Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey all, I just bought some enamel paints for some sweet sweet metallic action, but I only have a small bottle (looked around and it seems impossible to find larger bottles of enamel thinner) of AK Enamel Thinner. Is this really the only way to wash an airbrush clean of enamel paints? It seems like I'm going to go through this thinner super quickly and just dump a bunch of money just to keep my airbrush clean of enamel paints. Otherwise if this is the only way, is there a way to use smaller amounts of thinner in order to wash an airbrush completely?

Thanks so much!

I assume you're not using White Spirits or Mineral Spirits as it's also called which is the way I clean mine out. You HAVE to be really careful with those though. If you have plastic in your airbrush or rubber gaskets like all do, make sure you get it all off those parts once you've cleaned cuz otherwise it will ruin them flat out.

Tamiya do big bottles of X20 thinner (not X20A, that's for lacquer acrylics), revell do big bottles as do humbrol. They do a good enough job of cleaning out enamels after airbrushing.

Tamiya also have their own dedicated airbrush cleaner that gets everything from acrylics to enamels and apparently Vallejo's airbrush cleaner does the same but not as well (not very well at all, but you can scrub!).

You can use white spirit, but that's strong stuff and you're risking your airbrush because even though you can thoroughly clean it and wipe it away, it'll leave residue which reacts with your O rings. Cheaper airbrushes can't take that punishment but the more expensive ones can due to better materials used.

When cleaning I start by running through a thinner that I bought from the hardware store, just to get the bulk of the paint out. It's a fraction of the price of the "hobby" branded thinners.

After that I finish off the clean with the hobby brand cleaner, either humbrol or X20.

Over here you can buy a big bottle of enamel thinner (several litres) from the hardware store or a smaller bottle (about a litre I think).

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
...and apparently Vallejo's airbrush cleaner does the same but not as well (not very well at all, but you can scrub!).

Vallejo's airbrush thinner doesn't even work well with alcohol based acrylics (turns it into clumps that are likely to block it up), I can't imagine it working well with enamels.

Also regarding thinners eating your seals, if you have an airbrush with teflon seals I think they'll be fine with most thinners (I haven't checked every thinner, but I only use my teflon sealed brush when running lacquers which have a horribly harsh thinner).

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 lliu wrote:
Otherwise if this is the only way, is there a way to use smaller amounts of thinner in order to wash an airbrush completely?

The least cleaner-consuming way I've found is to put just a small drop in the cup then wipe out the bulk of the paint with a paper towel or a tissue (pull it out of the cup, don't spray it through) and then another small drop and use an old brush to clean around the bottom of the paint cup and into the paint passage a little bit, again try and dump it out of the cup.

That will get rid of the majority of the paint with only a few drops of cleaner, then you should be able to clean out the rest of it with a lot less cleaner.