Duracoat University

[lil'Zeus]

Is there a better type of air brush to use for this application? I didn't know if any air brush would work, if there are better/worse brands.

thanks again
shane

[Marty916]

I use a Testors Aztec because it's very easy to use and clean. This brand has a great selection of tips for various spray patterns and media:

http://www.testors.com/category/136950/Aztek

Any of these will work as well:

http://www.airbrushcity.com/abk1/index.htm

Badger and Paasche make very dependable units:

http://www.badgerairbrush.com/Airbrushes.asp

http://www.paascheairbrush.com/Products-Airbrushes.html

Basically, any good airbrush works. It's best to have a water trap on your compressor so you don't get shmutz mixed in with the coating.

[chase102798]

I use a paasche VLS double action set. $50-70 on ebay. Never used anything else, but I have no regrets about this airbrush. It comes with three tip/needle sizes (the two biggest are the ones I use). I bought a ton of small plastic containers with plastic/nylon (??) lids on ebay. I got about 30 of them for next to nothing. I found some plastic drinking straws at a local grocery store that were 200 for $2 that fit the little containers perfect. I hated the huge ritual of cleaning everything like the containers, straws, and air brush on top of it, so now I throw the straws each time and rinse the containers and when they get bad enough I chuck them too. +1 on the water trap. I won't spray without it. It gets humid here different times of the year, and moisture in the line causes all kinds of problems with getting a nice even mist from the airbrush. Another thing is that duracoat flashes off and get tacky pretty quick. If you let your airbrush sit around for awhile with paint in the nozzle and come back later, the tip can get gummed up. What will happen sometimes is you will get a touch of pressure and then the clot lets loose and you get a glob and heavy marking on your piece. ALWAYS test spray before you start if you walked away for awhile or in between pieces. You can fix mistakes. If something happens like that, I usually just let it go for a day or two, lightly sand out the stuck junk, and recoat.

Marty, I was always hesitant to reduce the hardner. Didn't know if that would compromise the strength. What is your experience with that? The shine of Duracoat has always been my big gripe.

[Marty916]

Paasche makes great airbrushes. My original Paasche is still kicking after a lot of use. I am basically lazy so the process of cleaning it had me looking for options. The Aztec is a simple unscrewing of the tip, soak it in cleaner and air dry. It takes a 1/4 of the time to clean.

Not enough hardner will leave the coating too thin and not hard enough (no surprise eh!) to withstand normal use/abuse. If you go really light on the hardner the sub-surface will never fully cure. The finish ends up flatter with less hardner but 10-1 is about the limit of how low you can safely go. Duracoat also allows color mixing so if you are the experienced artistic type you can add the appropriate color to the base color to subdue it and get about the same result as using less hardner. I'm sure there is a color chart out there somewhere that spells out what results one color/shade mixed with another will give you. I would suggest staying within the limits of 10-1 to 14-1 mixtures. My humble opinion...