigger action. This is done through an adjustment of the airbrush's needle assembly located within its paint tip.
The color volume and spray pattern are maintained at a fixed level until the airbrush is readjusted. Although single-action airbrushes such as the one I'm using here are simpler to use and generally less expensive, they present limitations in applications in which the user wishes to do something more artistic than simply apply a good, uniform coat of color.
Dual-action or double-action airbrushes enable the simultaneous adjustment of both air and color at the trigger, by allowing you to actuate air by depressing the trigger and simultaneously adjust color by sliding the trigger back and forth. This ability to adjust color flow while spraying with the airbrush, along with the ability to adjust the distance from the sprayed surface, allows for the variation of fine to wide spray patterns without stopping to re-adjust the spray pattern as is necessary with a single-action airbrush. This allows for greater spray control and enables a wider variety of artistic effects.
For the majority of the airbrushing that I find myself doing, I have had good success with a single-action Paasche airbrush as seen here.
Expand the photo for a closer look.....
The air-compressor being utilized......
https://www.jerryclement.ca/HamRadio/VE6AB-Technical/i-KpHk8w3
