Weathering: Airbrush or Spray paint?

[mickeymark34]

Good evening, and Happy Father's Day to all you Pathfinder dads out there. I am going to eventually weather my Scout. I saw a video posted by @Pandatrooper, and he said he weathered a Scout helmet using an airbrush. I have always wanted to try airbrushing, and what a great way to try it out. I have seen the video from @Strider. as well, where he uses spray paint to weather his armor. What method would you guys recommend? 

[Chopper]

Either will work as long as the final result looks like the screen weathering.

The main advantages of the airbrush are that you have more control over the spray flow and can use acrylic paints, which is a bit more forgiving to remove if you don't like the way the "blast" pattern turned out.

[Pandatrooper]

You will always have more control with an airbrush and watered down acrylics. You can see low pressure splatter and gradations on the original costumes.

 

i find that when people use spray cans it always looks like spray cans because they spray too much volume when applied too close to your costume part. You can only control distance so an airbrush is a better option.

[Aradun]

You will always have more control with an airbrush and watered down acrylics. You can see low pressure splatter and gradations on the original costumes.
 
i find that when people use spray cans it always looks like spray cans because they spray too much volume when applied too close to your costume part. You can only control distance so an airbrush is a better option.

Would the airbrush paint be a risk of running if it was exposed to inclement weather, like say a light rain while trooping?

Would you need to seal the airbrush paint afterwards because it’s water based, and if so what sealer would you use?

I’ve been reading a lot lately on how mixing brands of rattle cans can cause some horrible effects to the paint requiring a complete redo. So, I’m just wondering if this is a concern when applying airbrush paint or a sealer overtop of the airbrush paint.


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[Chopper]

Depends on the paint you used -- you can use many different types of paints with an airbrush, such as acrylic, enamel, lacquer. If you're running acrylic with the airbrush and it's fully dried, then no, just water won't take it off. 90% iso alcohol will take it off though, with some scrubbing.

You can clearcoat over acrylic if you want, just make doubly sure all layers and paint types are cured. I don't recommend it on the scout, since some of the scrapes and rubbing off is close to the screen used weathering. Also, keep in mind that many clearcoats aren't crystal clear and tend to yellow over time.

The reactions you get to the rattle cans is usually due to either incompatible solvents used in the paints, or uncured layers of paint underneath...or both. Acrylics are fairly non-reactive, mostly because there's no solvents. Acrylics won't etch themselves into the plastic, they just sorta sit on top, which is why you can remove acrylic more easily than other types of paint.

[Pandatrooper]

If you used proper artist acrylic like Liquitex you should be fine. You can iron it to set it on soft parts. Example people airbrush t shirts w Liquitex and sell them. They just iron them afterwards.

on the armor it’s fine too. I did mine years ago and it’s fine. You do not need to seal it. Let it weather naturally 

[Aradun]

[mention]Pandatrooper [/mention] and [mention]Chopper [/mention] thanks guys! This was great sound advice and definitely helpful. Love the idea of letting the acrylic airbrushed paint weather naturally with scrapes and such from trooping.

 

 

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[Strider]

Everthing mentioned above is correct...however: For the screen used armor and helmet they used rattle cans and the result does look different to airbrushing which is much finer. But with airbrush you have much more control whereas rattle cans need a bit more practice and it's way easier to overdo it.