What's on My Desk: A New Airbrush Studio

I've finally had time to put aside the sculpting tools and get out my new airbrush!  At this year's GenCon I purchased a Sotar, Partriot, Badger tank/compressor, and full line of paints for under $450.  It was a great deal, and one that I couldn't afford to pass up.  To get my airbrush station set up, first we moved Harley across the room to where she has a larger desk and more space (that corner had previously been housing an old organ that no longer could play music).  I inherited her old desk and immediately put it to good use by building a brushing cubby out of a cardboard box.  I also taped a plastic to-go cup to one leg of the desk.  By putting another cup into that one I had a removable, and thus cleanable, place to dump cleaning solution.

With that it was simply a matter of hooking up the compressor and getting started!

I'm taking up all the window space now that Harley has moved into her new spot.  It's really nice transitioning to the painting/assembly desk over to the airbrush station.  To get more light I take my LED lamp and move it from one desk's corner over to the other's.  It's a great fit.

Harley got a nice new desk from Office Depot and has her KU diploma proudly hanging above it!

Back to the airbrush..  For my first project I wanted to ease into airbrushing by using my Patriot.  It's a general use double-action internal mix brush great for priming, and base coating.  Badger's president, Ken, was nice enough to throw in a couple of quick releases so that I could transition between Patriot and Sotar on the fly.  You can see it hanging down under the brush in this picture.  After cutting a small chunk out of the carrying case foam, the brush and QR fit snugly inside.

Here are the Freeblades Plankha (demon hounds) and young Grush that I airbrushed.  I did each model, from base up, with the Patriot.  It made the job super fast and allowed me to do a simple color gradient from brown to red in no time at all.

This order was for table top quality, so after their airbrushing, each plankha got three highlights and a few detail touch-ups.  Table Top is the most basic painting package I offer and the Patriot helps a ton with basing and quick shading while sticking to a budget.

Here's the whole group, ready to wreak havoc in Jason C's next Freeblades game!

This young Grush was also painted with my new Patriot.  I used it to do the basing, base coat, and under shadows on the model.  A quick dry brushing anda few detail points later and he was done.

Using an airbrush to quickly base coat and shade monster models was fantastic, and I'm glad I finally made the plunge this year at GenCon to get one.  I'm looking forward to using the 'brush more and seeing what the Sotar can do!  

Thanks for stopping by to see what's going on at the Monster Lab!

Until next time, good gaming and happy hobbying.