airbrushing/finishing question

[guitarmonky55]

ok so as a birthday present my grandfather gave me his old paasche airbrush, its a really nice one and its made to work with everything from lacquers to watercolors and such. as im an above average artist i figured i would delve deeply into learning how to use it, and i would like to use this to make some cool artwork on guitars that i build as well. so i have a few questions(ive never finished a guitar before)

i know nitrocellulose is the finish i will be using. if i were to try to make some kind of artwork on the guitar, would i use nitrocellulose lacquer with pigments in it for the design?

also, since its intricate art, and i can only do one coat basically, would i do a few coats of whatever my base color is and then the artwork and then the clear lacquer overtop?

i see on stewmac that there are bottles of concentrated pigment and stain. the pigment is use for solid color and the stain for transparent color, and each are used by mixing them with the nitrocellulose lacquer...am i right?

[butnut]

I have yet to use watebased paints, but AutoAir is the BIG thing now with a lot of airbrush artists...my friend uses only that and he is wicked good. Non toxic is a plus but they have insane colors and since you have'nt really started, you'll be fine with a new product. Nitro is so old school, it's yellows, cracks...it's a relic's dream but for custom art, go with this and use a poly clear (catalyzed) for max gloss and depth. Good luck.

http://www.airheadairbrush.com/createx_auto_air.htm

[LGM Guitars]

Meh, the autoair is fine for large airbrush work but most airbrush guys are agreeing that even though the newest formula is better it still sucks for detail work. If you want really really "dive deeply into airbrushing" as you say, then start looking at HOK urethanes or any other automotive urethane. Not the cheap minwax urethane or other DIY'er stuff. Also, I think you'll find that if you do get serious about it, you'll outgrow the paasche very quickly. I had many models of the paasche from the H, VL, right up through the A/B turbine. None of them can touch the new generation Iwata's, Richpens, etc. That's not to say they're bad, you'll just outgrow it pretty quickly, but they are still bulletproof airbrushes for learning and they're good for large bursts and stuff like that.

[butnut]

meh...OK.