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Hello everyone. I'm new to airbrushing but have been working on a model kit for a month or two now and have been airbrushing the pieces one by one. I have a set of Reaper paint that I've been using and for the most part I haven't had any issues, and I always use a 1:1 ratio of paint to thinner. However, I have one bottle (all this paint was bought at the same time) that always seems to come out chunky and it gums up my airbrush so bad that I have to disassemble every single piece of it and spend about 20 minutes or more cleaning it up before it sprays again. I've shaken the paint bottle for quite some time prior to pouring, added a few drops of thinner to the bottle itself, but no matter what I do I can't seem to get this bottle to pour smoothly. Does anyone have any tricks or tips as far as getting paint like this to pour smoothly so my airbrush stops getting clogged?

After use, let it soak in some water with a little bit of dish soap.

I gummed mine up pretty good and had to actually soak some parts in acentone, but that can kill the O-Rings so it should only be done if the soap doesn't work.

 ChargerIIC wrote:
After use, let it soak in some water with a little bit of dish soap.

I gummed mine up pretty good and had to actually soak some parts in acentone, but that can kill the O-Rings so it should only be done if the soap doesn't work.

Okay, I'll give that a shot. Do you know of any way to get the paint to stop pouring "chunky"? No amount of thinner or shaking I add or do to it seems to help. I hate to have to buy a whole different bottle of paint if I can fix this one.

If you can, take one of those coffee stirrer sticks and stir the paint up until it’s no longer chunky. There are certain paints I always have to do this to.

Mix the paint and thinner in a seperate cup, cut a small piece from a pair of tights then use that to strain the paint into your airbrush.
Out of interest what paint is it you're using and what thinner are you using with it?

I put pebbles or ball bearings or similar in paint pots then shake the jeebus out of them... Mixes perfectly.

clively wrote:If you can, take one of those coffee stirrer sticks and stir the paint up until it’s no longer chunky. There are certain paints I always have to do this to.

I'll grab a bunch from work and try that out, didn't think to stir them with anything else.

nedsta wrote:Mix the paint and thinner in a seperate cup, cut a small piece from a pair of tights then use that to strain the paint into your airbrush.
Out of interest what paint is it you're using and what thinner are you using with it?

Right now I'm using Reaper paint and Army Painter but those are just what I have on hand. I'm thinning with Taimya X-20A acrylic thinner.

jeff white wrote:I put pebbles or ball bearings or similar in paint pots then shake the jeebus out of them... Mixes perfectly.

Didn't think of something like that either. I don't think I have anything like that but I'm sure I can find something. I shook the holy hell out of this paint bottle multiple times and added some thinner to the bottle as well (not much, a few drops), but alas it did not help.

 Mr Mayhem wrote:

jeff white wrote:I put pebbles or ball bearings or similar in paint pots then shake the jeebus out of them... Mixes perfectly.

Didn't think of something like that either. I don't think I have anything like that but I'm sure I can find something. I shook the holy hell out of this paint bottle multiple times and added some thinner to the bottle as well (not much, a few drops), but alas it did not help.

Srsly, you have a pebble.

I find Tamiya Thinner seriously aggressive, to the point that I'll use it to spot strip bits of models.

The use of a small ball bearing in the bottle is a good shout, so is mixing in a separate cup and straining the paint if needed.

You could even look to get some very fine pipe gauze to put in your feedcup.

Like these http://amzn.eu/cJ5BAQx

Rik

 Mr Mayhem wrote:

jeff white wrote:I put pebbles or ball bearings or similar in paint pots then shake the jeebus out of them... Mixes perfectly.

Didn't think of something like that either. I don't think I have anything like that but I'm sure I can find something. I shook the holy hell out of this paint bottle multiple times and added some thinner to the bottle as well (not much, a few drops), but alas it did not help.

If you shoudln't find anything appropriate, you can still order some of these to put into your paints in general:

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-Polish-Mixing-Agitator/dp/B007IK6NHY/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1531480592&sr=8-2&keywords=agitator+ball

I can vouch for the agitators. I've been putting them in all of my paints, even the ones I don't use for airbrushing. It makes shaking the pot a lot more efficient and breaks up clumps that form within the pot.

Don't buy agitators and add them to Reaper Paints, they come from the factory with a glass bead in the bottle.

(They used to use little pewter skulls, but the price of metal ended that practice.)