Hello
I have an Iwata gravity feed airbrush and i am having some problems cleaning it.
I am a beginner to airbrushing and have only been testing it out on scraps of plastic with mixed results.
When i come to the cleaning i can strip it down and swab it out with the cleaning solution(tamiya thinners), but 2 things i cannot do are clean out the tube/channel between the paint cup and the opening that the needle comes out of, and cleaning the channel behind the paint cup where it goes into the body of the airbrush. I have tried pipe cleaners but they don't want to go more than a few mm into the openings.
When i put my needle back into the airbrush, it comes out with a coating of paint from areas that i cannot reach!
Any help appreciated.

PS the paint i am using are Tamiya acrylics and Model air from Vallejo.

Hi there

I don't know if it'll help in this case, but an "intra-dental" brush is great for cleaning airbrushes! It's available from dentists, and elsewhere, and is a miniature scrubbing bush.

Also, flooding thinners right through the airbrush body does no harm...

All the best

Rowan

I'm not sure how your brush disassembles but with my brush I can soak a small thinner soaked piece of tissue and push it from the front (with the tip off) into the cup and remove it with tweezers. I use an old airbrush needle to push it through.
Hope it'll help you.
JBM :-)

Even if you use acryls, try to clean the AB with cellulose thinners. Yhey're much more strong than the specific one for acryls. Be careful not to soak the whole airbrush in it because it can damage the rubber o-rings, but you can spray as muck as you wish without any risk to harm your AB...
Ciao

i use Humbrols airbrush thinner - cleaner. spray some after use, then spray some modelmasters acrylic thinner and use a good quality cloth to take any liquid remainings. but some times is harder than this. Last time i primed with MM acrylic primer my Crurchill i spent over an hour to clean the new airbrush cause some paint would like to go !!!

I use acrylics, and just blast Windex through the AB like mentioned by Merlin. This is usually enough to clean it up. Every few uses I break it down and get a thin strip of cloth through the channels that you are talking about.

i've got one of these:


it's got a set of "micro" sizes pipe cleaners in it. it's great!!!

great for cleaning the old bong too...or so I hear....