Reddit reviews Flitz Multi-Purpose Polish and Cleaner Paste for Metal, Plastic, Fiberglass, Aluminum, Jewelry, Sterling Silver: Great for Headlight Restoration + Rust Remover, Made in the USA

Great find and hell of a steal!

This video [here] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD1yqs-vz2w) also gives some tips on cleaning and restoring a vintage adjustable.

The polish and lubricants suggested are [Flitz Polish] (http://www.amazon.com/Flitz-Plastic-Fiberglass-1-76-Ounce-Blister/dp/B000MUSOW4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464569881&sr=8-1&keywords=flitz+polishing) and [Tuf Glide] (http://www.amazon.com/Sentry-Solutions-TUF-GLIDE-Applicator-2-Ounce/dp/B000Q82HSY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464570060&sr=8-1&keywords=Tuf+glide), respectively. You can also use mineral oil as a lubricant if you already have some.

Best of luck and enjoy your shave!

My 1911 is stainless so I got some Flitz and polished it away.

https://www.amazon.com/Flitz-Plastic-Fiberglass-1-76-Ounce-Blister/dp/B000MUSOW4/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=58614953480&gclid=EAIaIQobChMItOu-78Gh5AIVA4nICh3ynQrmEAAYAiAAEgKC4vD_BwE&hvadid=274745258089&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9012309&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t2&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6937079595917496294&hvtargid=kwd-299269706159&hydadcr=9880_9624927&keywords=flitz+polish&qid=1566856118&s=gateway&sr=8-3

I use a product called Flitz. It's a multipurpose polish that works great on silver, gold, copper, etc. I also use it on my pipe stems, both vulcanite and acrylic as well as bakelite.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000MUSOW4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499893096&sr=8-1&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=flitz

Flitz has worked well for me

https://www.amazon.com/Flitz-BP-03511-Fiberglass-1-76-Ounce/dp/B000MUSOW4/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=flitz+polish&qid=1558389603&s=gateway&sprefix=flitz&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.com/Super-Eraser-Rust/dp/B001DMX6OG

https://www.amazon.com/Flitz-Plastic-Fiberglass-1-76-Ounce-Blister/dp/B000MUSOW4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1497037428&sr=8-3&keywords=flitz

I'd just stipple it. I can tell you what to buy and how to do it including the borders. You'll need the following:

https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-107-Engraving-Cutter-Shank/dp/B00008Z9ZV/ or https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-106-Engraving-Cutter-8-Inch/dp/B00008Z9ZU
https://www.amazon.com/Dremel-120-volt-Variable-Attachment-Accessories/dp/B075174NCV/ (you may have your own dremel, but definitely get a flex shaft for it)
https://www.amazon.com/HTS-401B3-Multi-Grit-Diamond-Medium/dp/B00U0E0KRE
https://www.amazon.com/AUSTOR-Grinding-Polishing-Accessories-Attachment/dp/B078Y5XGM8 (careful with these, light touch and keep it moving)
https://www.amazon.com/Flitz-Multi-Purpose-Fiberglass-Aluminum-Sterling/dp/B000MUSOW4

First use your engraving cutter to cut the borders that you've drawn on with a water-removable Stabilo marking pencil. Try to cut as smoothly as possible, with a steady hand. Don't try to cut it all at once, be patient (be patient for all of this, it took me a whole week doing a little at a time to complete the whole process, and turning my dremel off periodically because I have an older model flex shaft that gets hot after some use - solved this by wrapping the grip with bicycle inner tube)
The smoother you cut it the easier the rest will be. Some people just use the engraving cutter for borders, but I followed someone's guide and then used the diamond burs to smooth it out and polish it. Go from the lowest grit to the highest. You can either use the ball bits that are the same size as your cutter, or use the rounded cylinder bits. You can angle the cylinder bits in certain ways to get around curved surfaces, you'll kind of have to experiment with that. Once you get to the highest grit, I found that the only way to get it near-glass smooth was to apply a lot of pressure. It doesn't remove much material and you kind of want it to heat up the plastic to get it smooth. Then, still not satisfied with this, I got those felt wheels and cut the very tip off the smallest one, and used a bit of flitz paste, and then went over all the borders. That got it close enough for me. You can get more advice from the Weapons Stippling group on Facebook.


After you do the borders, I use the round tip on the walnut hollow wood burner on a medium heat setting. You don't want it too hot, not with the P80 plastic anyway. My technique was to press in, not too much but just enough, and drag downwards. A random totally pattern is best, I did a somewhat orderly snake pattern and then went over it again and smeared it out to give it a more organic texture. Then I went over it one more time, lightly and fastly rubbing all along the surface to blend the ridges that were created into the rest of the texture. You can do this several times to get it just right. The result is a texture that is grippy, yet not rough. That's how I like it, but you can experiment. The key is not to heat it up too much and don't stick any of the tips in too deep, and don't try to do it perfectly ordered unless you've gotten good at that with practice and are using an appropriate tip. You can make your own tips out of #8-32 brass screws or buy blanks from OT Defense, or some other place.

For the case, the Glorious GMMK comes with a black anodized aluminum case, so all I did was de-anodize it using oven cleaner (there's a bunch of tutorials on youtube), sanded it down a bit, and hand polished the aluminum using Flitz polish. It does take some elbow grease, but it's pretty worth imo.

As for the dampening foam, I used some 1/8 thick neoprene I ordered from Amazon and basically cut it to keyboard size and placed it in between the bottom case and the PCB. It made a huge difference; No more high-end pitching and now it's much more of a deeper, clackyness.

The most important things are a tank and the ability to fill the tank to a PSI above a minimum of 80 or so. A tank makes it so the compressor doesn't have to run constantly, and creates a buffer so the air pulses of the compressor aren't transmitted to the brush where they can cause dotted rather than smooth lines. You want the compressor to be able to put out a higher PSI because you want the tank to hold enough so you can spray for longer at pressures of 60 PSI or below for longer intervals before the compressor has to refill the tank.

For model painting, most of your spraying will be best done at 20-30 PSI. Higher PSIs like 60 tend to be either for cleaning, or stuff like textile paints (i.e. T-shirt artists). The little "fishtank" compressors like the Ninja Jet can only deliver a max PSI of around 15 or so, which is on the very bottom edge of what most brushes can work with. PSIs of 15 and below are mainly used for tiny close-in detail work with highly thinned paint, and going that low works better with brushes that are designed specifically for detail, rather than "jack of all trades" workhorses.

Different brushes require different CFM (cubic feet per minute- a measurement of air volume rather than pressure), and little "fishtank" compressors are bare minimum here as well, so there will be many brushes where they'll make the brush spray poorly because they physically can't provide enough air to keep up at any pressure. A good target CFM rating for a tankless compressor is 1.5.

A tanked compressor can technically get away with less CFM, since it's not supplying the brush directly, but unless you want to have to stop painting whenever the compressor has to top up the tank, you want the compressor to have enough CFM to supply the brush WHILE also filling the tank, which means check your brush manual/documentation for its CFM, and look for a compressor that is specced over that by at least 1/2. The higher the CFM, the faster the tank will fill. Unfortunately I could not find specs for the Patriot that list CFM, but 1.5 is probably still a good start for a tanked compressor.

"Master" and other such Chinese import brand compressors are popular because people think they're cheap, but for very little extra a brand like California Air Tools will get you better QC, support, reliability, and specs. Chinese airbrushes are comparatively cheap, but the compressors aren't really, so there's not much reason to get the Chinese ones IMO.

Avoid regular hardware-style compressors unless you're painting in a very noise-tolerant environment, as even the "quiet" ones are LOUD AF. Seriously: when the descriptions/reviews say "super quiet" they mean by construction site standards, not household appliance standards.

As to fittings: if you live in a particularly dry climate (like Arizona, say), you can get away with not using a moisture trap, but even there it's good practice to have one just in case. If your climate is any more variable or humid than that, you will want a moisture trap. You can just get one from the local hardware store though: it doesn't have to be a special type. Always place the trap last in the air supply/fitting chain before the airbrush hose, so: compressor-> tank-> regulator-> moisture trap-> airbrush hose-> airbrush. Or if using a bench block as described below: compressor-> tank-> regulator-> connecting hose-> bench block regulator-> moisture trap-> airbrush hose-> airbrush.

In the US, compressors usually have 1/4 NPT fittings. In Metric countries, 1/4 BSP. These fittings are cross-compatible enough that you can use them together with teflon tape.

For hobby and fine art airbrushing, I HIGHLY recommend a lightweight hose like this over braided hoses. Braided hoses are for industrial-type settings like auto painting shops, where hoses need to be extra hard wearing.

BTW, when painting, loop the hose once around your forearm so if you accidentally drop the brush, the hose acts as a lanyard preventing the brush from hitting the floor. I feel like I'm constantly hearing horror stories about people damaging their brush by dropping it when preventing this is so easy.

A tanked compressor with come with a regulator. These are perfectly usable, but imprecise. It's not strictly necessary, but I do highly recommend using the built-in regulator as a step-down regulator, and getting a 0-30 or 0-60 PSI regulator to chain after it. I use one of these on my setup, and it makes adjusting airflow much better.

If you plan on locating your compressor directly on or under your "workbench" surface, that's all you need. If the compressor is going to be outside immediate/easy reach, it can be good to mount your regulator and moisture trap on a separate "bench block" so you can put it on/under your bench within easy reach. This is what I had to do with my setup (I mounted the regulator and moisture trap on a scavenged heavy steel bookend). In that case, you'll want/need a hose like this to go between the compressor and the regulator/filter block.

There are "extras" you can get like a quick-connectors and MAC valves, but I don't personally recommend them. If you're only using the compressor for your airbrush, you don't need quick connectors on the compressor side of the hose, and IMO quick connectors on the brush side don't actually save you time/energy as it only takes 2 seconds to unscrew a brush from the hose. If your regulator is in easy reach, a MAC valve similarly does not save you any time/effort. Both of these also add lots of bulk to the brush stem, which is undesirable if your instinct is to hold/use the brush like a pen instead of a gun. There are mini-filters that go between the hose and the brush, but I generally don't recommend them for the same reason: too much added bulk on the brush stem: it's better to to add to your main filters if you need better filter performance.

I don't have a Badger Patriot, but my understanding is that it's a good brush. I have two Badger SOTAR models, and if they're any indicator, I'd expect spray performance to be comparable to IWATA, but fit & finish to be more raw and "industrial" outside of the nozzle and needle, so a little fussier to keep clean. It should be much better and more reliable than a 20$ "Master" or "Point Zero" or whatnot.

The threads in the head assembly can be a little "gritty" on Badger brushes OOB. If that's the case, I recommend lapping them with something like Flitz to ensure a good seal. Basically just put a tiny dab of compound on the male threads, then screw them in and out about 20 times to polish off the burrs that are causing the gritty/sticky feeling. Make sure to clean the residue off thoroughly before spraying again.

For maintenance, get a roll of lint-free shop paper towels, a couple packs of interdental brushes from the local dollar store, a box of q-tips, and a box of round wood toothpicks. Use paper towels and q-tips wetted with solvent/thinner to clean the cup and needle, the interdental brushes to clean the passageways/tubes in the body, and use a wood toothpick whittled to a needle taper and soaked in thinner to clean the inside of the nozzle (don't use metal tools to clean the nozzle, as they might scratch it or flare the tip). Occasionally you'll need to inspect the needle tip or nozzle for gunk or damage, so you'll want a high-X pocket magnifier similar to this. Also a stick of wax-based lip balm to help the threads in the head assembly maintain a good air seal (apply a tiny amount to the male threads before reassembly after cleaning).

Get or make a spray-out pot. They're easy to DIY out of a margarine tub or soda/juice bottle, so although nice, it's not strictly necessary to buy one.

Get or make an airbrush stand/holder. This is not for storing the brush, but rather for having a way to set the brush down while in-in use without spilling the paint cup. Again: these are easy to DIY, so you don't have to splash cash on one unless you really feel like it.

Hope that helps!

Build list:

Zev Dragonfly Slide

Trijicon RMR 06 Type 2

Zev Glock 19 Dimpled Bronze Match Barrel

AmeriGlo GL-429 Suppressor Sights

TTI Spring Kit

SSVi Tyr Trigger

Glock OEM Minus Connector

​

Tools used:

Wood Burner

Dremel Micro Max 8050

Dremel Bit 108 Engraving Cutter

Dremel Polishing Kit

Sand Paper Assortment

Flitz Polish

Like this? Flitz BP 03511 Metal, Plastic and Fiberglass Polish Paste in 1.76-Ounce Blister Tube https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MUSOW4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_oLq4BbFGNB06Q

Definitely do not recommend sanding. I can, however, recommend using Flitz polishing compound.

$9 on Amazon with Prime, and it really helps keep my Pebble face perfect.