The Niche Hobby of Airbrushing

 Hey everyone, 

    I recently got into airbrush painting model kits earlier this year around May or June and it has become a new hobby of mine. It's a quite a niche hobby and it's community is even more niche where the only active places on English social media are places like Facebook. There's a bigger community in Asia, but that would mean you would need to know the language, have an account to that region's Facebook, and even then  the community is not that much bigger. It's made even more niche when dealing with dangerous chemicals like alcohol cleaning liquids, enamel based paints, and lacquer based paints. The danger associated with the hobby is probably going to scare most people away from it, but I would like to stress the basic essentials are easy to find and don't need replacing for a very very long time.

    The basic needs are quite simple, you would need an airbrush, an air compressor, a respirator with P95 filters, very very well ventilated room, and the paint type of your prefer (there are 3 main types each with their own little quirks and finishes). I want to emphasize the ventilated room because depending on the paint you choose a single room can become a toxic gas chamber if the fuels are not being aired out properly.  But as a final note all these safety procedures can be ignored if you use solvent based acrylics which are basically paints you see at elementary or at arts-n-crafts sections at Target. Of course, those paints are more beginner oriented like how crayons are to colored pencils, but there are brands dedicated to high quality solvent based paints if you like that route.  

    With all the major topics covered, you are probably thinking of what a model kit is. To put it simple, they are miniaturized statues/figures of pop culture media. Dungeons and dragons count as well as Legos. The ones I'm referring to are giant robots called Gundams and all other forms of sci-fi fantasy characters. It is nerdy yes, but it's been a hobby of mine since my dad bought me one when I was in kindergarten and I only now realized the professional level of it. I also recently gotten into resin painting which basically means painting statues made out of special stuff. Resin models usually consist of highly detailed sculptures made by indie artist and it's a hobby bigger in Asia than it is here in west. I included some pics of Japanese and Chinese artists' work. I also would like to warn you that some if not most sculptures outside of my examples are quite graphic since resin models are completely original and made by hand there are no barriers as to what can be done.

"Evangelion レイ" by hiiro_wing16 on twitter

image by xiaango from twitter

image by ju_ichi _gkpm from twitter