Hello----I recently have been buying and saving equipment, paints, parts to do some airbrushing. I have a Badger 200 detail airbrush and a Central Pneumatics compressor with 6 foot hose, regulator and dryer.
I have been painting with rattle cans and want a better finish. I did air brush many years ago, in a room in my finished basement, mid 90s. I used a Testors cheap 15 buck beginner airbrush and a can of air with enamels. I left and went to live in apartments and no longer had my "shop" or basement. My question is I have this equipment and Mr Color paints and thinner. I also have a respirator. I vaguely remember airbrushing but I don't remember using any ventilation as I don't think there was a lot of vapor like rattle cans. I live in Fl and have a screened room off my house. Do I need a paint booth or would opening my crank out windows suffice? Here is my equipment. Still need to figure out pressure settings, thinner, settings on airbrush. Any help is appreciated.---John

It would be highly recommended that you use a respirator and a booth. The bare minimum is a good respirator and only if no one else will be in that room after you paint. Mr. Color is a lacquer based paint which is one of the more hazardous paint compared to water based etc. If that is a full screened window on the left then I guess you could get away with a respirator and a fan blowing outwards. I think that room right there is what I would call "semi-outdoors" I used to paint in an area similar at my old place (but 3 sides of the patio was screened) and all I was using was a respirator. After the paint session there were virtually no fumes upon removing my mask. All I had was a fan beside me blowing away to the screen. I suggest you try and see how much fumes are retained for that particular room.

Well, well, well. I too live in FL. I have my compressor set up, on my screened in back porch. It is placed on a table, next to the screen and a few feet further a wall. I would recommend sticking to acryls and acrylics. However, I have had no problems with this set up.

Thanks Matt, what are the best acrylics and what do you thin and clean with. I originally used MM enamels long ago and MM thinner. I have had very limited and not so good results with acrylic, of course most was trying to brush paint with them. Tamiya is MISERABLE to brush paint! I am not committed to any type as I am just getting started, like the eco friendly acryl idea, I lived in a toxic world of heavy welding smoke and dangerous gas mixtures, nuff of that, now retired and want to live a bit.---John

for brush painting I recommend Vallejo model color. I started with Tamiya and gunze sangyo paints and when I started doing armor I definitely saw the difficulty of brush painting with Tamiya and gunze. Once I tried Vallejo as recommended by most people in forums I saw the huge difference in paint performance. I could even say that I even wanted to try doing a 100% hand brushed model.