Hi, New to the foamy game and was wondering if anyone has ever tried the cheapy electric paint sprayers to paint large FFF models? Was thinking that acrylic paint thinned with Windex might work ok. Any advice is appreciated. Best, Aero

Just painted three airplanes with a small gravity feed harbor freight spray gun. It was air though. Olympic Latex from lowes thinned with water. Really great results for what it was. I tried a suction feed touch up gun and had problems.

That looks great and some day I may upgrade to a setup like that but I was thinking of something like this at Harbor Freight for a couple large paint jobs. Best, Aero

Please post on how this works. Good luck!

Originally Posted by flyingfitz737

Just painted three airplanes with a small gravity feed harbor freight spray gun. It was air though. Olympic Latex from lowes thinned with water. Really great results for what it was. I tried a suction feed touch up gun and had problems.

What kind of problems? suction feed airbrushes are usually much more complicated, and you need to tune your needle size and you usually have to strain the paint even if it's thinned to make sure large clumps of pigment don't cause spitting.

Those airbrushes are great but the HF electric paint sprayer is not air driven. I was wondering if anyone has tried one of these type of cheap sprayers and what was the result. Thanks, Aero

Well I have a Wagner power painter and it blows paint like a mother(#*@#$ because it's meant to paint walls.... you might have some real issues with instant paint weight and better secure your plane so you don't send it slinging off the table.

Have No idea how that "orange' contraption in the photo above would work on a Model. But having tried to use a similar one .. once.. to paint my fence.
It was Pathetic. I felt I could do better by spitting a mouthful of paint. When it's not clogging it spits paint everywhere.. badly... blotchy spitty mess. Overspray going everywhere Not even up to the job for an old fence.
I threw it across my yard in disgust. Only later did I pick it up, only to put it into the trash bin.
Nothing worse IMO than substandard Tools.

Thanks for the input guys! Sounds like the wall painter type sprayers are not too well adapted for model use I'll stick to rattle cans for the time being and get an airbrush/compressor later on. Best, Aero

Yeah, no they put out way to much paint for a model, You can use a habor fright siphon feed gun and adapt an air hose with a simple rotary regulator, and use a spare tire a your air source, or get a small compressor,

The suction touch up gun would spit no matter how much we thinned the paint or adjsted the gun and pressure. I poured the paint out of the touch up gun and into the gravity feed gun and it worked very well for what it was. The darker color camo went very well with a fair amount of adjustment available on the pattern. Im sure the other could be made to work by a more experienced painter.

Originally Posted by flyingfitz737

The suction touch up gun would spit no matter how much we thinned the paint or adjsted the gun and pressure. I poured the paint out of the touch up gun and into the gravity feed gun and it worked very well for what it was. The darker color camo went very well with a fair amount of adjustment available on the pattern. Im sure the other could be made to work by a more experienced painter.

I believe the trick most use is pantyhose or a similar type of soft mesh to strain the paint through before spraying. The suction feed types are very sensitive to the pigment sizes but the quality and control of the job is much much higher.

I use a cheapo $12 air brush kit from Harbor Freight with my 1.5HP shop compressor and it works just fine. The bad news is that I have only have had good luck with it using paint specifically made for air brushes. I use Createx brand paint. Your best bet is to buy it online from Artsupply.com or Blicks.com. You can find it at JoAnn's, Michaels and Hobby Lobby (Crafts) in the small 2oz bottles but at twice the price. I put the paint in the suction bottle and squirt a dash of windex into it and go. I have tried thinned out house latex and even craft store acrylic paint and they both clog the airbrush and spit.

http://www.harborfreight.com/quick-c...kit-93506.html

For good info on airbrushing or painting in general to the the "Scale" forum on RCG.

These http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk/images/tools/ba-250-.jpg mini spray guns work quite nicely for me. The non- name brand ones can be found for around $15, and work as well as the more expensive ones. I use them most often to spray Tamiya acrylics. I add a little Windex to the paint to make it atomize better. I've never used the compressed air propellant cans, so can't comment on that, but I guess it's a cheaper short term option than buying an air compressor. Clean up is easy- just spray Windex or soapy water through.