Paint and Painting Tricks

I use a lot of spray paint.  I have an airbrush and I use it when I really want to do good camouflage or if I need a color I can't get in a spray can.

Sometimes the spray paint gets clogged up.  So I started saving the nozzles when I toss out an empty can of spray paint.  I found that I always have a surplus of nozzles because they don't get clogged up that often.  I put the old nozzle in the lid of the can I used.

That way each nozzle is color coded with the paint it had in it.  You can use the "wrong" color nozzle, it does not seem to matter, but I don't like to take chances.

Another thing I do is take a bit of paper towel and put a few drops of paint thinner on it.  As I spray paint I wipe the nozzle every few sprays when I shake the can again.  That really helps reduce the clogging.

Long term project, as I get in the mood to paint I have been painting cheap unpainted or poorly painted civilians that are sold in bulk on line.  I glue them to a base and batch paint them.  Paint the flesh.  Next, get some denim blue paint and paint the pants or jacket on a dozen or so figures.  Then get some green, or red and paint the rest of the clothing.  Then paint the shoes brown, or black, or whatever.  Finally paint the base.  In a crowd of a couple hundred they look great and it does not take long.  I am color coding the bases, most of them are a kind of paving stone reddish brown.  But some are light gray, or dark gray, or even green.  Then I can designate the green ones as being undercover police, or enemy agents, or some other specific group that is not readily apparent.  And by using a lot of base colors, but with over half of the bases the reddish brown, it makes it hard to tell who is who unless you know the color to look for.