HOW TO: Airbrush With Regular Full-Fat Citadel Paints

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Hey ho! Ever wondered if you can airbrush regular, "full fat" Citadel acrylic paints from Games Workshop? Let Foxx show you how!
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[@Tonyblack261]

I've had excellent results with thinned Citadel paints - including on shiny cars. The guy in the Warhammer shop tried to sell me the airbrush thinned paint and didn't seem to understand the concept of thinning the paint myself and saving a lot of money.

[@zedd81]

Who else was expecting Foxx to knock over the mixing cup?

[@SparkHazard]

So helpful. I was struggling with airbrushing my Plague Marines, and this is exactly what I needed to watch.

[@jorey4565]

My secret mix thinner for Citadel base and layer colours: -30% Liquitex airbrush thinner. -70% Vallejo airbrush thinner. ❤❤

[@drewharner3387]

As someone who never has had skim milk anywhere near them before in their life ratios make more sense lol going in blind with skim milk

[@gurufoxx]

ha ha or just a tiny tiny bit thinner than regular old milk then :) Ratios are really kinda useless because they will vary from paint to paint.

[@drewharner3387]

Im working on my first army. Going blood angels and thinning a couple pots of mephiston red seems like it will be well more than enough to base coat what I have compared to having to get a $20 can of branded spray paint. This will be helpful for getting started

[@strato991]

I've heard that skim milk tip so many times, but turns out all i needed was someone to tell me it's just about right when it runs down the side of the mixing cup

[@gurufoxx]

Some things are best not overthunk :)

[@vashts85]

Saw a bunch of useless videos on how to airbrush GW paints, and then finally came to my senses and saw a Fox video!

[@gurufoxx]

Thanks!

[@AbstractArchitectureEnthusiast]

Thanks mate, it helped me a lot!

[@gurufoxx]

My pleasure, glad it was helpful ^_^

[@munchkinmodelingman72GAM2]

Great tutorial sir

[@gurufoxx]

Thanks! Glad it was helpful :)

[@tojorozombie]

Subbed, just for this tip! Domo!👍🏻

[@gurufoxx]

Thanks, you are more than welcome :)

[@reedrancho]

Well that certainly makes the little Citadel pot much more vestal. Good job of explanation and example 👍👍 Though it does cause one to wonder, IF you had only air brush Citadel paints and wanted to Brush Paint, if one could add a thickening agent ( wheat paste, backing soda, barnyard dirt, etc.) and be able to have a go with the old hairy stick? Hummm? 🤔 As you say on the back of the postal stamp: "Poodles"

[@Tom_-]

Airbrush gives a better finish anyway. Also yes you can use water, well water mixed with flow improver to the recommended 20:1 ratio. I've got a pre thinned bottle of Caliban green that works just great. Almost full coverage in just 1 coat over grey primer.

[@gurufoxx]

Thanks for the tips!

[@barrywonderdog]

I find vodka a perfect thinner. A few glasses of that carefully mixed with orange juice and I get as thinned as a newt. Dunno how it works as a paint thinner though.

[@gurufoxx]

:D :D

[@Ezekialify]

4:38 lol wtf... lol

[@gurufoxx]

:D

[@astroeclipse5392]

Awesome stuff, great content. I did a similar method where I used a brand new citadel base paint (Warrgh flesh!) and mixed this in (i am assuming exact same shot glass type you are using) half thinner (vallejo thiner) and dumped most if not all the paint in the citadel pot to the shot glass. (I had the same milky consistency as well) Only problem I have is when I start spraying my model, my model is wet I only briefly did 1 or 2 lines on the left side of the model but the paint on the model is wet. May I ask why this might be so? I am using a 0.4mm nozzle and needle at 30psi. Many thanks!

[@gurufoxx]

Most likely it's because you have the pressure waaaaaay to high - 30psi through a .4 brush is effectively a hosepipe and you are flooding the model :) As long as your paint is the consistency of skimmed milk, start at 15PSI and if it sputters, up it a tiny bit. Typically acrylic paints need between 15-20PSI max. Make sure you are a good couple of inches away from the model and keep the brush moving. Don't go full blast with the paint right away, start with full air and a slight pull of the trigger or button for paint and ease into the paint (this assumes you have a dual-action airbrush). You want to apply thin misty coats so you'll need to get used to how your trigger controls the paint flow.

[@astroeclipse5392]

@@gurufoxx Wow ! thank you so much for the fast reply. Greatly appreciated. I will try lower the psi and hopefully this will solve it. I love airbrushing as you can do a lot of cool stuff with them alone and it saves me tons of time. I have been scratching my head for over a week on why this wet on model is occurring so fingers crossed. Thing is although its wet when dried it comes out pretty good I think(maybe I am wrong on that haha). I do indeed have a dual action brush , at least I think mine does (its the Cult of paint infinity airbrush). I shall try be more patient with the coating as you instructed. Again thank you very much for taking the time to respond and so quickly :)

[@gurufoxx]

@@astroeclipse5392 No worries! General rule of thumb would be 10-12PSI for very thin lacquers and very thin enamels (including enamel weathering products) and very thin gloss varnishes, 15-20PSI for acrylics (a little higher if they have heavy metal flakes), 25-30 for thick unthinned primers. They are only rough guides and it will vary depending on your hardware and the actual thickness of the paint, so you will need to experiment.

[@astroeclipse5392]

@@gurufoxx Sir! you have just saved me another week of scratching my head on this matter. Thank you very much, you were exactly correct. The PSI was way too high I started from 20 psi and there was a tiny bit of wetness but substantially less. I am assuming if I lower the psi within 15-20 the tiny bit of wetness will disappear also. The reason I did 30psi was because I heard thinner paints needs less PSI but most of those people who stated that was using 0.2-0.35 region of nozzle and needles (at 15-25psi) so I had thought if mine was 0.4 I would need to up the PSI a bit more if I had the same milky consistency as they did.

[@milkboy903]

do you know what ratio of thinner i should use? 1:4 is it good?

[@gurufoxx]

Ratios are nonsense - it varies from paint to paint and depends on your specific hardware. Simply thin the paint to the consistency of skimmed milk as a rough guide, and for most paints and setups you should be fine :)

[@R.J.MacReady1982]

I will try using a paint thinner as you said. Water did not work for me today.

[@gurufoxx]

You will find that much better. Water should not be used as an airbrush thinner at all as these paints are not designed to have water as a thinner on that sort of scale (it breaks down the binding agents and changes the way the paint behaves, cures and self-levels). Water can only be used to thin paints on a wet palette, when you are brush painting, because the amounts are small and so the paint is not changed too much. Thinners allow the paint to behave and flow properly when sprayed :)

[@kshatriya1414]

I always get problems with orange peel but i’ll test lowering my psi/bars a bit

[@gurufoxx]

Orange peel is most often caused because two layers of paint or whatever you are spraying are not able to self-level properly or because the coat underneath is still drying when the coat on top of it was applied. or you have applied one great big thick coat of paint. Make sure to build your paint layers in many thin, misty coats (THIS IS VITAL) and always allow time for each coat to dry enough before applying the next coat (for acrylics you can usually go after a few minutes, a little less if you airbrush them with air only to flash them off faster).

[@kshatriya1414]

Modelmaking Guru thank you so much for the help!. i try to spray thin coats but i might be building them up too quickly so i’ll slow down a bit. i realized that i might be spraying too far away as well so i’ll try to spray closer next time :)

[@waynegoldpig2220]

IPA is not denatured alcohol. Denatured alcohol is ethanol with a bit of methanol and petroleum distillate added to make it undrinkable. IPA is a different chemical.

[@spidiq8]

You messy pup! Look at the rim of that paint pot. ;) Another nifty little tutorial here thankings, I've used X20A for citadel and that works beautifully.