airbrush is driving me nuts!

[Elmo]

The last few bodies i have painted with my Paasche airbrush have been a nightmare. The thing will not hold a setting, one second it flows paint and the next it wont, i am constantly having the fiddle with it. It took me five hours today to paint a sedan body with two coats of candy (thin coats) and i gave up and backed it with spray paint. When i first got the brush it worked great, but lately it is not working like it should. I clean it every time i use it and even disassemble it when not in use. What is the best cleaner to use ( i use faskolor paints)? The water doesn't seem to be doing the job, nor is denatured alcohol. Any ideas what the problem might be?

[Hulksta]

Mine was doing the same from new.. i just put it down to not knowing WTF i was doing so packed it away

[j-bird]

I had the same issue with Parma paints then I bought spaz stix and I haven't had a single problem... I think it's the paint not being consistent the spaz stix is already mixed and ready to use with a airbrush.. But yeah they can be a pain in the rear sometimes also if the paint is cold it'll act different so I keep the paint in my house until I'm ready to use it


J-bird

[Hulksta]

Interesting... i was using parma paints, might need to revisit it in the new year

[Elmo]

I pre heat my paint with a heater before use so that it is not cold, and i have a crap load of parma paints so i don't want to have to throw them away. Would thinning the paint help? I am afraid to do that in case it doesn't stick or runs once on the body. Thanks for the help

[Airo]

With Faskolor you need to pay attention to what kind of paint your using. For example: the flat colors are thicker then the fluors. Personally, I thin the paint just a little with water and heat it up by placing the bottle in mild warm water. I use a badger 155 anthem with a medium needle and use about 1.7 bar of air pressure (i'm from Europe so don't know how much psi that is).

Parma also sells a thinner for their faskolor range. I don't have experience with that though.

[crawlhog]

i also thin all my paint, ii was having the same "flo problems" ands its helped alot. just be carefull how much you thin it.

[shooter125]

i reduce all my paints when i airbrush. like mentioned just be careful as to how much! pay attention to air pressures, i like my air pressure a little higher on an airbrush like 15-19 psi depending on how reduced it is. when it comes to clean up, i use lacquer thinner and then acetone to get rid of anything left behind

[Elmo]

I will start thinning my paint when i paint my next two bodies, both sc so they are going to take a ton of paint. Thanks for the help, hopefully this solves the paint flow problem. If not, I'm going to try and convince the wife to buy an Iwata in the near future

[team3six]

Im not just a guy trying to sell scale products. I know stuff too.
I used to be a painter.
read my airbrushing 101
* RC Airbushing 101 - team3sixRC

[Elmo]

Originally Posted by team3six

I'm not just a guy trying to sell scale products. I know stuff too.
I used to be a painter.
read my airbrushing 101
* RC Airbushing 101 - team3sixRC

I've seen some of your work before and love it That tutorial was really helpful as it showed me some of the mistakes i had been making with liquid mask. I hope to get to paint these two shells by Monday or so, so i will take all the advise on setting up the brush, thinning the paint and cleaning the brush that i can get. Thanks a million guys!

[maxfactor]

Try createx airbrush restorer it works great. Dirty airbrush can cause spraying problems alot of the time. With Spraying problems the first thing I do is clean the brush sometimes twice cause the first time wasn't good enough.

[murdock]

/\ createx is good,

I spray all kinds of crap through my iwata's mostly acrylic, but if working with carpaints such as "waterborn paints" acrisolve or acrylic solvent works great for cleaning out your brush when you are finished painting.

If you are getting "spurts" or your flow is disrupted, try reducing your paints, or filtering paints to get clumps out before putting them in your feed jar.

Awesome trick for a durable reducer .... "futura" clear acrylic floor wax.
goes on smooth no spurts, and smells awesome, like fruits. AND you have to REALLY lay it on to get runs.

The heating of paints, is touchy, seeing as how alot of paints have to "flash" heating them before spraying on a cool plastic can cause issues, not always but it can... I only heat up spraypaint because its warms up the paint and adds a little extra pressure to the can, to get a finer mist.

To clean my gun i get paint thinner or acrisolve in a cup and point my airbrush down in the cup put a rubber band on the button and let the solvent circulate through the gun, with my pressure regulator wide open.


my "bake room"

some air brush stuff.





all done with iwata/badger. and futura floor wax

Hope this helps someone!

[mustangboy_347]

Originally Posted by murdock

/\ createx is good,

I spray all kinds of crap through my iwata's mostly acrylic, but if working with carpaints such as "waterborn paints" acrisolve or acrylic solvent works great for cleaning out your brush when you are finished painting.

If you are getting "spurts" or your flow is disrupted, try reducing your paints, or filtering paints to get clumps out before putting them in your feed jar.

Awesome trick for a durable reducer .... "futura" clear acrylic floor wax.
goes on smooth no spurts, and smells awesome, like fruits. AND you have to REALLY lay it on to get runs.

The heating of paints, is touchy, seeing as how alot of paints have to "flash" heating them before spraying on a cool plastic can cause issues, not always but it can... I only heat up spraypaint because its warms up the paint and adds a little extra pressure to the can, to get a finer mist.

To clean my gun i get paint thinner or acrisolve in a cup and point my airbrush down in the cup put a rubber band on the button and let the solvent circulate through the gun, with my pressure regulator wide open.


my "bake room"

some air brush stuff.





all done with iwata/badger. and futura floor wax

Hope this helps someone!

i love the graffiti wall...thanks for sharing your great work

[ev0l]

My Paasche double action did that from day one. That airbrush is way too erratic in my opinion. I switched to a Thayer and Chandler Vega 2000 and havn't looked back. My cousin who is an artist uses Iwata Eclipse exclusively, awesome air brushes.

[murdock]

thanks, i like to share...

i like the eclipse but with the grafitti, suction feed and adjustable kick back is awesome for "flairing" my badger has a set screw to adjust "line width"

[WICKEDWOLFRC]

Originally Posted by team3six

Im not just a guy trying to sell scale products. I know stuff too.
I used to be a painter.
read my airbrushing 101
* RC Airbushing 101 - team3sixRC

Norm wrote a great tutorial here, I read it 3-4 times before I did my first body and had to thin my parma paint too.

[Elmo]

Murdock, that is some awesome graffiti! I am going to start looking for a higher end airbrush after the holidays. i hope to get rid of some things i don't use anymore and use the cash to buy some nicer equipment. I am using a Craftsman 3 gallon pancake compressor with an external regulator and line filter/ dryer so at least i have that part of the puzzle. I would love to get an Iwata, my best friend uses one to custom paint lowriders and he loves it, super fine control and reliable as a claw hammer. Hopefully the Mrs. will let me splurge a little (especially if i tell her I'm painting something for her)!

[team3six]

Just for the record even though I don't mention them in my airbrushing 101 write up.
my favorite airbrushes are the Devil Biss & Rich Pen Apollo 113c.
Devil Biss is more Automotive while the Rich pen is both in fine details.

[Elmo]

Looks like i will be spending a lot of time in the workshop tomorrow. I have prepped and masked two SC bodies and i am now ready to sling some paint. I have a few questions before i fire up the compressor though. First, how thin does faskolor need to be to spray correctly? Second, what is the best product to thin it with? And third, do i need to do anything special to use createx paints on lexan such as adhesion promoters or special thinning? Thanks a lot guys for all of your help!