construction:body:airbrushing

Airbrushing

Dye/ink/paint sources

Airbrush sources


We've found that you can thin it down quite a bit more to shoot it through an airbrush (just make multiple passes) and it will set quite nicely on the NFT or other fake fur with a hand-held hair blower/dryer. Just remember to brush the fur so it's “open” when you want the color and “bunched” where you don't. This stuff doesn't make the fur 'sticky' like a lot of other colorings would (spray 'n' tips, acrylic paint, etc. )


From: Lex
Flinthoof writes:

What of using a high quality paint such as Badger's Accuflex, an
acrylic polymer base, that will bond permanently to the fake fur?
Should be able to airbrush it on lightly and use it to slightly TINT,
not color the fur.

A very good suggestion: most acrylic paints will work just fine on acrylic furs, and Flinthoof's additional suggestion that this technique be used to tint, rather than actually paint, the fur is dead-on. Depending on what it is you want the fur to be, a light use of paints will often do the trick. A couple of caveats: too much paint and the fur will begin to get stiff and feel kind of straw-like, since you are actually beginning to coat the individual fur fibers with an increasingly thick layer of paint (ie, as you use more paint). Also, have a slicker wire brush handy (as well as a bucket of water), and constantly brush the fur as it dries so the fibers don't stick together. Again, a -light- tinting of the fur with this kind of paint and the brushing should not affect the fur too much; if you've put on so thick a layer of paint that it takes more than a few seconds to dry, you're likely to end up with a thick, “sculpted-glaze” look to the fur (like using hair spray). Brushing will also help to work some of the paint in towards the base hairs, so that you don't get just the top layer painted (leading to gaps in the color when you move).

Slicker brushes, for those of you without the benefit of dogs, are those flat, squarish, wire-bristled brushes used for dog grooming. Depending of the size, they run $4-7 at pet stores. As brushes go, they're nearly indispensable: we constantly use them to groom furry costumes. Don't be too concerned about the fibers that it brushes out: fun furs of average-to-better quality can take an awful lot of this before they start to show thinning. These are also useful to get a head start in “seaming” fur you've sewn together (pulling the fur that's been sewn into the seam).


From: Joe Dunfee
I have purchased some “basic” dyes, which is supposed to be able to dye polyester. But I was forewarned that it will not be able to dye as dark with the polyester as I am used to with more easily dyeable fabric. I tried it, but was only able to achieve a medium color, not very dark at all.

I purchased the dye from… forgot the name, but I do remember their 800 number.. 1-800-2BUYDYE They have the most extensive catalog I have seen of any of the dye companies.


From: Spiked Punch
Subject: Re: FL: Airbrushing fur

In a message dated 9/17/99 7:40:19 PM Central Daylight Time, JamieWolf writes:

With 2-3 days to finish my fursuit, I have a fairly urgent question to ask:
Could anyone give me hints on how to airbrush fur (going from yellow
fur to white colour)?
Also, does the fur lose any of its feel at all once airbrushed?

Well, airburshing fur is like airbrushing anything else… you are going to notice some change in the texture. If you do it real finely, you will not notice all the much. Best to use a real light spray, say something less than a mist. You will have to practice some to get it just right. Have heard the best kind of paints to use are leather dyes which are sold in small amounts that just thin enough for a airbrush. And chances are you will have to do some touch ups now and then. After all, it is paint.


Streaks & Tips: available at your local drug store or hair/beauty supply store: An excellent stop-gap way to color fur temporarily (though test it on a piece of scrap fur first: different materials react differently [never throw away scraps–you'll always find a use for them!]


Speaking of coloring fur, check out the material of any fur you intend to dye: Nylons and natural fibres (like cotton and rayon) dye easily, but the monoacrylics are almost impossible to dye. If you use a super-concentrated solution of dye (ie, so dark it looks black) and really soak the monoacrylic furs, you MAY get a pale pink or some other pastes shade of color (and most of that is the furs' backing!). Unfortunately, the monoacrylics look the best (rayons are really thin and tend to be fuzzy and nylons don't look as good as most acrylics). It is possible to dye the monoacrylics, but the process uses temperatures more precise than color film developing and that are so toxic that norms can't buy the stuff.


From: “Helvetica 'Foofers' Bold”
Subject: Re: FL: Added effect help

If this is a one-time thing and subtlety isn't all that important, Harbor Freight Tools is having a sale through May 3rd on various stuff including an “air brush kit” for $4.49. This is a cheesy “half action” airbrush, meaning the trigger is simply on/off, though some (non real-time) control of the paint flow is possible with manual adjustment of the front nozzle. Still…this is adequate for plenty of low-tech stuff, or situations where one doesn't want to gunk up a good airbrush with nasty stuff. Hopefully I'll be picking up a few spares next week…sort of a lifetime supply…at that price, if one gets bent or gunked up or whatever, just toss it or cannibalize it for parts to maintain the others.

Fun place to browse, too. Retail locations are listed at: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/retailstores/index.html

Do a search for the airbrush, #6131, for $9.99.

If you need a *good* airbrush on the other hand, a bit of shopping around can turn up a decent double-action airbrush for $75 or so. Poke around good hobby stores (or sometimes Harbor Freight has these too), or I'm sure something would be easy to find on the WWW.

Neither includes an air supply (unless…if you buy a nice brush as part of a kit, they sometimes include a can of air). A small tankless air compressor will set you back another $75-$150. But there's a cheap-and-crude option here too, if super-precise control isn't necessary: a truck tire innertube, overinflated a bit, can provide a brief supply of air, perhaps a minute or so (though not constant pressure). Then just pump it back up with a bicycle pump and go at it again.


From: Aetobatus
Subject: Re: FL: Added effect help

On Fri, 23 Apr 1999, Robert Goodwin wrote:

Any hobby store should have an airbrush. I know Frry, from our
conversations, has a compressor, which is great for continuous airflow,
when he's doing big airbrushing jobs. The aircans for the airbrushes just
don't have enough air in there for serious airbrushing sessions, like
less than a minute. Cost of an airbrush can be about $20-40.

Also, if you are a SCUBA diver, there is a pretty easy way to use the air out of the SCUBA tank for an air brush. The basic idea is that you use your dive regulator's (low pressure) power inflator fitting to supply 100psi air to an inexpensive low-pressure regulator which you can adjust down to the tens of psi needed for the airbrush. It costs around $40 or so for all the necessary fittings and regulators, but you can use the airbrush for hours off a full Al80. It also has the advantage of being completly water and oil free.

This is what I did for much of the airbrushing of the snake's head. (Though, for the last bits, the lab I work got a new compressor, so I just used that instead.)


From: Kerwin Rabbitroo
Subject: FL: Re: FT Added effect help (Airbrushing)

I use a Badger Model 150 for most craft and prop work, although I have also had good luck with some of the higher end Aztek/Testor's models. The Badger is a real workhorse and is well supported in terms of readily available parts.

I can't recommend canned air like they sell in the hobby stores. A better alternative is to get yourself a regulator that would allow you to adjust the pressure easily between 15 to 60 PSI. (I usually work around 30, but depending on the medium, such as thick latex based mask paints, I can go as high as 90.) I've seen good regulators around for about $30-$50. Once you have a regulator, go to your friendly neighborhood welding supply house and rent a tank of air (look under welding or oxygen in the yellow pages). They are supringly cheap and when empty you just swap them for a full one. (An illustrator friend of mine tells me that he usually gets 30 to 40 hours of use out of one of the large tanks.) You may be able to rent a dual-guage regulator with your air tank which is especially handy since it will tell your not only the forward pressure going into your airbrush, but also the backward airpressure still in the tank (warning you when the tank is getting low.)

If you can afford a compressor, I recommend getting one that fills a tank and taps the brush off the tank. You get much less condensation in the line which can make your brush spit. I used to live in an apartment, so I used one of the silent-type which uses a small refridgerator compressor and 1.5 litre tank.

It's still running fine and has given me pleanty of continous flow. These were about $400 on sale. If you're planning to work with paticularly thick mediums (such as aforementioned latex-based mask paints) Arnold Goldman of Monstermaker's used to swear by a 2.5hp Type 10 with what looked like a 20 gallon tank. These go for about $600, and definitely provide more air flow than I can imagine using. It should be noted that these high horsepower jobs are industrial machines and can be *very* noisey, though once that 20 gallon tank is pumped up, I'd imagine it'd keep quiet for a bit. He also favors the external mix Paasche-H airbrushes (about $70) which are easier to clean up. (I like internal mix myself, as well as double action type brushes, hence my choice of the Badger 150 for craft & model work.)


From: AxeCat
Subject: Re: A few make-up questions…..

I most definetly agree, thats how the wonderful looks are achieved in
Babylon 5. Now if only I could afford a airbrush.

Hello Lynx,

The expensive part of having an airbrush is the compressor. Try what I did, so your airbrush dream can become true for less money:

Buy a good airbrush, anyone you like. Some stores let you test drive them. But when buying the compressor, go for a junk place and get a refrigerator's compressor. Mine was US$ 5.00… it works flawlessly, and very quiet. Maybe it doesn't looks fancy, as it has an alien-made-looks but hey, it was cheap and I have done tons of work without failure.

/home/furryfursuit/faq/data/pages/construction/body/airbrushing.txt · Last modified: 2011/08/11 12:01 (external edit)

Page Tools