Sooooo it's been happening more and more, now with BOTH my airbrushes. This really upsets me because one is a very nice Badger Renegade Velocity with amazing spray properties.

First issue. I'll be spraying when all of a sudden the feed will stop. Just air comes through. So I think, "Oh there's a clog." I clean the thing out. It happens again and again but I am absolutely sure there is nothing in the feed line when I'm done cleaning it. Apparently I can "force" clean spray again by pulling the trigger back over and over again when this happens. Then it'll clog again... And again.... I don't get it. Is my paint really drying IN the cup?? This is Vallejo's Model Air, already pre-thinned. Apparently too much thinner can make it dry too fast, but I haven't added any thinner to these paints. And I'm only putting up to four drops of paint in the cup at a time. It's extremely annoying because I'm trying to do fine details with the Badger and it just stops spraying!

Second issue, my Braunviolett from their Luftwaffe 1941 - End War color set sprays way too thin. It's almost like shooting water. Even with the trigger depressed and barely pulled back, it sprays with a circle pattern. The paint in the middle is pushed out to the edge and it forms a circle of color with nothing in the middle. I will do my best to attach a picture later. How do I fix this??? How do I "un-thin" the paint? ): Paint retardant? Note that none of the other colors in the set have this problem (out of those that I have tried).

Any help would be greatly appreciated because I'm quite frustrated at this point. I've gone over brown "mistakes" (splatters!) with light blue so many times... I really like this plane I'm doing and I'm eager to finish it but this is really putting a wall in my progress.

Are these problems due perhaps to a messed up needle? Faulty paint?

The first problem does sound like too much air pressure causing the paint to dry at the AB. It is possible, and quite common. Try lowering your psi and maybe thin a bit more. What paints were you using?

Your first problem sounds exactly like the problem i had recently with my Iwata. I bought a new nozzle ( the bit the front of the needle slides through) and that cured it. Don't ask me why though.

Hello Ryan,
Your first issue seems to me due to unthinned paint drying too fast. Try adding 1/3 or 1/4 of thinner to paint, and a drop of retarder if you have.

Here's the picture of the spots described in the second issue. Sorry if it's blurry, my phone camera could not focus more than this. ):





What retarder should I get for acrylic paints? Vallejo's the brand, if it matters.. Model Air. EDIT: I just ordered some of their acrylic retarder. So that ought to help. The difficult part will be thinning it because it is a drop bottle with no large removable cap. I may have to drop it all into an empty bottle and drop in some thinner... So how do thinning ratios work?




I am spraying at roughly 10 to 13 psi. My indicator doesn't have exact numbers but the tick marks are in intervals of 5. I lowered it even more for these brown spots and it's still splattering. D': I'm using Vallejo Model Air. They were pre-thinned before boxing and shipping but do I need more thinner?

Seems like you are having "spitting". Paint is building on the end of the nozzle until paint cannot flow any more, pressure builds up and - spit! What you need to do is make sure the nozzle and the needle are clean, and when you do a painting session, check the nozzle from time to time and clean any gunk that may have built there.

Edit: at what distance are you spraying? Too close to the model and you need to remove the head cap or the air will cause turbulences that cause weird patterns

If your Velocity airbrush is halting spray and spitting, the most common cause is a dirty tip. Take the tip out, submerge it in lacquer thinner for 10-15 minutes and the, shave toothpick down to a fine slender to that is long enough to protrude from the nozzle. Insert that toothpick in ad spin it and gently push out any dried paint. Once clean, reassemble the brush and spray clean water through it to flush any remaining bits. Vallejo paint is extremely sensitive to any chemicals that are not products specific to their paint line. Many people clean their brushes with alcohol or window cleaner and that causes Vallejo to congeal. Use their airbrush cleaner and clean water to flush the brush.

Additionally, Vallejo model air needs to be thinned with Vallejo thinner 71.161 in a ratio of about 3 parts paint to 1 part thinner. The "airbrush ready" claim is directed towards airbrushes with tip sizes twice that of the Velocity. It is very normal to spray 2-3 seconds and then have the paint dry on the tip of a .2mm nozzle and stop spraying, especially with browns and whites. Pressure of somewhere between 19-20 psi should work fine. The lower you go, the closer you can get.

If you spray any other brand of paint with the same brush, be prepared to clean it completely in this manner to get correct performance. I have a Velocity and a Krome and this fixes spraying issues unless the needle is bent or the tip is cracked.

Hope this helps,
Paul Howard

Man, thank you for the detailed response! I just ordered that thinner as per your advice. As for the lacquer thinner, am I to also buy that from Vallejo? What should I use? Do I still need their paint retarder?

Also, my new airbrush cleaner (Brush Magic) is apparently very strong... I used to pour my old cleaner in a small plastic cup and let the tiny airbrush parts soak in there for a while. Today I used the Brush Magic in place of my old cleaner... Melted the cup. LOL Brush Magic is insanely strong.

Ryan,
Vallejo doesn't make lacquer thinner that I know of. I use Tamiya or Gunze personally since I have it on hand for spraying their paints, but to clean the nozzle you can use the kind you get at a local hardware store.

As far as the retarder, I've not had to resort to it once I switched to their 71.161 thinner. You can certainly try it in small amounts and make the decision yourself.

I have never used Brush Magic so I can't say how Vallejo will react. The lacquer thinner evaporates very quickly when you use it for cleaning and by spraying the water or even some of their thinner through the brush readies it for the Vallejo paint.

If you are interested, you can search for Badger Velocity Jet or Badger Krome on Armorama. There are evaluations I put together on those brushes which share the same bodies and nozzles your brush uses. The evals were done spraying both Vallejo and Tamiya paints. The effects of thinning properly versus spraying unthinned can be seen in the pictures.

Hope this helps,
Paul H

Thank you so much Paul. I just ordered Tamiya's lacquer thinner too. Will be here by the end of next month though. ): Oh well. I hope the thinner helps enough in the meantime.

On the note of Brush Magic, the stuff works incredibly well BUT I have had problems with it when trying to change paint. It turns the paint all gooey and definitely causes clogging. However, the paint comes out with even the slightest touch. It's very good at separating paints from surfaces. I don't advise it for color changes though. Still need a better one than Createx for that...

Ryan,
What paints besides Vallejo do you normally spray? In my experience, Createx airbrush cleaner really only works on their paint. I still have the original bottle I got 6 years ago...

Color changes with Vallejo can be done with their Airbrush Cleaner or their thinner; the brush cleaner works best.

Color changes with Tamiya Acrylics can be done effectively with 90% isopropyl alcohol.

It always depends on the paint you are using what works for colors changes. I'll help however I can.

Cheers,
Paul H

I use ModelMaster mostly. Only recently did I find Vallejo's Model Air sets. Createx seemed to work okay for Vallejo's paint, but ModelMaster paint remained in the cup quite a bit.

Model Master Acryl has its own cleaner and you need to use that for their paint. Model Master enamel (the most commonly available type) won't dissolve properly with out using their enamel thinner or mineral spirits or lacquer thinner. Switching back and forth between enamels and acrylics will lead to endless headaches. You will have to do the lacquer thinner clean after every session or you will ruin a lot of paint jobs.

Gotcha. I just use acrylics for any brand I buy. c:

You do not need to thin all the paint in the bottle at once, take more or less what you need for the session on a small glass or alike (some put it directly at the airbrush cup), add thinner and retarder and then pour to the airbrush cup.

As for the second issue, seems to me that you are right and the paint is too thin so the pressure makes a "hole" on the liquid paint once on the model. Is it thoroughly shaked? are you sure the pigments are not at the bottom of the jar?
It may be also that you got a defective jar and paint is unusable.

I shake the bottle thoroughly before the session begins and before each time I drop some of its paint in the airbrush. I am thinking it might be defective because like I said, out of the othe colors in the set that I have used, this is the only one that has the problem.