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I'm still new to air brushing, but after a frustrating start I've finally started to get results I'm happy with. I have one recurring problem when I air brush. After a few minutes of working with it, I get a ball of half dried paint on one of the 'arms' of my nozzle guard. I pick it off easily and the air brush works fine after this, but every minute or so of working with the air brush the same thing happens. I don't think the problem is a bent needle because I put in a brand new needle and the problem persisted. I spray at a steady 15 PSI and only ever use Vallejo Air mixed in a 5:1 paint/thinner ratio.

Hmm with Vallejo Air I thin with the Vallejo thinner, but for everything else I use Liquitex Airbrush Medium because it prevents drying better than any other product of that sort.

Are you using an H&S airbrush perchance? ...15 is a good lower-end PSI to use. But usually the drying happens because the PSI is too high or you're not using a good thinner/medium.

As long as the actual nozzle and needle are not getting clogged, I just use Alcohol Prep Pads to periodically wipe that stuff off and continue on...

I'm using the Badger Renegade Krome, and my compressor is the Aspire TC 908. I use Vallejo thinner as well. I mix it pretty well when it's all in the paint cup too, so I'm not sure why I'm consistently getting dried up paint on my nozzle guard. I clean the thing religiously after each use, putting it through two cycles in my ultra sonic cleaner and using pipe cleaners to clear away anything in the front end of the air brush. Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
I'm using the Badger Renegade Krome, and my compressor is the Aspire TC 908. I use Vallejo thinner as well. I mix it pretty well when it's all in the paint cup too, so I'm not sure why I'm consistently getting dried up paint on my nozzle guard. I clean the thing religiously after each use, putting it through two cycles in my ultra sonic cleaner and using pipe cleaners to clear away anything in the front end of the air brush. Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

You can pull the needle back some and use Liqutex Slow Dry or Liquitex Matte Medium with drying retarder. It help slow the drying of the paint. Also consider the temperature you're spaying at. You only need a drop or 2 of the Liquitex to help with the drying.

One thing to add and it helped me a bunch with tip dry is lubing the needle after cleaning.

I use the Paasche airbrush lube just because it was cheap with free shipping on amazon, but all the airbrush manufactures make it.

I have the same brush and compresser. My VMA paints always did this, when i use the badger miniature paints it doesnt seem to happen as badly.

Not really a solution but if you look at videos of people airbrushing big paintings or cars you can notice that they wipe the needle and nozzle all the time. I think it is good practice to do this regularly and make a habit of it.

Take the nozzle guard off, it will actually make a finer line that way too. mine does the same thing.

Tip-dry is inevitable. Drying retarder prolongs it happening but it will still happen after a while. Removing the crown will also help.

I started using a toothbrush rig like in the link below.
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lsGnoRWqYI


Good luck!

I get the same thing on my cheapo chinese airbrush. Paint builds up on the right lower side of the needle cap. It only builds up slowly and at first I don't even notice, but once it's built up a bit it affects the spray pattern somewhat.

I usually just remove it and spray without it. Maybe my needle is slightly bent to cause it to build up on one side and not the other, but with the cap off the spray pattern looks fine to me so I haven't worried about it.

This is a thing that happens. It's why most professionals spray without that piece on.

It's either paint build up in the needle tip or a bent needle (but most likely build up in the tip).

In my experience, Model Air should be thinned more that 5:1 if you are spraying at a low psi; I usually thin it at 1:1 and have no problems.

Just taking that piece off will not solve your problem. The Krome requires the use of a spray regulator (the part with the arms) to work properly, but you should have also received an armless regulator with the airbrush that looks like this:



You can try using that, just be careful because the needle will be exposed and easy to damage.

Most people take them off as it allows you to get closer and therefore even finer lines and more detail with correct thinning etc.
As the other guys have mentioned dry tip is something we work with and there are different ways to combat/help it.
What id be more concerned about and noone has mentioned it so far is, paint should'nt be collecting on the tip guard lips as it should be going dead nut straight from the needle tip. I have only ever had one brush do that and if I sprayed black paint and looked from different angles I could see the fan fan was favoring the lower right. It was caused but the tiniest bend in the needle tip from the factory, so small it was impossible to feel but had malformed the nozzle slightly too, if you have spares try a new needle and nozzle. or a SERIOUS clean, so so easy to miss a tiny bit of dirt inside the needle tips that will drive you crazy.