Compressor, airbrushing, and staying safe!

My compressor arrived, and I have been messing up stuff since day one!
I thought I was prepared, I really did. But here is a short story on how my first day went:
I got out my old trusted mask respirator.
I started mixing my varnish with water. I think the first batch was too wet, way too much water. The other batch was too thick, and my airbrush clogged. I cleaned it between every spray session.
I kept my mask on, and about 15-20 minutes in, I got an instant insane headache.
This is when I started to suspect that my respirator wasn’t functioning properly, so I started to do some research.
Respirator filters have a life span of maximum 6 months, after being taken out of the sealed bag they come in. I got my mask as a gift years ago, with the filters already installed, so I have no idea how long they had been installed before I got them. I was pretty much starving myself of oxygen, while trying to stay safe.
I couldn’t find a local shop that sells the filters, so I had to get a new mask that don’t have replaceable filters, you basically throw it in the trash after about 6 months. But I wanted to spray during the weekend, and even though this stuff is all non toxic, it is not recommended you breathe it in. The same goes for acrylic paint, the small particles in the air can get in your lunges, and that is NOT good.
I tested my new mask today, and my first thought was “oh my god I can breathe normally!”. I could feel a significant difference, it did not feel nearly as stuffy as the old one. I feel a little bit like an idiot, I should have done some research on this as well, not just on the airbrush itself.

Ok, so here are my expirences with trying to use Liquitex matte medium.
I cannot for the life of me get it to the right consistency. I also cannot figure out how thick/thin my layers should be.
I thought I had it going pretty good, when I went to remove a speck of dust from the resin face I was working on, as I have done many times in the past with MCS, and I got a HOLE in the medium. From this hole, I could tear her entire face off, much like if you’ve ever had a sun burn and you can peel the skin off.
So I decided to remove it from the MH head and the resin head. I grabbed my acetone-free nail polish remover. The MH head got insanely sticky, and the resin head got a little bit sticky. The resin head worked out in the end, but I continued to spray on the MH head and now she looks glossy (new batch of medium, could be that I sprayed it on too thick)
I have SO much to learn, and I’m not a fast learner when it comes to this sort of thing.
I even practiced some aiming with some acrylics on a piece of paper, and my aim is currently a little off, so I’ll need to work more on that too.

Vallejo to the rescue

I decided to go ahead and order a new varnish, the one that Xhanthi uses in her videoes on youtube, Vallejo matte. She doesn’t dilute it, so hopefully that makes things just a little easier for me. It also gives me an idea of how thin things have to be to go through the airbrush, so maybe I can learn to use the liquitex later 🙂
I think I might also buy some airbrush-ready acrylics, because this just isn’t something I enjoy trying to learn to be honest. I just want to aim my brush and paint away!

I’ll continue practicing over the weekend anyway, it cant hurt (at least not after getting proper protective gear!).

I highly recommend watching Xhanthis video on the subject, her voice is so soothing to listen to and she covers a great deal of things that gave me a boost of confidence about all of this. She also states that her first layer is usually really thick, and that she leaves it to cure for 24 hours. That makes me more confident because it means that I wont mess up if my layers are a little thick. It’s only the first layer that is so thick though, to protect the resin. I may try 3-4 lighter layers like I’ve done with MSC.

Wish me luck!