Getting a consistent spray

I'm having a tough time getting my mixture right. I know the mix is supposed to be like milk, but I'm having a tough time with it. Didn't paint colors have different consistencies. Any tips?

I mix all colors the same 50/50 on createx and wiked, 40/60 on folkart, Americana, and apple barrel. Also I always put my reducer in the mixing cup first and count the amount of drops then add the right amount of paint.

Some people mix in the hopper of the gun I personally do not like doing this because the paint is heavier than the reducer and always goes to the bottom and I end up with a clogged nozzle.

This is just how I do it and the way that works best for me, I'm sure some of the other guys will have their own process that works for them.


Also another thing I do is mix up bigger quantities of paint at a time and put them in their own 2oz bottles like you can buy at Walmart. Like a travel shampoo bottle. Then I have my paint ready to spray right out of the bottle. Just a shake it for 15 seconds or so and right into the gun. Really a big time saver if you do your white base paint this way. More thank likely you will use more white than any other color so my base paint I use 4oz bottles.

Thanks. I'm going to get some bottles tomorrow

Good thing with the bottles is if you start with a 2 oz bottle of paint put half in your empty bottle and fill it with reducer of your choice and your good to go make sure and label your new bottles when you get a couple hundred colors it's hard to keep track of which one is which lol.

This helped tremendously. Paint went on much better. Not sure if the final result is any better, but the process was far better.

Looks like a fish catcher to me

I've noticed the fish aren't nearly as picky as we are.

Well done. Looks like your Neo is working good.

Blue Moon

I was trying to mix it in the cup. Bought a bunch of bottles and premixed. It made a world of difference. And Thanks.

Where I fish most often, bluegill are the number one forage for bass. So, that's the pattern I have worked on the most. Chartreuse/blue back or black back would be another productive pattern. I'll probably be painting a few of those in the next few days.

I also need to work on some stencils. That's mostly freehand, and I need some stencils that have a more broken pattern for the vertical lines. I played with some scale patterns last night too. The pre-mixed paint works better for that too, even though I'm not sure how much scale patterns matter much. I think that's more for us consumers.

Curious what paint and reducer you were having a problem mixing in the cup? I'm not having any issues mixing in the cup but I'm not using any home brews and I mix really well. I also always write down my mix ratios, air pressure at airbrush, airbrush needle size, and environmental conditions so I have a reference for future use.

Createx with illustration base. Wicked with wicked reducer. Just wasn't getting it consistent. Mixing larger quantities makes for greater margin of error. When only using a few drops of each, an extra drop changes the ratio pretty drastically. mix up a few ounces and a few extra drops of one or the other doesn't matter much. Plus, I can see that it's mixed well, nothing hanging down in the gun that didn't mix well.

I purchase Wicked reducer and paint in larger bottles since cost per oz is substantially less that way. On the other hand it's very difficult, OK impossible, to count drops falling from the bigger bottles so I tend to use an eye dropper for the paint drops and just keep a 2 oz bottle of the w500/4012 (same thing) mostly full by topping it off from the larger bottle.

It's pretty easy to count out drops from a 2 oz size bottle, very difficult to count out of a 16 oz bottle and next to impossible to count out of the 32 oz bottle - not to mention the lingering smell of the w500/4012 is never appreciated by your sweetheart when it spills all over your workstation.

those look legit to me. nice work here's a few i did last night. sort of a bluish gizzard shad....or somthing. trying to capture a shiny shad look without going to holographic blanks. only the wake bait on the bottom right has epoxy.

All of those look great guys

thanks guys.

Still having trouble with opaque white? I thinned it even more (2 parts illustration base to 1 part paint), but I'm still getting clogs. Needle size is .35. Makes me think I should just shoot it with the badger that has a larger needle.

Went on with the badger gun just fine. It has a larger nozzle. Also, it's set up to use canned air which has more pressure.

threadfin shad. lots of variations one could do and call it a threadfin. Nearly all the reference photos I looked at were different.

A few more attempts.

oh yeah!! you've got the hang of it now. all that's left to do is spend exorbitant amounts of money on stuff to feed your addiction. welcome to the painters anonymous, my name is rick and i don't really have a problem and can stop any time i want.....but right now i'm off to hobby lobby.
nice looking work. tell us about the white outlines on the craws.

brushed on. I guess that's what you're asking.

Those look great with a nice artistic touch.

Blue Moon

what brush to get that fine a line?

I have lots of brushes. I paint too. I have several very thin line brushes. They are for painting pencil thin lines.

Thanks for the compliments.

The molting craw on the s crank is really cool, good job they all look nice.

thanks.