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I have years of experience using larger industrial power sprayers but this is my first dip into painting models. I just purchased a G23 air brush and have ordered some of the Vallejo paints. I didn't receive the paint yet so I purchased some GW paint from the FLGS and I am having a hell of a time painting. The paint starts out OK and then within minutes its a clogged up and I have to clean it in order to get the flow going again. I have the PSI set at 30, and I first used Windex to thin the paint but have switched to paint thinner and still having the same problems. Should I just wait for my paint order or does anyone else have any suggestions? Can you even use the regular GW paint in an airbrush?

I've had terrible trouble with gw paints in an airbrush. Even thinned they clog the airbrush in moments.

Switched to Vallejo model air and can spray continuously for hours without a problem.

Personally I would just wait for your new paints. I wasted ages trying to get my gw paints to run through the airbrush and didn't get anywhere.

Thanks, that was my idea too, but I just wanted to finish what I had started for the day. I have been at this since @1230 and hate walking away but now I'm getting frustrated so I will wait then. Thanks!

I'm pretty sure the Model Air paints are specially formulated for air brush painting where the pigment is ground super fine, and therefore other brands/lines of paint are not suitable unless they state otherwise. I think the citadel paints are pretty thick as paint ranges go (I may be wrong) and is probably why it's clogging.

I find that while I'm actually airbrushing every once in a whole I give the brush a max spray into a paper towel near me jus to clear things out a little before it starts to dry. Usually this keeps everything clear for me and it can continue brushing on no problem.

You will find with the Vallejo model air paint you can set the psi down to 5-15 and get good results straight out the bottle as well. I know it is frustrating to have to stop in the middle but sometimes the pain isn't worth it

It is just a shame some of the brighter colours aren't quite as nice in the Vallejo range... at least the colours I have. Though the paints themselves are great.

I have never had any problems with the gw paints. Sometimes the paint slightly clogs but like chancetradgedy said a quick blast when it starts clears it out, had some good results with gw paints and my cheap £30 airbrush.

Are you thinning your paint?

I have found that shooting short bursts of GW paint thinned with liquitex airbrush medium reduces tip dry. You may also find that rubbing some beeswax onto the tip of your needle will prevent the paint from sticking so quickly.

Yeah, never had a problem with GW paints provided you use an airbrush thinning medium and drying retarder.

Also, for "tip dry" (yes it will happen to you! Get used to it) I have some Isopropanol alcohol that I dip a soft toothbrush in and then lightly run the tip of the brush through. Then a quick burst of air and you got a clean tip!

If this is your first time, I'm sure lots of people have differing opinions, but you can do what I did.

Clean out the brush, put water in it, start spraying that. If that's spraying fine, add a bit of paint, just a little bit, start spraying that. You'll probably be heaps thin, so when you spray, you'll get the "spider webs" thing. Keep slowly adding paint, spraying a bit, add more paint, spray a bit. Spray for a few seconds each time to make sure the newly thinned paint goes through.

When you stop getting spider webs and start getting splatter, you've gone a bit too thick. You can either up the pressure slightly to get rid of the splatter, or go slightly thinner.

If you have the correct viscosity for the paint, you won't clog nearly as often. But yeah, every few minutes just spray a long hard blast in to a tissue or piece of paper to keep it flowing. Don't let it get to the point where paint is no coming out, as it will be much harder to clear then.

I haven't had any problem with GW layer paints as of yet. Though the "base" paints do clog on me a lot. I like the VMA paints when I first got the brush as they are closer to the correct viscosity to begin with, but they still do need thinning as well! If you don't thin the VMA paints you'll be splattering and clogging constantly as well.

I use VMA straight out the bottle with no issue... make sure you shake them well before use.

Well they aren't all the same consistency, some of them I use straight from the bottle, others not really. Though you could probably use all of them from the bottle if you're doing reasonably high pressure for basecoating. But I found VMA were too thick to use straight from the bottle for 90% of what I do, YMMV.

Just earlier tonight I was doing some VMA orange, figured I'd try without thinning, sprayed for about 5 seconds before it clogged. And yes I shook it plenty before hand Maybe in a different airbrush you can use them unthinned? Dunno.

GW paints work just fine if thinned properly.

I use a thinning solution made of distilled water, matt medium, flow-aid and in rare cases I add a little bit of slow-dry.

Once your mix is done keep it handy in a dropper bottle and experiment until you learn the ratios for each brand of paint.

I know it seems like a lot of trouble but athe learning curve with airbrushing is very steep. You have to put some efforts if you want the rewards.

These were done with GW paints and an airbrush: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/499530.page

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Well they aren't all the same consistency, some of them I use straight from the bottle, others not really. Though you could probably use all of them from the bottle if you're doing reasonably high pressure for basecoating. But I found VMA were too thick to use straight from the bottle for 90% of what I do, YMMV.

Just earlier tonight I was doing some VMA orange, figured I'd try without thinning, sprayed for about 5 seconds before it clogged. And yes I shook it plenty before hand Maybe in a different airbrush you can use them unthinned? Dunno.

I grant your first point - paint always comes in slightly different thicknesses. I have a vma paint set and every colour in there has been fine for me at 5 to 15 psi - i cant remember my needle size off the top of my head though

That's amazing, even with slight thinning I'd have splattering with VMA paints at low PSI, I thin them quite a bit to stop splattering at the PSI I use for anything other than basecoating (which I do at about 30-40 PSI).

No problems here with GW paints through an airbrush. So far I've used Createx Wicked Colors reducer to thin, as well as distilled water. I spray my base coats at 20-30 PSI and tried some detail work at 15 lastnight, seems to be going well. I'm pretty new to airbrushing though, for what it's worth!

You can try Humbrol Acrylic Thinner. I tried Vallejo's thinner with GW paints and it doesn't work great, however Humbrol works pretty well. It also works as a drying retarder so can help stop the paint drying and clogging. However don't use JUST the Humbrol thinner, use a bit of water as well (unless you want to be waiting forever for it to dry and don't mind an extremely matte finish!).

UPDATE! Last night, my wife mentioned she had the 40% off coupon to Hobby Lobby and I decided to grab the neo Iwata airbrush. Got home from work today and decided to give it a go with the same paints I had tried with the G23. UN-Fing-Believable the difference. Based 3 dreadnoughts in no time and had zero clogs and paint to spare. I went hunting other miniatures to base afterwards! Is the airbrush really that much of a difference? I thought the G23 was suppose to be a good brush. Maybe I had a bad one? Thanks for all the comments.

P.S. Yes, I did thin my paints to start with on the G23

 mjl7atlas wrote:
UPDATE! Last night, my wife mentioned she had the 40% off coupon to Hobby Lobby and I decided to grab the neo Iwata airbrush. Got home from work today and decided to give it a go with the same paints I had tried with the G23. UN-Fing-Believable the difference. Based 3 dreadnoughts in no time and had zero clogs and paint to spare. I went hunting other miniatures to base afterwards! Is the airbrush really that much of a difference? I thought the G23 was suppose to be a good brush. Maybe I had a bad one? Thanks for all the comments.

P.S. Yes, I did thin my paints to start with on the G23

I would reserve judgement until you have used and cleaned the Neo a few times.

I could barely base 10 marines at the weekend with VMA through a Neo at 30 psi, due to the constant clogging. It was so bad that I stopped part way through and based one by brush. Only when I realised how long that took did I go back to the airbrush.

It was one incredibly frustrating day.

I should probably start my own thread about that...

Good luck with the Neo!

That's amazing that you had the complete opposite experience with the neo. I was painting as much as I could and ran out of stuff in the immediate area to paint! When I get home I am going to coat a lighter color and see if I get the same positive experience.

 mjl7atlas wrote:
UPDATE! Last night, my wife mentioned she had the 40% off coupon to Hobby Lobby and I decided to grab the neo Iwata airbrush. Got home from work today and decided to give it a go with the same paints I had tried with the G23. UN-Fing-Believable the difference. Based 3 dreadnoughts in no time and had zero clogs and paint to spare. I went hunting other miniatures to base afterwards! Is the airbrush really that much of a difference? I thought the G23 was suppose to be a good brush. Maybe I had a bad one? Thanks for all the comments.

P.S. Yes, I did thin my paints to start with on the G23

This makes me incredibly happy as i have just ordered an neo iwata for my birthday. What paints are you using through it? How easy is it to use? Got the standard compressor and 2 airbrush kit off eBay so i can practice with those 2 before i break out the neo.

I am using GW paints atm, but I ordered Vallejo paints that just hadn't arrived yet. The gun was plug and go. By that I mean I just hooked it up to the air hose and started painting. Very easy to use.

 mjl7atlas wrote:
That's amazing that you had the complete opposite experience with the neo. I was painting as much as I could and ran out of stuff in the immediate area to paint! When I get home I am going to coat a lighter color and see if I get the same positive experience.

Just to clarify, I am not suggesting there is anything wrong with the Neo - I probably need to experiment with flow aid/retarder to reduce the tip dry, which is I think, the start of the clogging.

Let us know how it goes.