Hi!

I have 3 airbrushes. 2 from spraymaster and one unnamed.
1) unnamed
2) 0.2mm spray master
3) 0.35 mm spray master

1) worked really nicely for half a year. Then it stopped functioning. Had to increase pressure, play with dilution and so on. Then I bought 2).
2) Was working perfectly a month or so. At that point i realized that i didn't clean 1) properly so I disassembled it completely and clean all the places I could reach (at that time I learnt to clean airbrush from inside). 1) started to work fine again. However same trick didn't help 2). To make paint flow I have to pull trigger and move it back (thats a typical and most frequent issue I have usually. Moving trigger back and forward helps. Dilution may help as well, but paint doesn't stick anymore so it's very hard to paint). That way I can get some paint sprayed. I got tired of this and bought 3).
You probably can guess what happened. Worked fine several months and now I have to dilute paint more and do that pull trigger trick to make it spray something. I changed nozzles and needles, some times it helps but usually not. I have 0.5mm needle and nozzle. Same problems: paint sometimes sprays at half way of a trigger, but later it doesn't spray at all or I need to pull further and then I get load of paint. I cleaned nozzle, needle and other parts I could unscrew. I don't think they could be more clean. I dilute paint with Vallejo thinner, and use VAllejo Model Air as a benchmark for airbrush. Once I noticed that the problem was with rubber ring which prevents air leakages from the nose of airbrush. So I replaced it and now needle is perfectly centered, so that air can suck paint properly and evenly.

I could buy Iwata but pretty sure I'm doing systematic error which I can't figure out and it will happen to iwata as well.

I tried different pressure, paint, dilution. Also what kills me is that it _works_ for several months and then stops, but I clean it perfectly. Just a mistery.
Yesterday I noticed that 3) was doing something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGUZJGU6ydk

Any ideas?

maybe one of the "o" rings (rubber rings, help keep the pressure) is defective?

in regards to 3 an the youtube clip: i can think of 2 possible causes: 1) your nozzle is clogged or 2) your needle is bent.

Hi

What type of paint & thinner are you using, these airbrushes should only be used with with water and alcohol based paints, cellulose or laquer thinners will melt the o-rings and that may be your problem.

Paul

I use only acrylics. Andrea and Vallejo paints.
Spent 2 hours today trying to figure out what could go wrong.
Took [http://www.airbrushesonline.com/Product-45/]3)[/url]. After errors and trials realized that centering nozzle cup and needle cup is extremely important. There has to be small gap through which air will take paint. I have several needles and nozzle cups, so tried several of them and looked like 0.3mm fits best. I loaded it with water and it worked fine. Then I took andrea ink, straight from bottle and also it sprayed fine. I took model air paint, and immediately noticed that I pressure droped. I can spray lines quite consistently but can't cover big areas. Also I noticed bubbles in paint cup. Looks like a bit of air come to paint cup. After that I tried to thin andrea paint with vallejo thinner, about 1 part paint and 2 parts thinner. Paint stucked, and I could make it spray only with pull/back motions. There were a lot of bubbles in paint cup. Very frustrating. This spraymaster can't be that bad. I mean whole mechanics is so simple, it just has to fit and it fits (or used to fit) well.

>> in regards to 3 an the youtube clip: i can think of 2 possible causes: 1) your
>> nozzle is clogged or 2) your needle is bent.

I think tip of the needle is a little bit bended, but very little almost unnoticeable. Could that be the reason? Could it cause bubbles in paint cup?

A bent needle, however small, will cause air to leak through into the paint cup. I've seen it happen with Iwata, Badger and other airbrushes. The bubbles in the paint cup are a sign of air being blocked and flowing backwards into the cup. There are a few reasons this could be happening, most of them are either paint blockage at the needle tip, or a bent needle.

Sergiy,

The problem you describe is a common one and it effects all of us who use acrylics. Vallejo is excellent paint and airbrushes beautifully. I have been using Model Air exclusively lately and I love the paint.
What happens (to everybody) is that after a while the nozzle gets dried paint on it and gets clogged. Sometimes working the needle in and out will clear the clog but other times it will stop spraying entirely and/or bubble into the cup.
When you are airbrushing, keep a small cup of airbrush cleaner (Vallejo or Medea) on your bench with a cotton swab in it. As soon as your airbrush stops spraying, take your finger off the trigger. Grab the cotton swab full of cleaner, gently stick it in the needle cap of the airbrush, and twirl it around.
Your airbrush will shoot perfectly again. Depending on humidity, temperature, paint dilution,and PSI you may have to do this once every 5 minutes or every 15. However, it's a quick 2 second fix that barely slows me down.
Of course, if you encounter an entire blockage, it's time to take the airbrush apart and clean it completely with Vallejo or Medea airbrush cleaner.

This morning I spent another hour trying to get it working. I think I managed to fix needle bend. Also I unscrewed bigger cup to which nozzle cup is attached and repositioned big rubber ring on it. As a result I don't see many bubbles, only few and Model Air sprays really nicely. i thought It really fixed it but when I diluted andrea paint quite a bit it still stucked. Andrea paint was more diluted then model air because when I pull trigger quickly it left spills of paint which were pushed by air (you can see this effect on windshield during rain). A bit of paint was coming several seconds and then it stopped. I took a while to get water coming through nozzle.

Then I replaced 0.3mm needle with 0.5mm. I have also 0.2mm for that airbrush but didn't try yet. 0.5mm got same problems actually. Andrea paint didn't go through, there were small bubbles. But what bothers me, is when I sprayed model air paint, lines and dots were really big. Now I'm thinking to get iwata revolution which is also 0.5mm so I was wondering if that kind of needle is capable of producing fine paint job since I'm painting miniatures mostly and need precision most of the time...




Thanks. I keep an eye on the tip of a needle all the time. It's amazing how really tiny amount of paint can make that big influence.

Today will try to thin vallejo paint and 0.2 mm needle. Also will add a bit of flow improver, somehow I think surface tension could affect this...

Looks like my local hobby shop has badger patriot. It's quite expensive but looks like it has different structure then others.

Found from some website:
- Patented “Easy Access” needle removal system
- Easy maintenance self centering nozzle design

and I checked you tube video

The mechanics is quite amazing. Especially self centering nozzle design. It looks more simple then traditional design.

Has anyone got any experience with that model?

Hey,
well first off, you can't fix needle bends. I mean, you can, but the result probably isn't "factory condition" - I don't think that you could get it straightened as it was. best thing to do in that case is to buy a new needle (better buy 2, so you have one spare).

I've never used andrea paints, so I don't know the mix ration. be advised, though, that some paints need a lot - and I mean a lot - of thinning, so maybe it was just not thinned enough.

as for the iwata, well, I don't know if a 0.5mm will be good for your miniatures. I think something more along the lines of the hp-cs would be better - it has a 0.3mm needle, and good for overall painting as well as details and fine lines. I suggest you run a search here (on armorama / kitmaker). you will find several reviews to read, plus other useful posts on airbrushes. Be advised though, that there are many brands and types around, so check the reviews section and google and see what fits you (you have many types of Airbrushes to choose from).

if you are mainly using 0.2mm setup, your paint needs to be really really thin. I normany use a 0.35mm setup, and i thin it in something like 1:7 1:10 (in favor of thinner of course) so do some experiments with an empty plastic box and different thinning ratios until you find what you need.

as for the patriot airbrush: I never used one, but there is a review around here on that brush (i remember reading it). I don't know, however, if it will suite you.