airbrushing problems

[punkuup5150]

ok so yesterday i was really bored after doing the family thing and had a couple hours of free time to practice my airbrushing. so i got out my cheepo paints some scrap lexan and some papertowels and old shirts to start working on some lines and air/paint control. so i have haveing a hard as hell time with getting the paint to flow correctly. i would push in the air and add paint the paint would come out for a sec then stop but the air would stay the same. the thing thats bothering me is my finger didnt move from the paint feed and if i add just a little bit of paint it will start coming again but will be to much paint so i cant so small lines and dots. wha could be the problem? im useing an iwata eclipse hp-bcs bottle fed. looks liek this here- http://image.misterart.com/grouppix/...1000/g1659.jpg could it be the problem of a bottle fed brush that is causeing this problem? i mean if im doing nomal spraying and not detail it works fantastic smooth even coverage and very contant paint coloring. im just tryignto better my airbrushing and start on more freehand painting and detailing instead of useing all the tape i am now. like to mention i tried running the air psi anywhere from 25-55 psi tried thick-thin paint and still couldnt get the results to change so i wanted to see if i was doing something wrong or if my airbrush just wont cut it anylonger for what im trying to do. maybe have to upgrade to a brush with a top cup instead and besides cleanup with the bottle is murder.

[dirtyal]

Dirty brush? Bent needle? Air leak? Thats all I can think of. You should be able to detail with a siphon feed brush just as good as gravity feed.

[robbio4422]

almost sounds like a dirty brush... cheapo paints might be clogging up and not allowing a smoother flow.

pull ur needle out and clean it real good. pull ur tips off and look for some chunkyness.

also, those siphon feed brushes need alot of piant. try adding more paint

[team3six]

well, learning is half the battle. I can give you advice but I strongly advise you to take lesson from the CFX site. We aim to help the average guy getting into painting and take the lessons. If you follow those guidelines it will help.
I also have a link on my website that has a tutorial that will help you.
I have provided both links below.
If you need help dont hesitate to contact me if it will help better to call me, just P.M. me and Ill shoot ya a phone number.
always willing to help out someone wanting to learn to paint.
BTW, syphon airbrushes are fine but it is more of a challenge, I prefer as well as others to go the method of using a gravity feed brush as its direct air pressure pushing paint rather than sucking the paint to blow.
http://www.cfxpaintworks.com/modules...iewtopic&t=579
http://www.team3sixrc.com/rcairbushing101.htm

also this is a link to caring for your airbrush. this helps as well.
http://www.team3sixrc.com/rcairbrushcleaning.htm

[punkuup5150]

well ok its not liek cheepo paint lol its still fascolor but one of our members were sellign it for 2 bucks a bottle so i bought a bunch to fool around with. i clean my brush everytime i am done and ive tried replaceing the needle. the airbrush is about 6 months old and ive painted about 10 boddies with it but never tried to do the small detail work and wanted to work on finger control but the large amount of paint i did actually try i ended up mixing a few colors and ended up with a bunch of xtra bits in diffeerent mixing cups mixed em together thinned it strained it before adding to the bottle and still the same results.

[dirtyal]

What are you reducing your color with? I use Windex for Faskolor.

[punkuup5150]

Originally Posted by team3six

well, learning is half the battle. I can give you advice but I strongly advise you to take lesson from the CFX site. We aim to help the average guy getting into painting and take the lessons. If you follow those guidelines it will help.
I also have a link on my website that has a tutorial that will help you.
I have provided both links below.
If you need help dont hesitate to contact me if it will help better to call me, just P.M. me and Ill shoot ya a phone number.
always willing to help out someone wanting to learn to paint.
BTW, syphon airbrushes are fine but it is more of a challenge, I prefer as well as others to go the method of using a gravity feed brush as its direct air pressure pushing paint rather than sucking the paint to blow.
http://www.cfxpaintworks.com/modules...iewtopic&t=579
http://www.team3sixrc.com/rcairbushing101.htm

also this is a link to caring for your airbrush. this helps as well.
http://www.team3sixrc.com/rcairbrushcleaning.htm

thx i was actually useing some of the lessons from when working on sunday lol. and when i was havign a problem i turned right to your site but did not find an answer lol. i clean my bush as you describe so the only thing i could think of is my fingers are moving and i dont know it or i have somethign setup wrong and im lost lol so i figured id ask on here but ill check out the cfx site a bit more and see if i can findsomething to give me an idea of what i may or maynot be doing right i love to draw and also paint 1:1's in my spare time and like maskign and painting the crawler boddies but wanted to start stenciling and adding details to make my bodys a bit more apealing and give them a bit more chacter. i guess ill be reading and practiceing some more tonight and see what i come up with

[punkuup5150]

Originally Posted by dirtyal

What are you reducing your color with? I use Windex for Faskolor.

windex

[team3six]

See, I dont reduce my paints at all. Never had a reason to. I have in the past done it but after awhile of understanding ways to achieve color mixes and detail you learn effects that you can do without the need to reduce.

I am not saying anything against buying paint from anyone. and in no way is this pointing fingers.

many years ago I purchased some paint the same way. turns out that the person I purchased it from on ebay was selling faskolor paint and the bottle was mixed with water in some bottles which was too thin and other bottles was mixed with laquer based paints which obviously cause glopping and is garbage now either way.

Another issue is that it may very well be the tip has a small amount of paint dried up in the tip. You may think your getting good paint pressure and your gun is clean, but 9 out of 10 times its some paint dried up in the tip.
Please follow my airbrush care tips as this should fix the issue. You might of passed up the link in the thread of the detailed parts of the gun or the area where you remove the tip.
I highly advise you read it all word for word. I explain EVERYTHING!
Including the part about using windex or rubbing alchol.

to explain in short.
windex blue has alchol in it, which isnt used for the purpose of reducing nessesarily. Its primary use is to allow the paint to dry faster.
This also causes dry tip, which doesnt help if you want to keep painting.
elevations and humidity has alot to do with what you paint and how it goes on.
if you live in a dry state, this is the exact reason to not reduce.
if you live in a high elevation, your going to need higher P.S.I. to spray your paint.

[punkuup5150]

yea i actually did read the part about the tip lol i went out and bout some pipe cleaners just so i can clean out the tip area. the brush im useing is a bit different and the nozzel will come off if the front caps are removed so i didnt have to unscrew it lol. one of the colors i received was all dried up and a couple did seem a little off thats why i was straining and also only useing to practice with

[dub599]

sounds like your paint is too thick, your using too much air pressure and it is drying at the tip, or the windex is making is dry on the tip. the paint being too thick will make you raise the air pressure to get it to spray properly and the excess air prsuure causes it to dry sup quick. sometimes this happens to me and i start getting little paint splatters. i used to use a iwata compressor and it only put out 40psi constantly. now i started using an adjustable 3 gallon and my pressure it down around 20-28 psi depending on what im painting.
i always use faskolor paint and i just use water to reduce the paint. i dont like altering dry times so when im painting i keep a small bottle cap of water and an eye dropper and just add about 5 drops at a time, shake it around and see how it sprays.

[punkuup5150]

your useing water to thin a water based paint?

[team3six]

Theres nothing wrong with that!

[extreme]

fantastik has been a proven method to reduce faskolor.. its a house hold cleaner availible at yoru local supply store.... i forget wear but i saw someone break down the chemical makeup and isopropyl alchohal or a cousin of it was used as the main ingredient.

when i used windex and faskolor i could get it to spray nice and thin but the coverage was horrible and id end up getting fish eyes.

me personally i gave up on water based all together till they get there crap together and use hok... i like the ability to reduce a "pure" color with a variety of diffrent drytime reducers but the cost and adhesion issues are a pain in the butt! haha

[team3six]

extreme, that will suck for you then! HOK no longer makes RC airbrush paints anymore. they got out of it because there is no money in it.

I never have any problems with fisheyes. and i have been using faskolor for years. Nothing wrong with HOK paints, but you can buy everything my hobby shop has left over.

[roksloski]

Team3six,
whats a good starting point psi setting for fastcolor????

parma's web site says start at 50psi....

thanx

[extreme]

WTF? lol no i ment real urethane hok... the good stuff! if they stopped making that i think i would just throw the airbrushes in the fire! the "hobby" brand never allowed you to pick your reducer add in or use adhesion promoters or use special marblerereeresss

the walmart stuff i never had a chance to try but if its anythign like the other valspar buy out rip offs like the pre mixed stuff, then it wasnt even worth it to try!

i love spraying urethanes, nearly like a laquer smooth spraying on, intense vibrant colors, fast clean up and you can even reactivate dryed out paint with reducer and some mixing ( i brought back some sky blue that sat out for a year with a crack in the lid!

the only problem is you need a resperater and proper ventalation or some nice neighbors that will put up with a little bit of a stink!

funny thing the urethanes i can spray fine and havnt had too many health problems spraying with out a resperator ( dont do that kids!!)

how ever if i reduce faskolor with windex my eyes will burn and i find it to be an upleasent odor.. i belive im sensative to the ammonia they put in it... at work we do saftey valves that flow ammonia for cooling units in powerplants and large brewerys and i have trouble getting wiffs of it and nearly pass out its so bad!! i believe the effect is similar to smelling salt

also i noticed very large fish eyes similar to groupled pooling when spraying over reduced faskolor over large areas... looked cool if that was the effect i was goin for! LOL

i just have way way to many problems with the faskolor and have long ago made the switch to the "pro" stuff

its worth it if you love your artwork!!

[spyderwebbcustoms]

i've been using autocolor for years. Its been the easiest to use for me on lexan bodies, the bad thing is to relearn how to paint last to first

[dub599]

Originally Posted by punkuup5150

your useing water to thin a water based paint?

yea i always use water to reduce it. normal auto paint you use paint thinner to thin the paint down. on water based paint the paint color is thinned down by adding water. just throw the cap to your airbrush on, cover the little breather hole and hake it around for a couple. you can have the problem extreme talked about with the water causing fisheyes but thats from it not being shaken enough. the water groups up and literally causes the water droplet effect throughout the paintjob or causes it to spit water blotches in the middle of painting. so be sure to shake it around to get it spread out. this is why i use the eyedropper to just add a couple drops at a time.
and extreme they make adhesion promotor for the "hobby" grade paints. ateast they sell some in a mini aerosol can at my LHS. ive never used the stuff. another small trick, since i use a micro fiber cloth to dry off my bodies after washing them it creates a small amount of static electricity that can make paint not stick where you want it to but make the over spray stick very easily, so you just lightly brush the inside of the body with a used fabric softener sheet and it gets rid of the stic electricity. just make sure its been through the wash, some of the sheets tend to have a light film on them that can transfer to the body but ive never had a problem with one thats been through the wash.

[team3six]

I spray my faskolor at 40 to 42 P.S.I. that was living at 700 ft and now living at 5200 feet above sea level and never had an issue, But thats me! I would statrt at 50 P.S.I. and practice on half of a 2 litter bottle. its the best thing to replicating a shell without the cost of a shell getting screwed up. good thing is that if you do it with in a day and it turns out like crap, you can wash faskolor right off the shell with a good half hour soak in hot water and soap. the lexan may have a small dye to it, but if you replicate the same colors youll be fine!

Originally Posted by roksloski

Team3six,
whats a good starting point psi setting for fastcolor????

parma's web site says start at 50psi....

thanx