spaceSo You Want to Airbrush a Helmet ?
What you need
spaceairbrush
& suppliespaints
& suppliesspraygun
& suppliesfiller
puttyair
compressorfriskettapemasking
papergood
work habitssandpaperwater
bucketspray
maskhelmet
standdisposable
glovesX-acto
knivesgluelightboxlightingsafety
You must have a warm dry enviornment with plenty of good ventilation, such as a garage with good airflow. When using automotive paints you should, or may be required by law, have an exaughst system with filters, and/or a spraybooth up to the codes required by your town. Temperatures should be taken into consideration when buying thinners and reducers, as they are sold in fast and slow dry variations. You will also need a table and a good chair. You will need a seperate paint mixing table.
You need to buy a high quality airbrush that has a large nozzle opening to accomodate the thicker paint. A good choice is the Vega 2000. It is a dual action (allowing for the control of the airflow and paintflow) relatively inexpensive (around $100 retail), high quality, bottom feed(paint is fed through the use of jars attatched to the underside of the airbrush), and easily cleanable. You will also need supplies such as Q-tips for cleaning the airbrush, several color cups (jars that attach to the bottom of the airbrush and hold the paint), an airbrush stand, and round toothpicks, which come in handy. If you have never airbrushed then you should take lessons or get a good book, because there is much to learn, and you will get discouraged or lose interest very quickly if you do not know what you are doing. Cleanup and care should be given the uttmost attention, as airbrushes are very delicate instruments. Also keep in mind that airbrushing is 95% preparation and masking and only 5% spraying.
High quality paints such as PPG or DUPONT or HOUSE OF KOLOR should be used, which can be obtained at a local autobody supply house. Also urethane enamel is recommended as it is flexible and durable and dries fast. Use one system and try to stick to it, mixing brands can cause unwanted reactions and results, and may not be apparrent until several days, weeks, months, or years. Remember, these paints are chemicals and have chemical reactions, and they must be properly used. Always follow the reccomendations on each can, as different colors from the same line will have different reduction ratios.
If you do not want to purchase an expensive DeVilbiss spraygun, which also requires a large compressor, you can get by with using an automobile detail gun from Badger, Iwata or DeVilbiss (to name a few). The spraygun is used for applying the primer coat and color coats which cover large areas. Using an airbrush on large areas will leave noticable spots of lighter and darker coverage, and without good lighting you may not notice this until the helmet is taken outside.
Filler is used to fill in small knicks and scratches on the helmet surface after a coat of primer has been applied. It is then sanded smooth and another coat of primer is applied.
Depending on whether or not you will use a spragun is going to determine your size need when purchasing an air compressor. Sears sells decent compressors for the price. A minimum of a 10 gallon tank up to about 25 gallons is needed.
If you are going to produce intricate designs such as lettering, then this is important material. It is used to mask out areas that you do not want painted. Designs are cut out of the frisket and the frisket is applied to the helmet with the cutout design. Then an airbrush is used to spray inside the cutout, very simmilar to a stencil, which will produce razor sharp edges when the frisket is removed.
Don't skimp out on tape, because cheap tape can DAMAGE your work. Use 3M masking tape. They also make a fine line tape and curvy blue tape which is absolutely necessary if you want to have flowing smooth lines on your three dimensional helmet.
This is used when masking the helmet for overspray. Please, don't use yesterday's newspaper, because paint will seep through and get to the helmet.
If you fail to clean up properly and let your work area get messy, your guns may get clogged, you may get paint everywhere, and your helmet will probably reflect your untidyness.
Good automotive sandpaper that can be wetsanded with is required. Scotchbrite is also handy for scuffing up brand new helmets to give a good base to adhere to. Any where from about 200 grit, fairly coarse, to about 1000 grit, very fine, will be needed.
Water bucket is used for wet sanding the primer coat.
Don't be stupid, you'll die without one. I recommend the SurviveAir. Also do NOT use an airbrush mask as these are NO protection for automotive paint.
Whenever you use the spraygun or detail gun you need a stand to put the helmet on while you spray. Prefferably it should rotate so you don't have to walk 360� around the helmet.
These come in handy when mixing paint and using your spraygun. When you are finished you can remove them and be left with clean hands that won't mistakenly transfer paint to your helmet.
Used for cutting and removing frisket, and various other uses.
Used when reassembling the rubber molding and various parts.
This is only used for serious detail work and advanced frisket work. Drawings, or even computer printouts are placed on the lightbox and frisket is layed on top and the design is cut out. However some artists do not even use frisket for masking as it is seen as "too controled" and the user is not talented enough to airbrush "freehand" without the use of props.
If you do not have sufficient lighting you will not see your mistakes or the quality of your fades, or even the correct shade of color you are using.
