In this article, I will tell you about surface preparation for airbrushing. Such surfaces as a car body and walls of a room will be considered.
The surface it is applied on should be properly prepared to make the airbrush enjoy its owner for a long time. Surface preparation differs depending on the sphere of application of the airbrush.
If you are a beginner airbrush and use scrapbooking sheets as a surface for airbrushing, no surface preparation is required. If you use a metal surface and paint yourself, you may start properly preparing the surface before airbrushing.
Proper preparation of the car body for airbrushing
The first thing to do on the car body or any other metal surface is washing it; it is even possible with a soapy solution. Then the surface is degreased to remove grease stains and silicones from various polishes. Such procedures will protect against any defects in the paint coating, which may appear after coating the surface with varnish.
Then the old varnish or paint is matched (sanded) for better adhesion (adhesion) of the paint applied to the surface. Small surfaces can be sanded by hand with a scotch brush. For matting large surfaces, you can use a grinder. The direction of sanding does not matter; it can be circular motions, criss-cross motions, or any other, as long as the surface is completely matte. When matting the surface, you must be careful not to rub the paint layer down to the putty or metal. To create a uniform matte surface, you can additionally use matting pastes. Their price is about 600 p. for 0,5-0,7 l. They are perfect for matting and additionally degrease and clean the surface. You can use them with a small amount of water. The quality of the matting is checked from time to time by removing the compound with a rubber mallet (flexible rubber plate).
Rubber rasher.
After matting, the paste is removed with a cloth soaked in a degreaser.
If the surface has been matched “dry” with scotch bright, the surface must be blown off. For this purpose, you can use an airbrush or a blowing gun.
After we have blown the surface, it is worth treating it with a wiping cloth moistened with a degreaser or silicone remover (anti silicone). This procedure will remove silicone residue from the polish and grease stains. Then the surface is blown again to blow away possible lint and dust residue from the cloth. Once we have prepared the surface, you can start painting.
Preparing the surface of the walls or ceilings for airbrushing
If you aim at a niche in interior design, the preparation of walls for airbrushing is also an important stage. The quality of the prepared wall or ceiling determines the final look of the airbrush after it is covered with varnish. Most often, an airbrush painter is not required to prepare a wall himself. Usually, this is done by the finishers who prepare walls for painting.
If possible, it is necessary to warn the workers that the wall surface must be perfectly flat. Or supervise the conduct of the work. Irregularities of the wall may appear after coating with a glossy varnish, so I advise covering the walls with a matte or semi-matte varnish.
To avoid problems with the workers, the importance of preparing the walls should be told to the customer himself and avoid talking to the workers. When you see the finished wall and small “shoals,” then you can bring it to “mind” yourself. If you have to prepare the wall completely, do not forget to discuss the cost with the customer. It would be best if you did not work for free, because any work must be paid for, especially since you spend your time on it.
The preparation of the walls and the ceiling are similar. If the wall is “bare” (brickwork), you should start cleaning the wall of dust and dirt.
The next step will be to cover the wall with primer; if necessary, you can cover the wall with a primer-antiseptic of deep penetration to prevent mold. Primer strengthens the surface and allows subsequent layers of plaster mixes to “grip” firmly with the wall. Apply the primer in several layers, and each layer must dry. Detailed recommendations can be found on the primer package.
After the primer, a layer of plaster mix is applied. Now the most common are such mixtures on a gypsum basis. They differ in their coarseness for better adhesion with subsequent layers of finishing plaster.
In construction stores, you can find a variety of plaster mixes; they are similar in that they are used for finishing walls. Such a mixture can be “Rothbard” or others. To avoid dealing with sanding the plaster mixture for a long time after it dries, before applying finish plaster, while it has not yet dried completely, it should be “licked” with a moistened metal spatula. This will additionally remove any irregularities. All recommendations should be listed on the package with the mixes. Or, if you have ever been involved in finishing walls, you probably understand the importance of this procedure.
Once the plaster mixture has dried and you have finished the irregularities with sandpaper (dust from machining must be removed!), you can proceed to cover the wall with finishing putty. The layer of finish putty may be minimal; it is necessary to hide the smallest irregularities of the wall’s surface. Recommendations on the application of a particular finishing putty are better to see on the package.
After the putty has dried, it is also necessary to process it with fine sandpaper. After which, the dust from the surface should be removed.
An important step in preparing the wall surface for airbrushing is to cover the finishing putty with primer. This stage will protect you from many problems with further painting, and it is best to do it yourself, even if the finishers are preparing the wall. Applying primer will prevent the surface from soaking during intensive painting and reduce paint consumption because the absorbency of putty will be reduced (the primer fills the pores of the putty).
Such a primer can be an acrylic primer based on acrylic polymers. The primer dries quickly, which speeds up the process of preparing the walls for painting. Since acrylic paints are most often used in wall painting, the acrylic primer will ensure good adhesion of paint layers to the surface. After the primer dries out, you can proceed to paint the wall.
Who wants to share the secrets of preparing the walls and ceilings? Sign in the comments. I think it will be interesting to all readers.