Air Brushing Technique

May 22, 2016
2 min read

I always try to learn new ideas and techniques to better the models I build and make them look more realistic and authentic. I recently learned about a new way to do lines on aircraft or anything for that matter. This works really well for camouflage or two tone paint jobs or anything like that, and you have to use an air brush for this technique!

So what's the magic trick to get easy sharp lines? Fun-tack. Yup, Fun-tack. The stuff I picked up is made by Lock-Tite or however they spell it. You take some out, play with it until it becomes warm and easily pliable (kind of like playing with clay back in the day) and then use it to form your lines. Here's how:

1. First paint your base coat, whether it's the base for camo, or just the general area that gets one color. In the pictures below you'll see that I pre-shaded everything, and just rough outline put on my dark gray.

2. Then, take your fun-tack and stretch it in a line along where you want the paint line to be. Don't stretch it too thin or you risk paint bleeding through any little holes you might create.

2a. I guess you could call this step 2a because it goes with above, but wanted to draw attention to it: Press this on to your model, you don't want to see light between it and the model or it will bleed. If you need an exact line use the non-sharp side of your hobby knife.

3. Start painting you other color at your line, hold your airbrush close to the model and don't feed it a lot of paint so that you can get close without shooting too much paint and washing out your pre-shading (if you do that). Start right up against the fun-tack, and it's ok to get paint on the fun-tack, you'll be able to use it over and over again without a problem.

4. Finish painting your color. (Easy enough step right?)

5. Take your fun-tack off. If any gets left behind just use the fun-tack that came off to dab it up. It won't take off your paint.

6. Hit with a coat of clear flat. (dull-coat)

Below you can see the step where I added the fun-tack, and how it came out afterwards. The line I made is the lower side of the fun-tack closer to my hand in the picture. Afterwards in the bottom two pictures you can see how it came out. I hope that helps some of you!