I know Americolor has airbrush colors but Could gel colors be used with airbrush machine? If so do you dilute them with vodka?.. water??

Yes, water or vodka will work fine.

How about paste colors? like wilton paste colors, could I dilute them with vokda too? will they clog the airbrush?

I think you can dilute anything to work as long as there are no lumps in it and you clean the airbrush well after use.

thanks Ladies

I have an unrelated question....I recently got an airbrush and it goes through the color I put in in a few strokes. It does not matter whether I have the color mixing on minimum or if I pull the lever up for maximum color. I am a total idiot when it comes to airbrushes, so I desperately need an advice. What needle size do you use for your airbrushing? My whole kitchen was covered in airbrush color, I went through 1/2 small bottle of airbrush color and I barely covered an 11x15 carved....What am I doing wrong?

You will go through airbrush color fairly fast - the good news is that it's cheap. Overspray is also a fact of life. We do our airbrushing in the back of our shop to minimize it, others have build cardboard enclosures. Only one needle came with my airbrush and that's the one I use. I wasn't aware that there were even other sizes...

Sounds like you aren't doing anything incorrectly, just learning the ins and outs

I've solved the airbrush everywhere problem. I got one of those paint masks, the sell them pretty cheap in multipacks that solved the blow your nose and it's *insert colors you were painting with that day* problem. I got 3 cheap shower curtain liners and I hung it up in the corner. The other 2 I duct taped together Down one side, and I have them rigged up where I can pull them across this string and close off my area. When it's down I only have 4 hooks in my ceiling lol... But it beats it getting all over my cake studio. It was so bad we took the kids to the dr for a check up and the dr looked perplexed when he checked their noses out... He said it looked almost like a rainbow up there! I could only imagine my lungs looked the same as they were only exposed when they came thru the kitchen lol

Anyways thanks to the poster for asking that question... I was wondering the same thing! Hubby bought me a couple of sets of airbrush colors from amazon (americolor) when he bought my set and I'm just now running out....

Unfortunately, my kitchen is too small for any of the makeshift "booths". I just makes no sense to me that, in order, to cover one, not even big cake, I have to use halft of the small bottle of Americolor. Three 10 sec. sprays and the cup is empty, and I don't even pull the gun button back for full air/color spray mixture...just down for minimum spray...

Im not so sure that something is not wrong with your airbrush or the needle or something. I airbrush cookies and am able to paint fairly fine lines on them etc. I have never had any airbrush color spewing backwards in a way that it would require a mask or get on my nose or face. I would look into it a bit further if I were you. Good Luck !

Ok.... what make and model of airbrush and compressor do you have?
That will help fine-tune the response.

Also, what color were you airbrushing?
What was the volume of the bottle?

If you're trying to turn white fondant a solid dark red, for example, you'll go through a lot more color.

Pearls and sheens are not as opaque as regular colors - so you'll use a LOT less color if you airbrush a non-shimmer "base" coat and THEN airbrush a pearl over top.

In general...
1) Is the airbrush spraying color when you are NOT pulling back on the trigger for paint? If so, the needle is not properly seated. This could be due to the needle not being pushed forward far enough (be careful, too far forward and you can damage the fluid nozzle), a clog along the fluid nozzle wall preventing the needle from seating properly, or poor tolerances between needle and fluid nozzle.

2) Overspray is a fact of life with airbrush, but there are things that can be done to minimize the consequences.
a) Air ventilation is a MUST. But, if you don't have a filter system, you can end up doing nothing more than moving the aerated particles around the room till they settle on every available surface.
b) Lower your air pressure. Don't use more psi than is required to properly atomize the color. Too high a pressure and you'll be literally bouncing the color off of the surface you are trying to paint. (If you have a small starter kit compressor that's the size of your hand, the psi is already low enough.)
c) Direct your spray. Most times we spray perpendicular to a surface. However, this means the overspray pattern is going out in all directions evenly. By angeling your spray, you can direct the overspray to land more toward the surface to be painted.
d) Be mindful of painting past the object to be sprayed - you'll not be painting anything but air...

3) How fine a line you can airbrush is a dance between the style of the airbrush, the size of the needle/nozzle, the air pressure and the viscosity of the color being sprayed. Controlled fine lines come with experience. They are hard to do right out of the box.

Hopefully I didn't miss anything.... hope this helps.

Lisa, thank you for your in-depth explanation.

It was a dark color, in fact, navy blue, that I was trying to airbrush onto the white fondant
The bottle is the smallest Americolor airbrush bottle (.75 oz I think)

Now, as far as the airbrush go...it is a Master airbrush with AirBrush-Depot TC-20T compressor and I cannot regulate the air pressure, so it is entirely possible that the whole set is totally wrong for cake airbrushing...OMG, I am such an idiot - there is an air regulating valve, right above the gauge...I've never seen it before and the whole thing came without instructions - So is it trial and error on the psi or is there a ballpark when it should work the best with Americolor? The airbrush came with 3 needles and nozzles - 0.3; 0.5; 0.8 I have the smallest in, but I did try the others with the same kind of luck...

Obviously, I am totally lost here, all of your answers help, thank you so much!

Glad to help.... that set up is totally fine for culinary work.
In fact, the tank will mean that the compressor will be running far less.

YES - you're probably at waaaay to high a psi.
And navy blue with about .3 oz sounds about right. You're laying on a lot of color to get that opacity - so be careful of piling on too much liquid too fast. 3 light coats is muuuuuch better than 1 heavy one.

Most gauges on these compressors have marking far higher than the compressor's working pressure.
For airbrushing on fondant and buttercream, a good rule of thumb is the "skin dimple" test. If the psi is so high it blows a skin dimple on the inside of your arm at about 6-8" distance, turn the pressure down. You want to be at a working pressure of 15-20 psi.... maybe lower depending on the project.

A great gadget to add to your system would be an in-line micro valve. This connects to the bottom of your airbrush and allows for micro-control of psi at your palm rather than going back to the compressor all the time. A couple of the major airbrush manufacturers make these accessories.

If your airbrush has a screw knob coming off of the bottom of the airbrush color cup, you can also micro-adjust the psi from there.

Edit: .3 tip size is good for learning.... and is a solid choice for average culinary use.

I still cannot believe I did not see a big a** red knob with a + and - symbols staring at me....all I can say is "wow"! Way to go ME!

Thank you so much for your help!!! I will try again, now that I am not completely clueless (at least on the theory of it). Should I buy another size needle later on? I am probably not going to try fine work any time yet, just covering the whole tier in a solid color.

There is no knob on the bottom of the color cup. I will check for an in-line micro valve. I assume they are all standard...as far as size, so it should fit? Gosh, I am coming up with more and more questions....I love the effects airbrushing can produce, so I'm determined to get it "down", but it really is an art...and it will take quite some time, it seems. Thanks again for helping the clueless

We all start somewhere... just know that for many of us, airbrushing is addictive

If you are using a .3mm tip, you'll be able to spray regular color and pearls just fine. .5mm would be advised for colored cocoa butter and DIY pearl/alcohol mixes with uncertain flake size (I to NOT recommend those learning airbrush to go the DIY route with home made airbrush colors till they get the hang of it.)

It's advisable to have a spare needle on hand.

You cannot mix-n-mach needle/nozzle sizes or even manufacturers. The pieces are custom fitted to each other.

EDIT: Do you have any more inof on the name/model of the airbrush? Master has a big range. Is the color cup on the top? Or a bottle on the bottom?

I thought I've put the model number in my previous message, sorry! It is G33 Master Airbrush.