Quick Review: Agama airbrush thinner

Agama Rozcienczalnijk!!!

More a tip for you airbrush-users out there than a proper review I guess... Anyhow! When I airbrush I usually mix my paints in the cup while adding thinner. Earlier I've been using some window cleaner that although it worked good it made me worry about all the solvent I inhaled. So I resorted to the "less toxic" acrylic mediums such as the one from Liquitex and the thinner from Vallejo. Both of those are a bit "milky" which in turn makes the color you mix much lighter than it really is. Once the thinner dries the milkyness disappears.

So when I ordered that Sdkfz 222 I got myself this Agama thinner as well. I think I read something about it on Armorama and thats why I got myself a bottle to replenish my almost empty bottle of Vallejo Thinner.

I have absolutely no idea what it contains. But it does wonders with the airbrush. Firstly it's transparent, so you can mix in the cup and directly see what colour you will be spraying. It also extends the colour and acts as a thinner. So if I want to spray really transparent layers I add a mix of 1:5 ratio paint to thinner. With the Vallejo & Liquitex thinners they usually extended the colour much much more, making transparent layers tricky.

Mixing a 1:1 ratio just makes the Vallejo Air much thinner but keeps the color more or less as opaque as it is straight from the bottle. My Model Air colors might be a bit old since they feel a bit thick, and I usually dont want to dial up the PSI to 30 just to be able to paint without sputtering.

It also seems to contain some sort of slow dri additive since the acrylics dont clog up as much as they did with the other thinners I've used (apart from the window cleaner). But it still evaporates quick enough to not create runs if you paint on too much.

So... highly recommended product. Especially if you live in the EU.

The only downside is the packaging. There is no spout on the bottle, so I have to use a pipette. I guess I'm spoiled by Reaper/Vallejo and their dropper bottles. :) It might be that the smaller bottles come with a spout on them.

I got mine from Jadar Hobby. A polish retailer. They send the stuff pretty quick. Or at least quicker than what we're used to when ordering stuff from our Friendly Online Gaming Stores.

Thats it. Back to chipping and stuff on the SdKfz 222!

On the painting table: Khorne!

Today I got my first turn with a decent airbrush. I had 10 old Berzerkers in need of paint, and because I hate the models, and so have pushed back painting them, I decided to be lazy.
I must admit, I was a little afraid to use the airbrush, but since I didn't really care how the DerpZerks turned out, the feeling passed, and I just committed to learn the basics of airbrushing.

I recently realised that the Vallejo Model series reds contain cadmium, and thusly should not be airbrushed. Standing in the hobby store I had to kinda wing it and picked the very few reds that is available from the Air range. I considered going to the gaming store to get Citadel or VGC, but I was in a kind of a rush, and in the end, I achieved the tones I was aiming for.

After a day of using, and cleaning (and more cleaning), I think I can easily motivate myself to pay for a decent airbrush of my own in the future. For a gamers uses, priming, basecoating, vehicles etc I see nothing easier and more time saving, the only really tricky part is maintenance and if you use other than VMA style prethinned paint, getting a feel for paint/thinner ratios.

I tried to achieve a zenithal highlight, and I am quite pleased with the results. They don't make for very exciting pictures however, and the lighting in the club is not optimal.

I did get a snap of my count-as Abaddon: Zhufor! He got the same treatment as the Berzerkers when I felt confident enough to do a decent job with the AB. The model makes me wish that ForgeWorld would release all the named characters from the CSM Codex. The level of detail is as always just stunning.

Something completely different...

One word of advice first. When getting your first airbrush (because you are considering buying one unless you already have one) don't get the most expensive one straight away.

An example of why is the bottom airbrush. I got it a year ago, it was my first foray into airbrushing if you don't consider the week I had at art school back in 1996. I really didn't know how they worked. Why things sometimes didn't work and well... it got a bit smashed up. Impatience is a virtue... or so I've heard.

So, after almost completely messing up my Evolution I decided that it was time to either buy replacement parts or get myself a new one. I settled for the latter and bought me the fance Harder & Steenbeck Evolution INFINITY. Just taste that little word... I N F I N I T Y !

The difference in price isn't really that much between the two. But the difference in fit and finish is like... comparing a Skoda to a BMW or something like that.

So... the completely different part?

A Dragon Models PzKpfw. IV Ausf. G!

All this playing of World of Tanks (which is what I do when I really should finish the Stompa) made me wanna try and paint and build a "real" model. It's got 740 parts, photo-etched stuff and god knows what more.

I have just opened the box, taken a look at the various sprues (and shuddered a little when I saw the three sprues containing track links) and put it on the shelf. This one is for when I have less work and not an Aporkalypse to be preparing for.

Here's the list I'm taking to the Aporkalypse. For you list-dudes. It's nothing special. It's more of a "I want a Stompa and I want kanz... "-list.

APORKALYPSO

Formation: Dred Mob

Deff Dread Dreadnought CCW x4

Killer Kans x3 Dreadnought CCW; Grotzooka x3; 

Killer Kans x3 Dreadnought CCW; Rokkit Launcha x3

Killer Kans x3 Dreadnought CCW; Grotzooka x2; Rokkit Launcha x1

Stompa Big Shoota (x2); Deth Kannon w/ co-ax Supa-Gatler; Supa-Rokkit (x3); Supa-scorcha; Titan CCW; Twin Linked Big Shoota; Big Shoota.

HQ: Big Mek Mek's Tools; Kustom Force Field; Choppa;

Troops: 25 Boyz; Shootas; Big Shoota x2;

1x Boyz Nob Bosspole; Slugga; Power Klaw

Troops: 25 Boyz; Shootas; Big Shoota x2;

1x Boyz Nob Bosspole; Slugga; Power Klaw

Troops: 20 Boyz; Sluggas & Choppas

1x Boyz Nob Bosspole; Slugga; Power Klaw

Troops: 20 Boyz; Sluggas & Choppas

1x Boyz Nob Bosspole; Slugga; Power Klaw

Weighing in at 1997 points or something like that. The KFF is mostly just to give them cover while they slug along the field. And to give cover to any Kanz that has to be more than 12" away from the Stompa. :)

Model Expo Online portable spray booth review.

The spray booth. Unfolded with a Deff Dread on it. To the left is an Evolution 2in1 airbrush and a bunch of Vallejo Model Air.

So I've been doing a lot of airbrushing lately and a week ago I kinda got fed up with inhaling paint dust and solvents from the window cleaning fluid I use to dilute paints. (And I felt kinda bad for the cats). Now I work in a pretty well ventilated area. There's an A/C unit right above the painting area, but I guess it just moves the particles around. Not trapping them. Which lead me to look for a spray booth of some sort.

In Sweden, most of the paint booths are made for ad-agencies using spray glue (anyone still use that stuff? Post-It makes excellent glue sticks) and are priced accordingly. The best price I found for an Artograph booth was at around €500. Which is way too expensive. In the USA though, Model Expo Online introduced a "portable" spray booth that folds into itself to make a pretty compact unit. Perfect for my needs.

After shopping around a little, I found a german retailer (important since I want a 240VAC unit) that sold it for slightly less than €100. The shopping process was nice and smooth and 3 days later the big brown van was here with the booth.

I'll skip boring you trusty reader(s) with the tech specs. The only important thing to note is that it only moves 3 m3 of air, which translates to about 100 cubic feet per minute. This is said – on the internetz – to be enough for most hobby related airbrushing. And is the absolute minimum the OSHA recommends for a spray booth. So if you're spraying enamels or solvent based stuff. Please don't go cheap. Buy proper stuff.

And... there's no duct for venting fumes out a window. Which isn't a problem with the Vallejo stuff since it really doesn't smell much at all. Some users have apparently attached a duct to it without any problems. There are four mounting screws on the back (for the fan grille) and I guess it conforms to some sort of standard.

So far I've primed a bunch of models in it, and used it for some general basecoating and it seems to work well. I can clearly see the bigger particles blowing into the booth, and I hope the smaller ones does as well.

All in all, a pretty good booth for your money. Especially if you – like me – have limited space.

You can watch a pretty cheesy video here, with handling instructions and stuff. Enjoy.

The other hobby related thing I've recieved the last week was this seam scraper from Micro Mark. This thing is amazing!

I've usually used a scalpel blade to scrape mold seams on my minis. Quickly dulling the blade and sometimes creating really ugly scrape marks on the figure.

This thing is made of hardened tool steel (whatever that means) and is shaped like a triangle. I can use it to scrape mold lines and remove bits of sprue that's still attached. Without any ugly marks. It actually is hard to make scrape marks with this tool. Well worth the $10 and the $10 in shipping.