-
-
Pleased to read I'm not alone . I was looking at various forums , found quite a lot of people with issues. Even with top of the range products from the H&S and Iawata ranges people having problems with acrylics .
It's no wonder I am hovering to a change of paint type , to something like Tamiya or MRP and AK real .Comment
-
Best thing I did was moving to "lacquer" based paints for airbrushing. I know many get along with water based acrylics fine but it was just so much of a faff for me with the constant tip dry, blockages and cleaning. Mr color & mrp have just worked perfectly for me.
Main problem is they don't brush paint very well.
Might be worth giving Steve Jones a shout about Mr hobby aqueous. I gave him a couple to try and think he really likes them. Might be the best of both worlds.Comment
-
You are absolutely right Andy. MRP while the very best for airbrushing are useless for hand brushing. What I do is have a small selection of basic Vallejo MC paint for hand brushing fine detail and anything that I cannot mask. By a small selection, I do mean small, 22 bottles in all, mostly basic colours and metallics. I have considered getting the MRP water based paint for this as I am sure they are equally good quality. One day I might do so.
Unusually today I found that I needed to hand brush a little olive drab and I only have that as MRP so I had to mix yellow and black Vallejo. Its not often I have to hand brush a colour I would normally spray but I have found it easy to mix a ‘close enough’ shade from my VMC.Comment
-
Andy and Barry , thank you .
I've some AK real colour and a bottle of their thinners , would this work with the MRP or the MR Colour . These are all " lacquer " as far as I can understand .
I'd certainly keep all my Acrylics for brush painting like Barry .
Any ideas ?Comment
-
I'm not certain John as I haven't tried it myself, but my gut would say yes. I've certainly mixed mrp & Mr color together when I hadn't got the right colour for something.
Edit: I've just seen a video on AK's official channel where they test real color with Mr color thinner and it works fine, so my hunch was right.Comment
-
John up till now you've got on fine with your third gen paints ,persevere with the airbrush problem first before knee jerk reactions jumping to a diffrent product. Get some mr hobby tool cleaner give the airbrush a proper soaking and scrub this stuff is the mutts for the price of a bottle mate if it dont work fair enough but changing all your paints come on buddy try and solve it first. Dont get sucked into the acrylic vs lacquer thing there's absolutely nothing to say same won't happen again. DaveComment
-
John im pretty sure you can get your AB totally overhauled at the airbrush company Ltd ,iwata dealers got to be cheaper than changing all your paints AGAIN?!!!
I think airbrush company .com . I've bought hoses and paints from them good company to deal with. DaveComment
-
Thanks guys.
Yes Dave its a normal thing to jump out of the frying pan into the fire , Its just get me down that although I clean and do things right, it always seems to happen. Get to the point where I don't want to spray because it might happen . Never one to give up ! Looked at them last night as well . Thanks .Comment
-
I'm no airbrush expert, but what could possibly go wrong? If the needle and nozzle and seals are OK, then it can only be crud somewhere.
PeteComment
-
Like I said mr hobby tool cleaner take the skin of a crocodileComment
-
Totally agree Pete. An airbrush is basically an air tube and a paint path. The air mixes with the air as a vortex as the air goes past the paint path, and the nozzle on the end controls flow of the subsequent mix. It’s a simple idea, but the finesse of the engineering makes them as flexible and refined as they are.
Let’s try to analyse this…..if you can sort this yourself John you will not only save money, you’ll learn more about how your airbrush works…..and sort it out more quickly next time….
If you cant get air/paint out of the nozzle it must be caused by a blockage in the air/paint mix path. The blockage must be located in the body of the brush after the paint and airflow mix. If the blockage was further back in either path you would either get no air, or no paint. The paint and air paths themselves can therefore be taken as clear and working as expected.
If you are getting air back up the paint path into the paint cup then the blockage has occurred after the paint has been mixed into the airflow, and the air can only escape via the paint path.
The most likely place for the blockage is a very small crud lump in the nozzle, which is the most restricted part of the flow path. 0.2 is pretty small for general work, after all, and is better suited to inks (that have finer pigments) rather than paints. This is shown by your nozzle and needle change getting the brush back to working order.
I would definitely go with Dave’s tool cleaner suggestion. Soak all the air/paint path parts at least overnight and then scrub the large tubes out with the small bottle brushes you can get for the purpose. You can use an old nylon paintbrush to clean through the finer parts.
I would then try flushing through the nozzle with cellulose thinners using a pipette. Fill the pipette, push the pointed end of the nozzle into the pipette, and then expel the cleaning agent slowly backwards through the part using the pipette. Only clean it backwards! You don’t want to drive any blockage further in, especially if it is insoluble…..repeat this several times. Once you get easy flow through then the part is probably clean. Keep the flow slow and controlled. You want the solvent to dissolve away the blockage, not expel it by main force.
Clean the needle by drawing it through a fold of kitchen towel dampened with cleaning fluid. If the needle is dirty you will get a paint line on the paper. Repeat this until the fold stays clean.
Lastly, have a good look through the nozzle against a good light source using a jewellers loupe or such. You should be able to see light through the hole…..if you can’t, it’s probably still blocked. Repeat the processes above until you can see through it.
Lastly, I would rethink using a 0.2 nozzle for anything except really fine streaking or weathering. For the stuff we paint, it’s probably unnecessarily fine.Comment
-
Two comments Tim, if I may. I don't like the brushes that are sold for cleaning airbrushes as the twisted steel wire in the middle is likely to cause damage. I prefer to use interdental brushes, which are relatively soft and cheap as chips. Second, I've used a 0,2 nozzle for various acrylics and lacquers as well as Stynylrez. I have a 0,4 nozzle as well but don't find it any better for 1/72 aircraft.
PeteComment
Comment