Morning all,

I am getting closer to thinking about how I paint (or not) my model of HMS Victory and I was considering the idea of spray painting, but I have a few queries that perhaps you can help me with? I have looked through most areas on this website and haven't found anything on this subject but glad to be corrected.

a) Is it that much better a finish if you spray rather than hand paint (given the fact that I have only ever used the spray rattle cans before)?
b)I feel that I might benefit from going to a "How to" class beforehand but I also realise that these are probably few and far between.
c) Does anyone have any preference for the air compressor that they use. Again I understand that there are many on the market but I don't wish to spend a fortune but would certainly want to try and get a suitable model. ie twin piston, with a tank, water trap and pressure gauge have all been suggested as "necessary"
d) Other do's and dont's, recommendations or warnings deserving a mention?

Any and all comments, good bad or indifferent would be appreciated.

a) yes you will get a smoother result with an airbrush, but a careful job with a brush can also look great, especially on a large model.IF you are painting a 1/24 car an airbrush is necessary to get a good smooth finish.With a large ship model you can probably get a really good result with a brush and paint

b) There are tons of youtube tutorials on using an airbrush.There may be classes at your local community college too.

c)I would recommend an air compressor with a tank attached.The compressor fills the tank and then switches off.There are 2 benefits to this.Firstly the compressors are noisy and secondly you will get a pulsing air pattern without a tank which makes it a bit trickier to get a good clean spray pattern.A water trap and pressure gauge are also really helpful.Many starter airbrush sets also include a compressor with them.

d)I would avoid the really cheap knock off airbrushes.They are often poor quality and frustrating to use.A good brand like Badger is what I would go for.There are different needle sizes.The smaller the needle the finer the line you can spray.For covering large areas I would use a large needle (0.7mm or bigger) or it will take you forever to cover the whole model.
Airbrushes come as single or dual action.Dual action gives you more control, but they are more expensive and are harder to learn to use.A good single action airbrush would be fine.
Finally I would invest in a good respirator and spray booth because you dont want to inhale the paint fumes.

Hi, Goddo, sorry if I'm too late on this, but just my 2 cents from an old sign painter/airbrush artist.
Darby gives good tips on the airbrush, but for a ship of this period, airbrushing really isn't called for. The expense and learning curve just aren't worth it. You can get excellent results by brushing, just using a high quality paint and brush. For larger areas, like the hull, I prefer enamels, they tend to level themselves out, with no worry of brush marks.

For small detail parts the games workshop paints are great too.They dry really quickly with no brush marks.

Carl