Cleaning Airbrushes

[Firepower]

So this is something that annoys the hell out of me.  If you watch tutorials online of channels like BuyPainted and Awesomepaintjob, cleaning an airbrush is a five minute process of rinsing with water, cleaner, water, cleaner, done.  But when I try the same process, it never successfully cleans out all the pigment, or even most of it.  

 

I use an Iwata Neo, and even scrubbing out the pot and chamber with a Q-tip is never enough to get it all.  The Neo turns from the bowl into the chamber at a rather sharp angle, while more expensive models like Badgers seem to transition at a relatively smooth angle.  I don't know if that plays a big part in the Q-tip scrubbing, but it seems like it may be an important difference.

 

I'm tired of having to take the damn thing apart every time I want to switch colors, and at the end of every session.  Anyone got some good tips to ease my stress?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I move pretty quick when I'm airbrushing and if I know I'm going to be doing more than one color, I will immediately dump what's left in the color cup (either spraying the remainder out, or if there's enough, back into the paint pot), fill it back up with water, and open it wide open. If it's not running clear water through it by the time the color cup is empty again, I repeat. It's rare that I have to fill the cup more than once, and I've never had to do it three times.

[Firepower]

Yeah, I can do that 10 times and still get color :(

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Wow. I've got a Badger double action, so that might have something to do with the Iwata itself.

[Metic]

put your finger on the tip of the airbrush and block off the nozzle, spray it like normal and it will blast the air backwards into the hopper and blow out leftover paint. I usually mix my paints this way in the hopper as well as bubble up the cleaner. It does a really good job to clean it. Just be careful if the needle sticks out this won't work.

[Firepower]

I do that too.  No luck :(

[Lucien Eilam]

Are you thinning your paint enough? What brand do you use?

 

Have you tried increasing the pressure when putting the cleaning fluid through it?

[Firepower]

I use GW and Vallejo brands, and yes I thin them enough.  Dry tip is something of an issue, but I also use Regdab lube to keep that to a minimum...mostly.  I think I've tried the higher PSI for cleaning, but i can't recall for sure.   

 

Aside from cleaning out the pot, I'm not sure where exactly the paint is getting 'stuck' in the brush.  Whether it's the needle, needle cap, nozzle cap...not a clue.  It could be all of the above for all I know.  It could just be a problem common to the Neo, or I'm doing something wrong.  I think I'll have to cruise around Google a bit and see if anyone else has this issue with the Neo.  It's a damn fine brush really, but with a $50 price tag, there's bound to be a problem somewhere in there...

 

Edit- After puttering around google for a while, I found one person who seemed to be having similar issues.  Her solution was apparently to mix paints in caps, rather than in the bowl itself.  It makes a bit of sense.  even though I pour in the thinner before the paint, the paint still has time to sit in the chamber a while before I get in there and mix it up.  and even the act of mixing it up may be getting the paint into places it isn't meant to be.  I'll have to give this a try.

 

Edit 2- A lot of people seem to dislike using Vallejo Model Color in their airbrushes, for some reason.  i see tutorials and such using it all the time.  Off the top of my head, I don't think I've ever had any real success flushing the airbrush out without disassembly, even when using GW paints.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The only paints I've had any issue with thinning down and spraying through my air brush are those cheap ass craft paints you can pick up from places like Hobby Lobby in 2 oz bottles for a buck, like Anita's, Americana, Folk Art, etc. I'm slowly working on a conversion for what I guess you could call a garage kit, and I saw someone's article online that suggested these paints were great for a figure that size and gave it a try.

 

Ugh, it was a nightmare. Dry tip? Ha! It went on as smooth as 100 grit sandpaper, then it dried up inside the airbrush in the minute or two that I was inspecting the horrible result. Vallejo anything is a dream in comparison, and I've used Game Colors, Model Colors, and Air Colors with no problems.

[Lucien Eilam]

Edit- After puttering around google for a while, I found one person who seemed to be having similar issues.  Her solution was apparently to mix paints in caps, rather than in the bowl itself.  It makes a bit of sense.  even though I pour in the thinner before the paint, the paint still has time to sit in the chamber a while before I get in there and mix it up.  and even the act of mixing it up may be getting the paint into places it isn't meant to be.  I'll have to give this a try.

 

Whoa, yeah, never mix in the bowl. It makes no difference if you put the thinner in first, the paint isn't going to be meaningfully diluted in the time it takes to fall through <1" of fluid. You're essentially dropping neat paint straight into the mechanism.

 

Get some cheap plastic dropper bottles and mix in those. No waste, and the colour will be ready when you need it again.

[Gurth]

If you watch tutorials online of channels like BuyPainted and Awesomepaintjob, cleaning an airbrush is a five minute process of rinsing with water, cleaner, water, cleaner, done. But when I try the same process, it never successfully cleans out all the pigment, or even most of it.

You’ve discovered my reason for not airbrushing models more than a few times per year, and only once I’ve built up a number that need it

I'm tired of having to take the damn thing apart every time I want to switch colors, and at the end of every session. Anyone got some good tips to ease my stress?

When you switch colours, you don’t need to take the airbrush apart and clean it thoroughly. It’s enough to put plain water or paint thinner in and blow that through the brush until only dirty-ish water/thinner comes out; work the needle back and forth a bit as you do this. I use an Aztek 470,¹ which has detachable paint cups and glass jars, so I put my paint in one and keep a glass jar with water or thinner handy. When I need to switch paints I put the jar on the airbrush to clean it as I described, then clean out the paint cup in the kitchen sink (if necessary) and go back to the airbrush to put the next colour into the cup.

After I’m done spraying, I first put the airbrush into an ultrasonic cleaner that I bought for this exact purpose, and then scrub out the brush in the kitchen sink with an old toothbrush and pipe cleaners. Despite Testors’ claims, though, this requires partly disassembling the nozzles to get the paint out of them.

¹ Purchased over 15 years ago because I got so sick of cleaning the Badger 150 I used until then that my primary consideration when looking for a new one was ease of cleaning, not how fine the thing can spray.

[Lucien Eilam]

When you switch colours, you don’t need to take the airbrush apart and clean it thoroughly. It’s enough to put plain water or paint thinner in and blow that through the brush until only dirty-ish water/thinner comes out

 

I'm pretty sure he knows how it's supposed to work. The entire point of the thread is that that isn't enough when he does it.

[Firepower]

Get some cheap plastic dropper bottles and mix in those. No waste, and the colour will be ready when you need it again.

Trouble here is that the water/flow aid/thinner does evaporate and dry out in the bottle, to some degree. I move the paint from one container to another, but when I need it again it will still have to be thinned again. Lots of trial and error on this one, too.

At any rate, I'm gonna try to get some work done today, and see if mixing the paint in a bottle cap or something first makes a difference in the cleaning.

When you switch colours, you don’t need to take the airbrush apart and clean it thoroughly. It’s enough to put plain water or paint thinner in and blow that through the brush until only dirty-ish water/thinner comes out

I'm pretty sure he knows how it's supposed to work. The entire point of the thread is that that isn't enough when he does it.

Yup. Granted, it's not a huge issue with some colors. Switching from black to a deep gray? Yeah, dirty water is good enough. Switching from black to yellow? In those circumstances, if it doesn't flow clear, it'll show up in the paint. And if it's dirty water and I leave the brush unattended/unused for an hour or so? That's a clog. It befuddles me that people whom do this for a living finish their airbrushing sessions with 'Spritz spritz, spraaaaay, done. I take it apart every week or so. You should be fine doing the same'

There's witch craft at work there

[Gurth]

I'm pretty sure he knows how it's supposed to work. The entire point of the thread is that that isn't enough when he does it.

Are you a psyker? Because the opening post of the thread mentions nothing about what Firepower does when he changes colours in his airbrush, except for him being “tired of having to take the damn thing apart every time [he wants] to switch colors”. Thus, my explanation of a quicker way to change colours than cleaning your whole airbrush every time.

Switching from black to yellow? In those circumstances, if it doesn't flow clear, it'll show up in the paint.

This can often be avoided with planning Granted, the only things I airbrush are camouflage schemes on real-world military vehicles, and there it doesn’t really matter if a bit of olive green remains behind in the brush when you begin spraying the brown, for example.

It befuddles me that people whom do this for a living finish their airbrushing sessions with 'Spritz spritz, spraaaaay, done. I take it apart every week or so. You should be fine doing the same'

There's witch craft at work there

Agreed. I’ve seen people airbrush at model shows, spraying bits and pieces and then hanging up the airbrush for a while, coming back later and spraying something else, and doing this all day long. Hardly ever did they seem to even spray thinner through the airbrush, let alone clean the thing at the end of the day. If I don’t scrub the bloody thing thoroughly every time I’ve used it, it sputters, stutters and clogs continuously next time …

[Firepower]

So, I tried a couple of things a moment ago. Firstly, I changed the cups. the one I've been using has a bit of a ragged seal from lacquer thinner damage. Second, I tried mixing paint before putting it in the cup. This didn't quite work out, because the only disposable receptacle I had laying around are beer caps, and the paint doesn't really pour out of those. But I tried tilting the airbrush to the side so I could mix the thinner and paint before it got down into the chamber.

Overall, it is an improvement. I was only switching between black and gray, but getting the water 90% clear was fairly easy. I still have to do some swabbing with q-tips to get there rather than just running water and cleaner through, but that's not too troublesome. I'll try really putting it to the test sometime soon, switching between black and a bright color, or from colors to white. Purple was an absolute ass pain to clean out when I was doing Helbrecht's power sword, so I think I'll start with that.

I didn't break it down after my session ended, either. The water was still flowing well, so I decided to leave it be and see if I have to break it down before my next session or not.

Here's hoping.

[Dillithium]

I wrote this a few months ago for another fellow, perhaps it can be of service to you.

Another tip to prevent lingering paint and a dirty needle is coating it in white vaseline after every cleaning. It helps, for me.

 

I bought my first airbrush about a month ago, I've been doing a lot of experimenting on Macragge marines and just did my first full model! (drop pod)

Let me share some lessons I learned about Vallejo paints, I've been using vallejo game air and model air.

 

Mix in a seperate bowl. Not in the airbrush. It may just be me, but mixing it in a stainless steel petri dish works wonders for me compared to dumping it in the paint cup.

 

Primer I shoot at 35 PSI, the gray, black and white urethane primers. No thinners, straight in the airbrush. 0.4 Needle size.

 

Thinning Vallejo is honestly not enough, I seriously recommend ''Flow improver''. This is retarder for an airbrush. It seriously prevents tip dry and really improves the way paint hits the model. 

 

Now, every paint from vallejo other than the primer needs to be thinned. How much thinner and flow improver? This varies, but between thinner and flow improver I use about a 2:1 ratio. For 6 drops of thinner, I add 3 drops of flow improver. The problem is that thinning varies between colours. My yellows need a lot less thinning than my dark greens. Metallics need an insane amount of thinner compared to the normal colours. For 10 drops of chainmail silver, I use 10 drops of thinner and 5 flow improver. Well beyond 1:1 thinning. It's really about trying it out. Start conservatively, add more until you reach a milk- like consistency. What is a milk-like consistency? When you move it around, it leaves a slight thin trail of paint where it's been. Almost see through.

 

The most important part is to develop a good feeling for pressure and paint thickness. Is your paint thick? Increase the pressure. Watery? Lower the pressure.

 

Any layer paint I shoot between 20-25 PSI, with a 0.4 needle. If I switch to my 0.2, I even go as low as 10 PSI. Now, the lower your pressure is the more you need to thin your paint. 

 

About your setup:

 

Do you have a moisture trap?

What kind of compressor? With or without Tank?

What kind of airbrush? Needle size?

 

Most importantly with vallejo, are you shaking your paints before using them? I added glass agitators to the bottles, but even with that I need to shake much more than GW paint. Run the bottles between your hands as if you're making fire with a stick, and shake thoroughly up and down. This will help with opacity and paint flow.

 

Feel free to ask more questions, I'm sure I've forgotten something.

 

Happy airbrushing!

 

[Lucien Eilam]

Are you a psyker?

 

No, I just read his post:

 

So this is something that annoys the hell out of me.  If you watch tutorials online of channels like BuyPainted and Awesomepaintjob, cleaning an airbrush is a five minute process of rinsing with water, cleaner, water, cleaner, done.  But when I try the same process, it never successfully cleans out all the pigment, or even most of it.

 

You then told him to do basically exactly that.

[Amayasu]

Firepower - I use the same brush as use (a Neo) and I don't have this issue; generally water and the occasional cleaner is enough. The only time i've have frustrations with cleaning has been when i've not thinned my paints well enough.

 

If it helps i'm using the small cup that comes with the kit.

[Gurth]

You then told him to do basically exactly that.

No, I didn’t. When I say cleaning an airbrush, I mean getting all the paint out so you can store the thing without paint drying in it and clogging it up between now and the next time you use it. What I advised was a quick rinse between changing paint colours, which I don’t consider to be cleaning the airbrush.

[Firepower]

Alright, well, let's not turn this into an argument fellas.

 

Anyway, after some trial and error, I've made some good advances.  Mixing in the side of the cup and letting it flow down afterwards helps a good deal, because there's no undiluted paint getting into those hard to reach spots.  Changing cups may have helped to, considering how worn the seal was on the one I've been using for ages.

 

But I've noticed that it's much harder to get the brush running clear when paint makes it down inside without thinning out, so that may have been the main culprit.

 

So, problem (more or less) solved. :)