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This article is from the March 2012 Finescale Modeller UK, it has some truly indispensible info. It seems you cannot order this back-issue anymore so I am sharing instead of directing people to buy the mag. That being said, Finescale Modeller is well worth a look for Vehicles, weathering, conversion, painting, airbrushing -

(click to zoom if you need it)















And some more zoomed in partial page shots, just in case legibility is an issue on the others -

This is great, thank you!

There are a few of these that I was able to figure out through trial and error. That's why I practiced on newspaper for a bit before hitting my first mini.

Excellent aid! Thanks for posting it.

Exalted for ongoing reference, thanks for sharing!

Nice find. I've been struggling with my Badger Patriot recently: paint is drying on the needle very quickly, regardless of consistency which requires removal of the nozzle to clean it every couple of minutes...

Glad you guys like it, the last 2 pages describing the paint behaviour are something I really think could help a lot of people. I always say, the airbrush, when working, is a ridiculously forgiving and easy tool. It is when it doesn't work that you will want to curb-stomp the thing, so the more you know about correcting errors, the better

PS Elnibbus - not sure if you tried already, but I find angling down, loosening the locking nut and retracting and applying the needle rapidly helps degunk pretty well, then after that also cleaning the nib with a q-tip and cleaner with the needle is retracted. Saves you having to really disassemble other than loosening the nut while you are still using it... once you are going to put it down for a prolonged period though (anything long enough for stuff to begin to dry at all in the brush), stop and do a full pipe cleaner cleaning.

To be honest though, I had pretty crap experiences with Badger, the non-screw in nozzles in particular bother me being used to Iwata and Iwata Clones. I recommend that if you have a bit of spare cash, a master g22 or g44 may be a very good replacement for very little cost... if you have more to spend, you can never go wrong with Iwata Imho.

I really wish this had been around when I first started air brushing! I read all I could, and watched all the videos I could. I even got to chat with Ken Schlotfeldt (president of Badger Air Brush). And it was still trial and error, with a high learning curve. This kind of article... would have been indispensable for me. I'm printing out this article and keeping it as a reference. Thank you very much for sharing this!

Thanks for that MajorTom11. I'll give your suggestions a blast and see what happens this evening!

I remember picking that issue up just for those articles.
Also, Vintage? You wound...

Thanks, I'll refer to it if I ever get around to buying and using an airbrush.

I actually have that issue!

Got it back when I also was dreaming of picking up an airbrush too...

lol... Those TS marines would have actually gotten painted if you had bought one though Alphie...

Thanks for this!!!!

Exalted, bookmarked; I've just started airbrushing and was wondering where to get a strip-down guide (my cheap airbrushes didn't come with much instructions), this solves that question.

Major Tom, you sir are a gentleman and a scholar.

Ended up thinning my already airbrush-ready Vallejo paints down to within an inch of their lives (seriously, "airbrush" paints that work as well as a broken leg in an airbrush).

Finally got some decent results after thinning it to half paint/half thinner! Have decided to pre-thin the paints in their dropper bottles which saves faffing about later on.

I would advise you not thin much in the bottle, in so much in that it is likely preferable to have slightly thick for AB paint. Why? You can always thin in the ab cup relatively quickly and easily, over thin in the bottle and you are humped until the thinner evaporates, and that could be a while...

Why isn't this thread a sticky?

This is super helpful. Thanks so much for posting. I put together a PDF of the images so you can easily download it. Link here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xkgtplzl4bl76ej/AIrbrushTroubleShooting.pdf?dl=0