Hello fellow DIYers, I've been poking around this forum for quite some time now, and always found an answer to my question, until now. Couldn't find anywhere solutions for this certain problem that I have, so I would like to share it with you.

I've started creating small wooden sculptures from pine laths (usually 10-15 cm long, 1 cm wide), and have a huge problem when it comes to painting. When I glue the laths together (I'll provide a screenshot at the end) I start painting them with a paint brush, which is consuming too much of my time, so I bought an electric spray paint which wastes too much paint.

Now I've poked around the web and found out that an airbrush should be optimal for the work I do. Is it true, and if you have any other tips and tricks when it comes to painting these small sculptures I would be very grateful.




As you can see, there is a lot of space between each lath, so I need a better technique than painting each single sculpture with my 5 € paint brush.

Thanks in advance!

 

Yep, I believe the airbrush route would work perfectly for your project. You could try a cheapo brush first and if it works well then you can invest in a quality brush.

 

Welcome to the forums!

The biggest issue with an air brush is how little material they spray. You won't waste much/any paint but it will take a lot longer.

When I spray smaller items I normally use a bigger spray gun and try to set the items up where the overspray from one will partially coat the next one.

 

I'm currently painting with a cheap paint brush and it's taking me 15 to 20 minutes just to finish one, by the end of the weekend I have roughly 100 of these small sculptures, so I need something that doesn't consume up that much time but neither wastes too much paint.

I've bought this Paint Spray Gun for 25 € (Parkside PFS 100 C2) 320g/min, 160 bar, 100w, and it finishes one sculpture in a minute and less, but the side effect is that it wastes too much paint, so I thought about this air brush, if it wouldn't waste paint but take a minute or two more to finish than the paint spray gun it would be just perfect.

I'm sorry for such amateur questions, but how I saw the air brushes are 100 € and more, so I wouldn't like to invest again in something that won't work properly. Like always, thank you for your help!

 

The main function of an air brush is to do art work, kind of like drawing with a pencil, crayon or artist brush. It can be used to paint small items but they barely put out much paint and while I'd expect to be able to brush that item within a few minutes, an air brush would likely take longer along with needing more coats. The paint needs to be thinned well to spray thru an air brush.

Have you thought about priming [maybe 1 coat of finish] the pieces prior to assembly? You'd probably have to scrape off a little paint where you glue it up in order to get a good bond with the adhesive but I'd think that would speed up your production process.

 

The main function of an air brush is to do art work, kind of like drawing with a pencil, crayon or artist brush. It can be used to paint small items but they barely put out much paint and while I'd expect to be able to brush that item within a few minutes, an air brush would likely take longer along with needing more coats. The paint needs to be thinned well to spray thru an air brush.

Have you thought about priming [maybe 1 coat of finish] the pieces prior to assembly? You'd probably have to scrape off a little paint where you glue it up in order to get a good bond with the adhesive but I'd think that would speed up your production process.