Paasche Talon

R

Richard Carlisle

Guest
So I had a Talon on the shelf that I had used for spraying drop shadows and such. Nothing that requires any control or precision. I decided to learn detail airbrushing, so I busted out the Talon and found my self struggling with the control exercises, especially any detail that required a line or dot less than 1/4". Problem is it will spray decent for about a minute then it won't shut the paint off. Paint will flow very slightly even with the trigger released. Problem is worse the thinner the paint gets. Flow is also only reliable with the trigger pulled back about half way and pushing a good amount of paint. When you thin the paint lower the pressure to less than 30PSI and try to get in close, it is unreliable. Sometimes you pull the trigger back and you get a nice steadily increasing flow as you should. Other times (most times) you ease back on the trigger and nothing happens. You keep easing back then all of a sudden the paint will release and blow a huge dot.

So thinking maybe this year old airbrush has just sat on the shelf too long, I ordered a new Talon. I've got about 30 minutes on the new one now and so far it doesn't have the constant flow issue, but it is just as unreliable as far as flow as the other one. Same erratic flow issues. Good airbrush for laying down drop shadows and backgrounds, using it kind of like a mini paint gun, but terrible for detail.

I'm just a beginner at detail airbrushing, but I'm thinking if I pull back on the trigger say, 1/8" and I get X amount of paint at a given pressure, I should be able to pull back 1/8" every time and get the same results at the same pressure. Instead, I can begin a fine line real close to the surface and it looks good, the all of a sudden more paint will release for no reason. I'm constantly having to adjust the trigger back and forth to maintain a consistent line, which makes it just about impossible to maintain a consistent line.

Is it me? I've tried paint reductions from 1:1 all the way to 10:1. I'm using Wicked colors with Wicked reducer. It doesn't appear to be tip dry. When it messes up, I look at the tip with a magnifying glass and it is clean. If I clean the airbrush it's good for another minute or so, but that can't be normal. In the detail tutorials, I don't see them cleaning their brush every minute. The only plus side to this is I've got REALLY good at cleaning an airbrush. I could join the NASCAR pit crew of airbrush cleaning.

Any suggestions on how to make this Talon work before I buy something else? I'm thinking Iwata Eclipse HP-CS for all around and when I get to where I can paint real fine details, add a Custom Micron CM-B or CM-C. Any other suggestions. How about Badger? Money isn't really an issue here. I'm learning and I want to learn on top quality equipment.
 
Its not you....its the dern airbrush gun. Try adjusting the nozle head. If you dont have that stupid thing on "just right", it decides to be a beetch!! Sometimes its too tight, sometimes not tight enough
 
Does the nozzle need to sealed with thread tape? I saw a video where Mitch did that.
 
because I'm to lazy to go back through previous threads of yours.... does your compressor have a tank ? if its a tankless it could be a pulsing issue. the nozzle shouldn't need thread tape, but if you want to check, before you put paint in the cup, dunk the 'front end' in diluted dish liquid, and do a 'backflush', the bubble with tell you where the air is escaping.
 
The compressor is 40HP screw drive with a 200 gallon tank. I pull air from the main shop into my painting room. I'll try the dish soap thing. I think I'm going to buy an Eclipse, but I'd still like to get these Talons working properly.
 
The compressor is 40HP screw drive with a 200 gallon tank. I pull air from the main shop into my painting room. I'll try the dish soap thing. I think I'm going to buy an Eclipse, but I'd still like to get these Talons working properly.
I think you can rule out pulsation lol

You're ok with the 'backflushing' process ?
 
You can do that also. Those stupid little rubber rings dont last long. I have a friend that has taped inside and out.
I can understand rubber deteriorating but taping inside and out that's insane. !
If a thread isnt designed to have a rubber ring and if its machined properly it shouldn't need tape. I'd hate to try and thread tape a CM nozzle tip :eek: Although MadBrush did suggest a bit of tape as a 'ring' on my HP-B+ that should resolve issues I have with that (not the same as this issue) I'm still yet to do it, I've got to be in the right frame of mind for doing doing fiddly :poo:
 
Last edited:
I can understand rubber deteriorating but taping inside and out that's insane. !
If a thread isnt designed to have a rubber ring and if its machined properly it shouldn't need tape. I'd hate to try and thread tape a CM nozzle tip :eek: Although MadBrush did suggest a bit of tape as a 'ring' on my HP-B+ that should resolve issues I have with that (not the same as this issue) I'm still yet to do it, I've got to be in the right frame of mind for doing doing fiddly :poo:
For some reason, this design of Paasche is
notorious for having leak issues....basically my opinion, they suck lol
 
LOL, known issue to everyone that uses them but no doubt Paasche says there's no issue or they would have fixed it already !!
 
The whole Paasche experience reminds me of when I decided to take up kite boarding. I bought a kite, kite board and other gear from a local shop without doing any research. I struggled with that setup all summer. I couldn't stay up on the board for more than a few seconds. So after a summer of frustration, I visited a shop in FL who let me try out some gear. He recommended a kite and board and it was a winner. I spend all day on the water and probably went down 3 times. Prior to this, I had not been able to stay on my board for more than a few seconds. The next day I landed a back flip.

I guess my point is that sometimes crappy equipment just hinders the learning curve and being a newbie you tent to think its you and just struggle on. Not sure if that's what's going on here. A few hours on the new HP-CS should sort that out.
 
you're spot on, crappy equipment certainly doesn't help the learning experience and many buy the chinese knock off for economic reasons and then give up because they are having so many issues and after watching youtube videos they figure its them because the pro's make it look so easy.

I bought a couple of chinese knock offs to begin with just to see how I thought I'd get on with this whole airbrushing thing. I didn't expect miracles from me or the tool, I've no art background apart from fingerpainting with the kids or doodling while on hold on the phone lol
within half an hour I knew it was going to be fun (no not sarcastic) I bought the HP-B plus and it was like a light bulb moment. I certainly recommend buying a good brush, it does make such a difference. in hindsight I would buy the eclipse HP CS as a starter brush, I cant recall any negative comments about that brush that wasn't user 'error'
 
Interesting turn of events today. I busted out the new HP-CS and found it came with some ComArt paint samples. So I put some of the ComArt paint in the Talon and it did good. sprayed for about 15 minutes with no issues. One thing I noticed is that the ComArt paint just about as thin as water. Their opaque is thinner and more transparent than Wicked transparent.

So now I'm thinking, cool. maybe the Talon is OK, so I pulled out the other Talon and loaded up some ComArt. It did OK for about a minute then started spewing paint from around the trigger. So other than this new issue, the Talon seems to like water thin paint. Don't think I'll mess with this thing anymore. I'll use it for spraying backgrounds and such. A few minutes of brush time then 10 or 15 to rebuild the airbrush just for another few minutes of painting is getting a bit old.
 
just remember to give your paints a good shake - the longer they've been sitting the longer you'll need to shake. I'll often grab the bottle and go make a coffee while I'm shaking it - got to remember which hand the paint is in though other wise it gets messy.
Also a piece of stocking over the neck of the bottle helps to strain out any 'dried' bits which play havoc with nozzles.
 
Well, I shook, but not enough. Didn't even know there was a ball in the bottle until I really went at it. Paint looks much better, but now it probably won't go through the Talon. :(
 
just remember to give your paints a good shake - the longer they've been sitting the longer you'll need to shake. I'll often grab the bottle and go make a coffee while I'm shaking it - got to remember which hand the paint is in though other wise it gets messy.
Also a piece of stocking over the neck of the bottle helps to strain out any 'dried' bits which play havoc with nozzles.
Stockings over necks, dry bits , havoc!! sounds like a party i was at one night jackie [emoji108]
 
Well, I shook, but not enough. Didn't even know there was a ball in the bottle until I really went at it. Paint looks much better, but now it probably won't go through the Talon. :(

All my paints get a good long shake when they've been standing for more than a few hours, the longer they've been standing the longer and harder treatment they get. The Createx Illustration and bloodline ranges seem to settle really quickly, even in a 'B' cup I often backflush to stop the pigment settling !!

Im pretty sure ComArt can be reduced with water

Stockings over necks, dry bits , havoc!! sounds like a party i was at one night jackie [emoji108]

you'll be in the gutter with @Squishy at that rate !! - although 'good long shakes, longer and harder treatment' doesn't sound very respectable either. I think Squishy needs to move over :p
 
All my paints get a good long shake when they've been standing for more than a few hours, the longer they've been standing the longer and harder treatment they get. The Createx Illustration and bloodline ranges seem to settle really quickly, even in a 'B' cup I often backflush to stop the pigment settling !!

Im pretty sure ComArt can be reduced with water



you'll be in the gutter with @Squishy at that rate !! - although 'good long shakes, longer and harder treatment' doesn't sound very respectable either. I think Squishy needs to move over :p
[emoji23][emoji23] sounds alrite to me, the gutters great its were all the cool kids hang [emoji41] and i know ive seen you around here before [emoji13]
 
Interesting turn of events today. I busted out the new HP-CS...

If you've got an HP-CS now, then IMO there's no point in working to "redeem" your Talons anymore. It's a waste of time and energy to "fix" a sub-par brush when you have another one that can do the same job right out of the box.

All my experiences with Paasche, and the Talon in particular, have been bad. IMO the company's reputation as a good AB maker is inertia from a bygone time when they actually were good (the 80's maybe?). These days in my experience they're no better than the Chinese knockoff brands.
 
Back
Top