Friday, August 25, 2006

Brush of Air

Haha. Been working on Yamato. This is how it looks like while drying after a new coat of red was painted and finished on its hull.



But what's mOre special is the thing that did that =)

Check out my airbrush - a very common, very dependable 2 year old Badger 155 Anthem. This model's pretty new. Airbrushes here in Singapore cost a bomb (shipping ma) - but they last for practically decades if will taken care of.



Airbrushes are used extensively in art, especially those realistically shaded drawings or 'flame' artworks so often seen on motorbikes and cars. An airbrush can easily provide stunning gradients and colours when handled by the right hands. Even the cosmetics industry uses them for nail painting and spraying of their 'special chemicals' onto the skin during beauty treatments. BuT, its used in scale modelling to well.. paint the model! It can handle many stages, from priming to painting to weathering to finishing. But of course everyone has their own methods. Sometimes its easier and less messy to paint from a spray can than an airbrush.

Why? Cos an airbrush requires a huge amount of maintenance. The hole at its tip is less than 1mm wide, through which a needle regulates the flow of sprayed paint. Once paint dries here, the whole brush gets clogged, and this could be disastrous. Hence, every painting session must be followed by careful cleaning.

This a pic of the airbrush disassembled..



And a pic (out of focus. sian..) of the delicate nozzle. That grid is a 1cm sq grid.



And here I am holding it. LOL.



Hmm. I have a hobby dominated by bored middle-aged-married men. AHHHAhahahaha.
I'm mad.

jOhn thought at 11:22 PM