[aguila1]

Hello fellow hotrodders: I am pleased to update everyone on the status of my self-promotional show piece, TempTAtion, and discuss airbrushing.

After almost 20 months of hard work, this home-built street-rodded Trans Am is finally painted and cut and buffed. To showcase my airbrush abilities, I chose two distinct styles - a subtle graphic style similar to the factory "screaming chicken" done in metallics, pearls and marbleizing; and a more realistic-style traditional pin-up. You can check out some photos in my photo gallery and promise to upload more as the car is more complete.

On airbrushing, in particular, I have twenty years experience now totally focused exclusively on the custom vehicle market. Should anyone want to ask any questions about airbrush technical matters, in general, I am available to share the knowledge I have gained over the years.

So, feel free to let me know if you like my work or want to learn more about airbrushing. Thanks!

[66GMC]

Very nice.

I have a great appreciation for those with your ability.
I can't draw a straight line myself..

[aguila1]

Originally Posted by 66GMC

Very nice.

I have a great appreciation for those with your ability.
I can't draw a straight line myself..

Thanks for your kind words - I know how you feel. When I am working on my cars I am in awe of the engineering know-how that's behind every make and model, am humbled by skilled mechanics and professional hot rod builders. Yes, I did return my car to an "almost like-new" state doing 99.9% of the work myself, but that is the source of the appreciation of other people's ability - whereas I took almost twenty months to achieve a satisfactory result, I am sure a pro would do the same, if not to a higher standard, in a fraction of the time.

When I am airbrushing, having done so for twenty-odd years, I feel like I am "in the zone" of maximum efficacy and productivity. Like they say, "do what you love to do and do best".

[The Dutch]

Man is some of the best i have seen!

That is great work

[The Dutch]

I take it you also pin stripe ?

Im practicing now, have been for about a year.

[WakBordr7387]

Where's the pics I don't see any


Anyway, just going off of what you said and what the others said who saw the magic pictures
Im looking to try my hand at airbrushing for a paint job. What kind airbrush is a good one to start with?
Im pretty good at sketching and drawing, so I do have some artistic talent.



Brad

[aguila1]

I am pleased you enjoy my work. Actually, I do a little pinstriping, but I need more practice - nothing like my airbrush skills.

If you look at the eagle closely you will see that one can "pinstripe" using the airbrush, by tape-outs. To vary the pinstripe look, I would lay down a gold stripe then shade different areas of the same with candy orange. With the airbrush you can lay down a subtle or even a soft-edged shadow under the stripe for a knock-out floating look. You could even combine traditional pinstriping with airbrush for a new look, using the strengths of each medium. The rules are: There are no rules! At least when it comes to creating art.

Feel free to send an e-card of my work to all your buddies that might get a rise out of it. I hope this doesn't sound like shameless self-promotion, but I am really proud of the Vida piece - one of the best I have ever attempted and technically quite challenging.

Have you ever tried to airbrush? Let me know and I can show you how to get your "feet wet" without drowning in the technical aspects!

[aguila1]

Originally Posted by WakBordr7387

Where's the pics I don't see any


Anyway, just going off of what you said and what the others said who saw the magic pictures
Im looking to try my hand at airbrushing for a paint job. What kind airbrush is a good one to start with?
Im pretty good at sketching and drawing, so I do have some artistic talent.



Brad

Brad:

Click on the link to my photo gallery. It's on the right side.

I started out airbrushing with a Paasche VL3, as that was the standard, back then, and everyone I knew was airbrushing T-shirts down in Myrtle Beach. Then this brilliant Oriental artist and hotrodder by the name of Jimbo, came up from Florida with an Iwata and showed us all up with these beach scenes that were just exquisitely beautiful. Eventually, I switched to the Iwata Eclipse, which is a very fine piece of engineering, and made the Paasche positively crude in comparison. Back then Paasche was suffering from some quality control issues, so I jumped and never looked back.

There are many decent airbrushes on the market today and truthfully I am content with the Iwata, so I don't try airbrushes just for fun. The main thing to remember is that you need a double-action airbrush, not single action, if you want to do something decent. Double-action means that when you press the trigger down only air comes out and you must pull it back to draw paint, get it? Single action is, well, just like spraying a spray can. The beauty of double action is that you have control over a range of paint spray, by controlling both the air pressure and the quantity of paint.

[aguila1]

I'll try to attach the picture here. Excuse me as I'm new to this. More shots in photo album.

[WakBordr7387]

I clicked on your photo album after I posted, Beutiful work

On that double action, Im a little confused on what your saying. It controls the amount of paint to help with shading and lighter and darker areas right?

About how much does one of those guns your talking about cost? Im planning on buying one soon just to play around with and see if I can get some decent results that I would like, before I go and actually airbrush something on my truck. Since I would hate to put a new paint job on it, and ruin it with a bad airbrush design.

Also, is there any certain paint your using for the base coat on the car that works better with the paint from the air brush?


Brad

[aguila1]

Brad:

You will have to do more than play around with the airbrush to get good at it. More like some real serious practicing.

The dual or double action airbrush provides a full range of airbrush spray. Let's say you just want the paint to come stippling out - you can hardly press down at all, limiting the air but hauling all the way back for maximum paint. Or if you just want a light pass only give it a little paint. It sounds more complicated than it really is. Once you start airbrushing you will see what I am talking about. Suffice it to say, get yourself a good dual-action, and skip the single-action, which is only good for acting as a spray can does, for solid even passes.

I like to deal with Coast Airbrush and BearAir, but last I checked BearAir dropped the Iwata line.

I don't actually recommend airbrushing on the basecoat. At the minimum lay down an intercoat clear like House of Kolor (HOK) has and airbrush on that. If you mess up you can sand the airbrushing down carefully without ruining the basecoat. On TempTAtion, I layed down three coats of real clear and after the proper cure time sanded dry with 800p with a Dynabrade DA and airbrushed on that. Even though I consider myself a pro, I am not beyond boo-boos, and the clear layer lets me paint with more confidence.

[kringold]

I have two single action (cheap) airbrushes at the moment. I would like to start out with these before I sink money into a good double action one. Just to see if I can produce anything halfway decent. I also would not want to start on a vehicle. I would like to know what would be an inexpensive way for me to find out if I even should persue this. What would be an inexpensive paint to use and where can I find it, or should I use ink? Also I would like to start out on sheetmetal, or should I start on paper or another medium? If I start on sheetmetal, what would be the best way to prep it for airbrushing?

[aguila1]

Check into the cost of a decent double action, you'll be way ahead of the game rather than wasting time with the single action. Compared to the investment in time, the cost of the airbrush is negligible.

Let's check some prices in the BearAir 2005 "airbrush bible": (Check for current pricing.)
Iwata HP-SPS Autographics $129 (I used an HP-SP to do the work you saw.)
Richpen Apollo $119
Peak C-5 $99
Peak X-5 $89
Vega 2000 $45
Omni 3000B $52
Paasche VL $59 (learned to airbrush with this one)
Paasche VLST Pro $45, and so on.

With the dual-action I can draw a hair line to a wider spray. I can taper a line to a dagger point. I can do a faint soft pass if I choose. There is just no control with the single-action. Play with the single-action for one day to get it out of your system and step up to a decent dual action.

I would order up some Aqua-Flow or Createx black (water-based acrylics), get yourself several rolls of white paper towels, set the sheets up on a board with clothes pins, or the like, and get practicing. Don't even think about painting on a slick surface like metal until you have mastered airbrush freehand control - not if you are serious about getting good at this. Skip the masking and stencils for now - make the airbrush an extension of your mind first.

I also recommend "Airbrush Action" magazine for guidance. Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.

[nova72000]

I really love that pin-up the bird is cool to but I Really Love that pin-up Live model perhaps?? LOL I Have been airbrushing for about 7 years doing cars for around 4-5 off and on and in between jobs. I have done a couple of show cars. One of which did get a 1st place trophy for best paint a good friend of mine has a body shop here and I rent an office in the building. We did that car together. It is the 63 ford galaxie lowrider on the following link http://www.mysticcreationsairbrush.com/autogallery.htm.
I started out using a badger 175 cresando when i was in high school but waiting 6 months for parts drove me nutts. Switched to and iwata eclipse bcs and fell in love. I just bought an HP-Plus gravity feed and it works great for fine detail. Oh btw the 2000 Impala with the dragon on the hood and the kawasaki green flames is mine I can't stand being normal. I saw that 4"cowl in a magazine and just had to do it. LOL We stayed up for 48 hours straight through to paint it. Had to have it back on the road by monday LOL. Yeah I am a little touched in the head so to speak. I still have A LOT of room for improvement as far as skill goes. But i love doing this work. I really like the way little kids react to a custom paint job.

Well i am rambling so to sum it up AWSOME WORK!!!!!!

[aguila1]

You must have had fun with all those skulls! But probably not as much as I did painting Vida - Mamacita!

Thanks for the compliments! I, too, love kids reactions to custom work. That's the main reason I put the screaming chicken back on - they just trip out over it. I always felt a twelve year old is the most honest critic of things automotive, before he is corrupted by status-seeking, brand bigotry or social acceptability.

I have been asked about how to keep the costs down on all those expensive candies and pearls and I will repeat it here for everyone's benefit. Coast Airbrush offers mini quantities of HOK paint. (I'm not promoting Coast over anyone else, however I don't know anyone that sells HOK this way. Does anyone?) You can also buy the mini Kandy concentrates and mix a few drops in intercoat clear for airbrushing. Reduce 1:1 for airbrushing as a standard, though I often over-reduce if I have problems with flow, as I do with white.

Later.