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Ok so I got myself an airbrush (neon for iwata dual-action) and a compressor (pasche d3000r). I've figured out the rudimentary basics of how to water down the paint and load it into the gravity fed well. And how to turn on the compressor and adjust the rate of pressure. But what I can't figure out is where the middle ground is for low enough pressure not to blow the paint so hard, and so little pressure that nothing comes out. There is a point when I turn the pressure gauge down that just below 30 psi that the flow out just stops. And on the other end of the spectrum, when I turn down the pressure as low as possible that the airbrush just barely is blowing (any lower and the flow stops), then the paint stream dries up or clogs so that I have to run water through it to get the paint to flow again. At this point when I try to press just slightly harder or pull back just slightly more, the air flow jumps and blows over my model or spurts a mess of paint. What am I doing wrong? Why cant I find the sweet spot? My air pressure seems to be constant. And ive watered down the acrylic paint about 1 drop to 10 drops of water.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

What is the mixture of your paint.. It seems that this is the main problem.. Thinning your paint down is key to using the airbrush.. 30-35 psi should be perfect for doing base coats, 10-20 psi for detail work.. But for the moment get the basics down first before doing detail work..

I've tried everything between 10% and 50%. It feels like at the 10% end, that the airflow is just too intense and I don't get anything on the model, just air. At the 50% end it just feels like the paint flow clogs and then I don't get regular constant air pressure.

I've been trying to practice at about 25%... 2 or 3 drops of paint plus 7 or 8 drops of water.

To be honest, I found it very hit or miss mixing paints. I recently tried Vallejo's Model Air line of paints. They are formulated airbrush acryllic paints and they worked wonderfully. To save yourself a lot of time and frustration, I'd highly recommend checking out this line of paints. I have an Iwata Neo and I literally shook the paint and poured directly into my airbrush and went to work. The tip would dry after basecoating 20-30 models so I'd spend about 3-4 minutes cleaning the tip and get back to work. Awesome paints.

What brand of paint are you using? Is it fresh,or dodgy? Maybe the paint you're using, if it's cheap acrylic hobby paint, has too poor of a grind for airbrushing. I love that stuff for terrain but it's difficult to airbrush with.

Is it clogging easily because it's crapped up to begin with - when's the last time you gave the airbrush a breakdown and soak?

Its the Anita's brand of acrylic from Hobby Lobby.

And this was both the first and second times using the airbrush out of the box brand new.

Pink Myst wrote:
Its the Anita's brand of acrylic from Hobby Lobby.

And this was both the first and second times using the airbrush out of the box brand new.

Thats craft paint.. get some better paint and you should be fine.. I have used everything from vallejo to gw and have little to no problems with working with them in the airbrush..

I'd suggest buying some specially formulated airbrush paints.

Not because they inherently do better, I use the Vallejo and still thin it slightly, but it will eliminate any doubt about paint quality and it will allow you to get an idea of what correctly thinned for airbrush paint looks like, then you can apply that knowledge to non airbrush colours you want to use.

It's how I've started and I've been really pleased with how I've progressed without any major disasters so far.

Ok. So I went out and got some Createx airbrush colors and I'm going to give them a try. I have an opaque color, a translucent color, and a pearlized color (looks metallic). How much do I need to water any of these colors down?

(Also I disassembled the airbrush and soaked it in distilled water.)

I'll try again with the new color and let you know how it works.

You don't need to thin airbrush paints, but you may choose to with more experience.

Water won't clean your brush, as once acrylic is dry it's water proof, so soaking won't achieve anything. Invest in some airbrush cleaner and use it immediately after use.

My usual routine is to wash the brush out, spray a few loads of clean water through followed by some cleaner. Pay particular attention to the needle, and some q-tips are a good thing with a little cleaner on the end for hard to reach places.

Once in a while, break the brush down and clean the components. Learn from my mistake and pay close attention when doing this so you don't spend an hour rebuilding it!

 azreal13 wrote:
Water won't clean your brush, as once acrylic is dry it's water proof, so soaking won't achieve anything. Invest in some airbrush cleaner and use it immediately after use.

I like this one, used as Azreal says.

Wow, what a phenomenal difference that airbrush paint makes!

That solved my problem.

So now I need to invest in some airbrush cleaner.

Pink Myst wrote:
Wow, what a phenomenal difference that airbrush paint makes!

That solved my problem.

So now I need to invest in some airbrush cleaner.

Yes you do. it makes car and maintenance simple. If you let paint dry on, you may have to use something strong enough to strip the paint but don' let any non-metal parts soak in the stuff.

It's really not worth the headache. Seriously invest in vallejo paints.. you will not regret it, headsup if you use the dakkadakka colour conversion chart, keep in mind they might be totally different colours I.e Model A Dead Flesh, GW Nurgling Green.


Shoot me a PM if you need more halp

good to hear that its solved... clogging of paint would have been my first suggestion... Lester Bursley from Awesome Paintjob on youtube has a great tutorial on how to clean your airbrush after daily use

There are these new Minitaire paints that seem to be very popular. If you're just starting out buying paints, this might be a good time to start with either Vallejo or these, though these are a little hard to find at the moment.

Thanks again for all the help.

Here's how things turned out:

(I still have a lot of practice ahead of me. And sorry for the up close blurry-ness. These pics were taken on my cell... not the highest quality, especially close-up.)

It's hard to make out how well it worked. I probably would have done a black wash over silver but your way might work for a nice directional lighting effect if you did a directional spray.

How about trying a bright silver from one angle and a light spray of a darker metal from the opposite angle? You could try the darker metal spray on a test model even now.

 Sarigar wrote:
To be honest, I found it very hit or miss mixing paints. I recently tried Vallejo's Model Air line of paints. They are formulated airbrush acryllic paints and they worked wonderfully. To save yourself a lot of time and frustration, I'd highly recommend checking out this line of paints.

This. Exactly this. I was having a torrid time trying to get my mixes right and wasting a lot of time and paint. It was horrible. I know it can be done, but i really wasnt doing very well. Switched to Vallejo model air and it just became really easy and quick, the reason I invested in an airbrush in the first place.

 Ouze wrote:
There are these new Minitaire paints that seem to be very popular. If you're just starting out buying paints, this might be a good time to start with either Vallejo or these, though these are a little hard to find at the moment.

Minitaire is driving me nuts...I want to try them so badly but can't seem to find a reputable retailer that I trust that has them for anything less than 10 bucks a bottle. I really want to try their ghost tint line. Any suggestions?

edit: found www.webairbrushes.com has them if anyone else was wondering

 Kilkrazy wrote:
How about trying a bright silver from one angle and a light spray of a darker metal from the opposite angle? You could try the darker metal spray on a test model even now.

I'll give this a try and let you know how it turns out

 azreal13 wrote:
I'd suggest buying some specially formulated airbrush paints.

Not because they inherently do better, I use the Vallejo and still thin it slightly, but it will eliminate any doubt about paint quality and it will allow you to get an idea of what correctly thinned for airbrush paint looks like, then you can apply that knowledge to non airbrush colours you want to use.

It's how I've started and I've been really pleased with how I've progressed without any major disasters so far.

I have stolen this as an tributed quote for beginners blog on airbrushes I am putting together to help other new to airbrush users. Never would have though of such an obvious thing to do.