Equipment/Overspray questions

About to purchase my first airbrush, but I need a couple of questions answered first. Planning on painting some radio control car bodies/boat hulls, and later on possibly some t-shirts and I'd like to custom paint some graphics on my own Harley if I ever get one down the road. The t-shirts would be a ways off and the Harley will probably be a couple of years if not many more.

I plan to start by practicing the video tutorials to get an idea of what I am getting myself into, and gradually move on to practicing designs on whatever medium is the most practical/easiest to get some idea of how different techniques work. And eventually try it out on some rc car bodies and possibly some boat hulls.

My questions are:

1. How much overspray am I going to encounter doing the tutorials and rc cars? I live in a rented house, is this something I can do in the spare bedroom or should I plan on doing it in the garage? I'm hoping this is something I can do in the bedroom as the garage gets a little hot in the summer in Las Vegas. I could throw together a fan/filter setup for the spare bedroom if needed, but would prefer not to as I don't know how practical it would be due to room size, location, etc.

2. I have a Craftsman compressor with a 2 gallon tank, how long will this tank of air last? Is it going to be kicking the compressor on every 15 minutes or more like every couple of hours at say 30 psi and fairly steady painting?

3. Looking at purchasing an Iwata Eclipse BCS or a Revolution BCR. As far as the little details, I don't know how different they are. Drop-In Self Centering Nozzle vs Screw-In Nozzle, replacable teflon needle packing, will this make any difference at this point or not? Am I on the right track in picking one of these brushes? Any pros, cons, recommendations, tips, advice or rants about either of these choices.

Thanks in advance for any advice, tried searching for most of these answers but couldn't find quite what I was looking for.

Erik

[don johnson]

hi welcome to airbrush technique
garage might work out better
bcs is a great brush to start out with
compressor will run every 15 minutes or less at 30 psi my best guess

have fun post some pic's of your work when you get going

Oops, double checked the compressor tonight and it is a 7 gallon tank. So hopefully it won't be kicking on every 20 minutes.

[fontgeek]

As Don said, I'd do your painting in the garage, at least to start with, that would let you find out what kind of overspray, noise, etc., you will be dealing with, and help you avoid the expensive disaster potential.

How often will your compressor kick on? That depends on the pressure you need to spray your chosen paint, the overspray amount will depend on the pressure and volume your brush and paint require, and your spraying habits.

[Sabreghost]

overspray definately a problem, i do it in my spare room, and there's paint on the walls... we got paint a few years ago called duck yellow... more like irridescent in your face glare like a bastard yellow. so i don't care bout the overspray, lol. i'd be more inclined to paint tshirts before radio controls and boats, you can be less exact with the t, it soaks the paint up more, on a hard surface you have to be a lot more precise. and the eclipse bcs is a pretty good alrounder for reasonable detail and t's.