# Hand painting or Airbrushing? What's your poison



## InkedDnA (Jul 8, 2011)

I was just curious which of us heretics use brushes or airbrushes. What, In your opinion, are the pros and cons of either or? Why do you use brushes or airbrushes?

I personally use brushes when I paint. I use wet blending to get a nice smooth transistion between colors. I want to venture into the airbrush scene, but other than the fact that it is so damn expensive, I like to keep things old school.


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## Silens (Dec 26, 2010)

I hand paint and I'm, in my opinion, quickly getting better at blending. I don't wet blend as I've had no experience and tend to mess that up.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Even if you use an airbrush, there is no way you can just stop using the regular brush on your miniatures.

An airbrush is just another tool in your toolbox as a painter... It's a good tool, mind you, but it's nothing more then that. It'll allow you to do things and to obtain effects that would be impossible with a regular brush. I purchased one a couple of months ago, it's superfun to use. But even with the airbrush, I still have to get the good old brush out a lot. 

It'll get things done a lot quicker, that much is for sure. I personally try to do as much work as I can with my airbrush these days, but for regular 28mm infantry, I have yet to find a way that allows me to do more then a single colour with the airbrush. Tanks or larger models that can be assembled after you painted some parts are awesome however. I'm able to get more done with the airbrush on those, mainly because you can mask off areas rather easily. 

Oh, and I do like an airbrush for OSL effects. The diffuse, translucant layers you can create with an airbrush really lend themselves to this technique imo. I have recently started experimenting with that on my skaven army and the feedback I'm getting is pretty positive anyway


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## Igniskhin (May 19, 2011)

I'm currently on a HUGE airbrush kick... but unfortinitly i still suck so any actual work being accomplished is with a brush.

one day i'll throw away my tank brush... one day.


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

I've just got an airbrush and was wondering if you could give me any tips as I'm about to do my imperial guard tanks camo by using low tack tape. How is the paint when used with an airbrush?


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## Silens (Dec 26, 2010)

Thin your paints. There's guides on this, and ingredients/mixes to use for this. Personally, I'd do camo with a large brush and spray it one colour, then do irregular shapes the size of a finger nail all over the tank with some space between and then the same again with another colour so that they all over lap. Maybe do the basic version of this, then air-brush thin layers of each colour around the shape (of that same colour) so that it fades slightly.


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## Rems (Jun 20, 2011)

I only hand paint. I like the 'craftness' behind it an creating something with my own two hands. For some reason i've always seen airbrushing akin to cheating. I realise that you can achieve some truly awesome results and effects with airbrushing particularly in regards to vehicles but whenever i see an airbrushed job i just think less of it than i would of a similar hand done job.


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