hi, if you haven't stocked up your paint i really suggest Mr. Hobby Lacquer instead of acrylic, because with Lacquer the paint is more durable & you can easily panel wash the lines with enamel, can't do it if you use acrylic paint. well you can, but involves extra step or mist coating + wet coating lacquer gloss. also Lacquer is the strongest paint that is common so you won't worry paint eaten up by top coats.

for compressor i suggest a decent one, with air dehumidifier + filter, if you buy rm160 ones, i don't think they can last very long.

air brush i suggest get Sparmax 0.3mm, it's same as Tamiya, because you get the one free with compressor, use few times break. coz i used before. air brush can get from hobbysearch.

anyway you should put a budget rm500 for Compressor + Airbrush + tools & Paints. if you don't use Canned top coats will save you lots of money. tools you can get from Mr.DIY, paint can get from JSHobby or the toyshop next to IT Toys BJT. Primer you can get from Ace Hardware 1 can grey primer rm16. weathering powder & airbrush can get from Hobbysearch much cheaper.

Top coat buy the Mr.Hobby Bottle ones called Clear or Flat Clear, then mix with thinner.

There is also a Flat Base gel type where you mix with Clear + thinner. must mix with Clear. recommend Flat Base (1): Clear (5): Thinner (3) but you have to trial error since Clear will become thick after opened.

Because right now Flat Clear is difficult to get.

For Gloss you can use Pledge Future Floor Care + Brush. Big flat area would be difficult. curvy/small area good effect. But is acrylic so cannot withstand other chemical compounds (polisher/Wax/alcohol).

For Ace Primer called "NOW". around rm16. Ace calls it primer. No idea it's acrylic or lacquer based.

I only Prime Grey for colorful paint. Light colors like White & Yellow would need thicker coat to cover the Grey. Same as Black, you try not to use White Primer if you plan to paint it Black. Since there is no White primer in Ace, i just buy the Now Flat White Paint and use as primer. For shiny metallic look you want to apply Gloss Black before applying the Metallic paint.

I don't care. i just want a cheap solution for primer. i just need the paint to stick.

even if i use acrylic primer and lacquer paint, as long as i mist coat a layer 1st before spraying thicker coats it should not eat the primers because the mist coat already formed a protection layer.

for paint layer i usually use airbrush so i can control the paint more than spray cans.

i have had cracks using spray can for 2nd layer, 1st layer was the exact same paint from the same can, dried, applied 2nd layer, cracks. quite common for cheap canned paints. so usually i only use cans on primer & 1st layer (usually white coz lazy use airbrush 2 times). since i only putty seam lines after 1st coat (coz some areas hard to reach once you assemble), i use spray cans on 1st layer, after putty & sanding partially assembled i will use airbrush for 2nd layer onwards, since White are white i don't worry about color issues since airbrush layer will cover most of the 1st layer. I never had paint cracking using airbrush yet.

i'm guessing for spray paint, you can't control the solvent, you can't control the pressure, so it increases chance of paint eating/cracking.

that is why i only use spray cans on primer & 1st coat.

even top coat i stopped using cans because the effect is not good esp Flat coat will have alot of misting issue & uneven surface. worst thing is running out of top coat when you are nearly done.

for primers mixing is more critical compared to paints.

reason i choose canned primer & 1st coat is save the time for cleaning the airbrush. it's a choir to clean them, every session i only plan to airbrush 1 color at a time. so for small parts i try to use canned paint instead because time taken to clean the airbrush is way longer than actual spraying.

if you have multiple airbrush which many pros do, then you can use airbrush 100% in 1 long seating, then clean the airbrush altogether during house keeping. but airbrush ain't cheap like normal brush.

if you plan on airbrushing few colors with 1 AB in 1 seating, suggest you start from light color to dark ones, because no matter how hard you clean it there's bound to have minor residue from previous paint.

ACE hardware should have it.

It's either called Pledge Future Floor Finish/Floor Care/Floor Shine/Floor Wax but they have the same bottle shape & cap.

or just ask the Ace employees there.

yes if you looking for gloss finish.

but this is much more wattery than gloss paint, so not recommended for large flat surfaces because hard to achieve even finish. for large flat surface best is use a fiber cloth and dip a bit but not too much and gentle & quickly wipe it across the surface so it looks smooth. but this way the gloss won't be as high as normal wet brush but at least you won't get build ups.

Problem with Floor care is you can't really polish it afterwards. if any mistake, you have to redo and you can't polish/wax because it's acrylic and on the mild side. it's also not as durable as lacquer.

Also not sure if they changed the formula, but last time some people say it can turn yellowish, so if you have white or light color paint it might change the color after few years.

Anyway i've used this to restore some diecast toys that has loss it's gloss. Just becareful with the joints.

also forgot, Pledge not suitable with water slide decals because it's wet.

so if you want to apply on water slide decals, you should spray a clear coat 1st.

the thing about Pledge, is it's so thin, that any uneven surface on the paint layer is hard to hide using Pledge. Also you paint needs to be "wet finish" so it's smooth, if you Airbrush like normal where you can see the "dot" texture on the surface, the Gloss finish will not be mirror like, because the Pledge will sip into the "holes", so you get semi-gloss finish only.

you can try sanding the paint until smooth before applying pledge, but i haven't tried before.

trouble? no. This is for lazy people who just want to brush & leave as it is.

only not suitable direct on water decal & flat & wide surface.

1 bottle or Mr.Hobby levelling thinner can last quite a while. u use cheap ones might be too strong and damage the paint. for lacquer thinner should be ok.

i use Mr.Color Aqueous becoz last time i bought all the acrylic paint.

since you are buying new and have people giving advise i would say Mr.Color Lacquer, Tamiya Lacquer or Gaia Lacquer since you already know why. but people say if you plan to use some brush to paint lacquer paint dries up faster than acrylic so you gotta be quick.

JS Hobby has most choices for online shop.

and Tamiya Enamel panel line wash. if you are comfortable with panel wash then you have to get Mr.Hobby Gundam marker Super Fine but they can't be wiped off easily so any excess needs to be scrapped off with hobby knife, so you need thicker base paint to allow some scraping.

if you plan to do shading, then you have more room for error & touch up since it can be hidden with shadings.

if you plan to do clean style, like Brand New look, Glossy, Clean finishing, then margin of error is smaller and you need to use polisher after finishing the top coat.

for shading you can use Tamiya Weathering Powder (Easier, but less color choice), or airbrush (custom color, but lots of masking & good paint control to look natural and probably need a fine tip airbrush & some experience). Another alternative to airbrush but more choice, is ground color pencil into powder and apply it like Tamiya Weathering powder, but takes time to ground them into fine powder.

There's normal shading & reverse shading. Normal is apply shading paint after paint, reverse is applying shading paint 1st then normal paint. Normal paint meaning the "Brighter" area usually the flat surface, shading usually corner & sides.

duh i never understood how water can dilute even acrylic paint. i never thin acrylic with water, only use Mr.Hobby Thinner or Levelling Thinner if you want it to dry slower but more expensive.

also never mix different types of paint, they will form muddy mixture.

remember for Airbrush you cannot have too thick paint especially if your brush has small tip. just pour a mixture in, try whether the paint flows out, if not, add more thinner & stir. usually i start off the airbrush with cleaning thinner you get in hardware shop, this will clear up any clogs as cleaning airbrush is not 100% clean, when it dries, there will have minor clogs.

i don't know what brush you use but i always remove the needle after use, too many times the needle stuck after dry. thinners will dry up and stick. just becareful when removing/installing. use a cut out vitagen straw as the needle tip cover so you won't poke urself or damage the tip when storing. IMO unless you have a bucket & lots of thinner/cleaning agent to wash it'd be difficult.

what i do is after spray:
1.Retrieve any leftover paints.
2.fill the paint compartment with thinner the fling the brush upsidedown to pour the thinner out (make sure you have newspaper on floor and don't splash on urself).
3.Wipe the compartment clean with tissue, make sure AB is upsidedown so any tissue fibers won't fall into the bottom area and you can swipe downwards with finger so they fall out of the AB.
4.Pour thinner again and keep repeating until you get little paint at bottom, then pour thinner and use a clean brush to brush the bottom (i use flat type brush).
5.now pour more thinner and full blast the airbrush and empty it and wipe the compartment clean.
6.Now you can remove the needle, dip a tissue with thinner and wipe the needle downwards to the tip and store the needle.
7.Without the needle, reassemble the AB and pour thinner in, keep blasting the thinner until you are satisfied it's clean, then dip the tip into small bottle of thinner to clean the tip, clean the cover, body and also wipe everything clean.
8.You can remove the tip nozzle covers and clean if you want. but if you do it too often there might start to have air leaks on the tip, and if you tighten too much when you put back you might damage the threads. When i mean tip cover i mean tip cover, not the nozzle, don't disassemble the nozzle, you can break it easily if you turn the wrong way or close too tight. I broke mine while troubleshooting, had to buy a replacement. only remove it when you think the nozzle needs replacement.

you won't get 100% clean AB but you will get around 85% clean.

i use Acrylic on AB, i said dilute with water is dumb, you can dilute with acrylic thinners.

the nozzle, do you mean the one you need the special wrench to open up, or just the nozzle cap which you turn with finger to remove? the nozzle itself is very small piece.

only remove the nozzle when you felt the nozzle is clogged.

the risk of fiddling with the nozzle is if you:
1.Turn the wrong way when removing.
2.Over Tighten the nozzle when installing.

The thread area on the nozzle is very fragile, both case above risk over tightening the nozzle as such break the thread from the nozzle and the thread gets stuck in the airbrush. that is why the instruction mention turn the right direction & never over tighten.

if your thread broke and stuck in the AB, get a satay stick and stick the sharp end into the hole till you can feel the grip, then turn the stick you should be able to remove the broken thread, then scrap off any residue.

had to buy a new nozzle & also spare needle from Hobbysearch.

also remove the needle 1st before you remove the nozzle cover to avoid poking urself & damaging the needle.

if you are unsure, watch youtube instructions, don't simply tikam. btw what AB u bought?

BTW any recommendations on Commissions for robot models? I'm thinking of sending 1 of my kit for commission.

want to see how others can paint & build the model.

i have 3 similar kits i think i don't have the ability to build all 3.

Anyone else find White hard to use on both Brush & Airbrush?

They just don't get on well, i'm using Mr Hobby Flat White Acrylic. on Brush they just end up smudgy, can't get even surface even properly thinned, too thin and it can't even color slightly yellowed white.

On Airbrush, have difficulty getting flow on .3mm. It just doesn't come out much unless i thin it more, which result in too thin. had to set the pressure to 20psi as lower psi the flow hard to come out.

Anyway just a real bitch for whites. even when color comes out i can't get it thick coat enough to cover even very superficial scratches (from sand paper) without going too thick.

I have Gaia notes white though, haven't tested it.

Good tutorial for those planning to start airbrush and for those already using, learn how to do pre & post shading!

If it doesn't break, don't fix it. This is still a primary choice of topcoat.

Hi guys. I'm planning to start custom painting my Gundam. Is kkmoon airbrush ok for beginner? Saw them at shoppee quite cheap.

Our any recommended airbrush? Thanks

Sorry. Yeah, the compressor brand. It didn't able to adjust the pressure I think. It's around 18-22psi most of the cheap model.