Iwata Neo Convert to .50mm

T

ThaChad

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Hey all,

I am new to this forum, I recently got into Air Brushing to paint Slot Car bodies.

I am by no means an artist and I am doing relatively simple paint jobs, but in Slot Car's that are measured in grams, it all about keeping the weight down. Using a rattle can has very little control over volume and spray action, so the use of an Airbrush is needed.

Anyway. I bought a cheapo Harbor Freight Siphon Feed Air brush, because I watched several YouTube videos that said it was actually a decent airbrush for as cheap as it was and it sounded like it would do the job I needed. After painting several bodies, I decided that the low volume I was doing and the huge amount of clean up that was needed for siphon fed air brushes was too much.

So I bought a Iwata Neo gravity fed airbrush and it was fantastic! Easy/quick cleanup better control than the Harbor Freight and better quality..

Anyway, the paint I am using is called SpazTix paint, it is paint designed for painting R/C bodies. Which are made of the same material as Slot Car Bodies.

The paint is Airbrush Ready Lacquer, so I just pour it into the airbrush and spray. I have the air compressor set to 25PSI and it sprays almost dry.. I was suggested to turn down the air pressure and to change out the needle to .5mm instead of the .35mm it comes preinstalled with..

The .50mm needle was suppose to give me better coverage so the paint job didn't look as blotchy and the lower pressure was suppose to allow the paint not to dry before it hits the body.

(Please correct any of this if it's wrong?)

I looked up the Iwata Neo airbrush and found 3 P/N's which specifically said ".5mm":

N0752 - IWATA Needle 0.5mm for Neo BCN
N0802 - IWATA Nozzle 0.5mm for Neo BCN
N1402 - IWATA Neo Nozzle Cap .5 mm

There are also the same corresponding parts for .35mm. Is this the only parts needed to change from the .35mm to the .50mm needle?

Any other input/suggestions for me?

Thanks!

-ThaChad
 
Hi ThaChad, Needle and nozzle (possibly the cap) go together, you need both. Some others will likely give a better explanation. Hey can I get you to go along to the introductions page and give yourself a good intro? Have a look at the nettiquette page as well. Look forward to hearing more about you soon.

Cheers Mark
 
you will need all of them. But why?
The bigger the needle the more paint and heavier paint can be moved. .5 and larger are mainly used in t-shirt art.
Keep in mind that while the Neo is branded as IWATA it is a low end airbrush that IWATA has out sourced from China. So they can be hit or miss.
The IWATA Eclipse CS on the other hand is a true work horse of a airbrush.
why Lacquer? most RC painter use HOK AP01 adhesion promoter then use Wicked water based airbrush paint. Also just because something is rated as airbrush paint does not mean that more reduction is not needed.
What thinner are you using . Too hot of a thinner will result in super fast dry time , to cold mean it may never cure out when dealing with Lacquer or Urethane.
 
you will need all of them. But why?
The bigger the needle the more paint and heavier paint can be moved. .5 and larger are mainly used in t-shirt art.
Keep in mind that while the Neo is branded as IWATA it is a low end airbrush that IWATA has out sourced from China. So they can be hit or miss.
The IWATA Eclipse CS on the other hand is a true work horse of a airbrush.
why Lacquer? most RC painter use HOK AP01 adhesion promoter then use Wicked water based airbrush paint. Also just because something is rated as airbrush paint does not mean that more reduction is not needed.
What thinner are you using . Too hot of a thinner will result in super fast dry time , to cold mean it may never cure out when dealing with Lacquer or Urethane.

Lacquer is more vibrant than water base, I use Fireball Orange (florescent Orange), Florescent yellow, and Florescent pink.

The cars I am painting bodies for are extreme fast, they do 2 second laps around a 155' track.. Needless to say, it can be difficult to see a 4" car moving those kind of speeds, especially when you have 6-8 other cars all moving the same speed.

The brightest possible paint is what I'm looking for, thus far the Spaztix paint is the brightest I've found.

The paint is like water, I don't use any additional thinner. I use off the shelf (from the paint dept at Lowes) lacquer thinner to run threw the airbrush to clean.

If there is another paint option for RC (has to have a flex agent and be able to adhear to lexan (Poly Carbonite), I am willing to try, but I would like something that is airbrush ready because I use such a small mount of paint to paint a body, mixing and thinning is just a tedious task..

Thanks!

-ThaChad
 
No paint is 100% airbrush ready per say. some will shoot straight out the bottle but the amount and size of pigment also depends on the color . So no matter what paint you use you may find extra reduction is needed even if you switch to the .5 set up.
But the car is only moving at 53 MPH which is 77.73 feet per second making 2 seconds = to 155.46 feet . now extreme would be the one recorded in the Guinness World Records book of 983.88 or 1443.02 feet per seconds . Now that is fast.

Vibrant color is not hard to get , HOK , PPG and many others make vibrate colored paint even in florescent .
 
So, a 1:24th scale car going 77.73MPH, is 1865 scale MPH.

Anyway, *I* can't see it! So I need BRIGHT!

Are those paints you suggested R/C paints? Do you have a link?

Thanks!

-ThaChad
 
So, a 1:24th scale car going 77.73MPH, is 1865 scale MPH.

Anyway, *I* can't see it! So I need BRIGHT!

Are those paints you suggested R/C paints? Do you have a link?

Thanks!

-ThaChad
House of Kolor is automotive paint , Which is durable.
PPG Brand name again automotive paint.
AP01 is one of the best adhesion promoter on the market made by House of kolor which will allow paint to hold to lexan , plastic , plexi .
But then again you state you do not want to have to mix paint for the small size and amount you need.
Just had a look at the paint you use .. I do hope you wear safety spray mask when using this stuff.
here is the MSDS I also see they have their own prep solution for the lexan.
It might be better for you to try switching out the nozzle size to the .5 since you seem happy with the brightness of the colors .
 

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Okay, I got the .050 needle. I also switched paints from SpazTix (Lacquer) to Parma FastKolor (Latex, water based)..

What pressure should I use? The Parma is very thick.. I tried 10-25psi, seems like the paint is getting clogged.. Kind of spatters also..

Thanks,

-Chad
 
According to the Parma website it's meant to be sprayed at 40-70 psi, which TBH is crazy high. Textile guys go that high, but that's more because they're trying to impregnate the paint into the cloth with the force of the spray, not because the paint itself requires it.

The website also blames this need for high pressure on a water-based vs solvent-based thing, which is... questionable. Id say you need to thin it, but the instructions say it shouldn't be thinned by more than 1 tsp per 2 oz bottle. That's a comically low ratio. TBH my impression reading the instructions is that this paint really wasn't designed to be sprayed, and the claims that it's airbrush-ready are the marketing department getting a bit Wile E. Coyote.

IMO, try thinning it 50/50, and see if that actually does kill the binder's adhesion (weather it sprays well or not). If it does, then ditch the Parma paints. If a paint can't function at or below 30 psi max, and can't tolerate the thinning needed to bring the pressure down to that (or ideally closer to 20 psi max), then it isn't really an airbrush paint, no matter what the salesmonster says.
 
According to the Parma website it's meant to be sprayed at 40-70 psi, which TBH is crazy high. Textile guys go that high, but that's more because they're trying to impregnate the paint into the cloth with the force of the spray, not because the paint itself requires it.

The website also blames this need for high pressure on a water-based vs solvent-based thing, which is... questionable. Id say you need to thin it, but the instructions say it shouldn't be thinned by more than 1 tsp per 2 oz bottle. That's a comically low ratio. TBH my impression reading the instructions is that this paint really wasn't designed to be sprayed, and the claims that it's airbrush-ready are the marketing department getting a bit Wile E. Coyote.

IMO, try thinning it 50/50, and see if that actually does kill the binder's adhesion (weather it sprays well or not). If it does, then ditch the Parma paints. If a paint can't function at or below 30 psi max, and can't tolerate the thinning needed to bring the pressure down to that (or ideally closer to 20 psi max), then it isn't really an airbrush paint, no matter what the salesmonster says.


I was told by the hobby shop to thin it with Water. But I saw there is a reducer sold by createx for water based paints. Should I use the reducer vs water?

Can I reduce the whole bottle? Or do I have to do it seperately?

Thanks,

-ThaChad
 
When it comes to brand formulated reducers like that, it's best to pair paints with reducers of the same brand and vice versa. Often you can mix and match like that, but different paints sometimes have very different chemistry, even if they both fall under the same general category of "water based acrylic". Could work brilliantly, could curdle the paint into a gummy mess, or it could simply be no better or worse than water. When you're crossing brands like that, you're going off the map a bit. Unless you can find someone else who's already tried that specific combo, there's no real way to say without testing it.

In regards to the second question: don't mix it in the bottle unless you've used that paint before at that reduction and are well familiar and confident with it. If you're uncertain about how much reduction you need (as in this case), then you want to reduce separately in a smaller bottle/jar. That way you can test out different reduction amounts scientifically, without risking ruining the entire bottle, or always having to compensate for previous reductions (compounding further with each iteration) when trying new ones.
 
Thanks for the reply.. I meant once I knew the proper amount to thin it to, is it okay to thin the whole bottle so it's ready to use, or does it mess up the paint having it sit there thinned out?
 
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