Newbie help, I'm kinda stuck

Illsley

Double Actioner
Hi ,

I am very new to using an airbrushe and using one to build Gunpla and other models. I have watched a lot of you tube tutorials and wanted to have a go at one of my own. So I took the plunge and got myself a tank compressor kit and made 2 kits and all was good. but recently I'm constantly having problems and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or have a problem with my setup or something else.

I will try and explain the best I can. with the kit came a cheap airbrush, this was OK but I found it hard to regulate the speed of the spray and I ended up over spraying on some parts. This led me to buy another cheap airbrush this started out better, and I had more control but the spray after a second or 2 just stopped and I would have to stop and re trigger again to continue. So I thought that it must be the cheap airbrush, so I went for a Badger Renegade and had the same results as the previous airbrush but this would also splatter randomly. I then thought it could be my paint (Tamiya acrylic 50/50 mix), so I bought some Vallejo Air colors again with the same results. I have tried different compressor pressures 20psi, 30psi, 40psi all with the same results.

So recently I have purchased yet another airbrush KKmoon Cheap airbrush and alas the same as above.

What am I doing wrong, is my paint not thin enough? even my Vallejo primers do the same.
 
Could be a number of things including (but not limited to) dirty paint, tip dry, poor reduction, wrong nozzle size for the paint...

With fine tolerance tools such as the airbrush clean it, and clean it again and if you aren't sure, assume it needs a clean! Then practice... lots of this!

Other thing... how about doing an intro for us...? Here is the link... https://www.airbrushforum.org/introductions/

Welcome Dragon.jpeg
 
Hi

Sorry to be a pain but I have cleaned and cleaned dissasembled, cleaned oh and just for good measure cleaned again. As for the other problems I dont know what they are and how to fix it.

I have done a intro so go check it out.

Regards

Brian

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Hi

Sorry to be a pain but I have cleaned and cleaned dissasembled, cleaned oh and just for good measure cleaned again. As for the other problems I dont know what they are and how to fix it.

I have done a intro so go check it out.

Regards

Brian

Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk
Yup... how did you clean it, how did you confirm it was clean? If you think it was clean enough then check out the other tings I noted..."Could be a number of things including (but not limited to) dirty paint, tip dry, poor reduction, wrong nozzle size for the paint... "
 
ok, lets get back to basics... there will be 101 questions being fired at you but we need ALL the info if we are going to get you spraying.

You've tried several different brushes, different paints and are getting the same result, so the only thing that is still common is the compressor.

my first suspicion is that you have the regulator set on the tank without air flow through the airbrush. Press the trigger on the airbrush so the air is flowing and keep it flowing while you THEN set the pressure on your regulator to about 20 and see if that helps.

- even though the paint states 'airbrush ready' they rarely are, and will require a reduction of some sort, especially when doing small details. Use the manufacturers recommended product and initially try 1:1 (reducer : paint)

- regarding your random splatters. That is very likely tip dry / bad technique - it means you are getting paint build up on the tip of the needle that is then being blown off when you least expect it.
 
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Thanks everyone for your replies, I really appreciate it.

I will try and answer as much as I can , with the very little newbie knowledge I have. The compressor I have is the Voilamart AS186 tanked compressor and today I have set it according to #JackEb and it seems yes this was set incorrectly. It is now set correct (problem still persists) and I have done some reading about My Badger Krome Renegade and it seems that if your using the smallest needle (0.21mm) you need to also use the non pronged protected head for better flow, this I have also changed. To answer #huskystafford's question, with the above changes yes tap water works fine (previously it didn't). But sadly paint does not. so I'm now thinking its my paint being to thick. I have Ordered some Vallejo reductor (for the Vallejo air) and if that works thin my Tamiya paints a little more.

But I still have some newbie questions, does paint that has been pre-thinned get thicker over time? say if you didn't use that color for a month or so? reason I ask is that I haven't used my paints in a good while.

I read somewhere online that the paint for an airbrush should be the consistency of milk is that right?

Thanks again for all your help.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies, I really appreciate it.

I will try and answer as much as I can , with the very little newbie knowledge I have. The compressor I have is the Voilamart AS186 tanked compressor and today I have set it according to #JackEb and it seems yes this was set incorrectly. It is now set correct (problem still persists) and I have done some reading about My Badger Krome Renegade and it seems that if your using the smallest needle (0.21mm) you need to also use the non pronged protected head for better flow, this I have also changed. To answer #huskystafford's question, with the above changes yes tap water works fine (previously it didn't). But sadly paint does not. so I'm now thinking its my paint being to thick. I have Ordered some Vallejo reductor (for the Vallejo air) and if that works thin my Tamiya paints a little more.

But I still have some newbie questions, does paint that has been pre-thinned get thicker over time? say if you didn't use that color for a month or so? reason I ask is that I haven't used my paints in a good while.

I read somewhere online that the paint for an airbrush should be the consistency of milk is that right?

Thanks again for all your help.
reduce your paint with water just for test until you get the reducer you ordered. Play a little with it:
1 drop of paint 10 drops of water and see what happens
1 drop of paint and 5 drops of water and see what happens
1 drop of paint and 1 drop of water and see what happens

 
But I still have some newbie questions, does paint that has been pre-thinned get thicker over time? say if you didn't use that color for a month or so? reason I ask is that I haven't used my paints in a good while.

The paint which I mix today while I have fun and I couldn't manage to use all, I drop in to my bottle for unused reduced paint and I do this all the time. That bottle is getting filled with bunch of different colors and it's more or less very dark black color after all colors which I putted inside are mixed... And that paint I use for training sessions. I reduce it more when I have training session if needed. But I don't know if that would be good for some serious work.
 

I read somewhere online that the paint for an airbrush should be the consistency of milk is that right?

Thanks again for all your help.
Consistency of milk is expression how people got newbs out of their back for keep asking how much to reduce :D
That video I posted few posts before is all you need :cool:
 
when you reduce your paint, it will expire in time. Only reduce what you need and will use right away or with in the next 24 hours or so...
 
when you reduce your paint, it will expire in time. Only reduce what you need and will use right away or with in the next 24 hours or so...
I think this is where my problem lies. I rebottled and reduced whole pots of paints at a time and therefore all my paint over time has gone bad. I tested out a 50:50 mixture tamiya grey and the problem was gone. Tryed my surface prima and the brush struggles and spatters/stops.

Does this mean all my old paints are unrecoverable?
deb52fa05a1fecefa5761c95b48471ae.jpg


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Update,

Today as i had managed to get some paint prima reduced enough to start priming some of the kit im currently doing, after around 20 or so parts, my problem starts to come back and progressively getting worse. Next thing i know theres a loud clatter, grind and pop and a bad burning smell. Well my compressor died. Maybe that was the problem all along. Anyone suggest a reliable compressor that wont hurt the wallet so?

Thanks everyone for all your help

Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk
 
Update,

Today as i had managed to get some paint prima reduced enough to start priming some of the kit im currently doing, after around 20 or so parts, my problem starts to come back and progressively getting worse. Next thing i know theres a loud clatter, grind and pop and a bad burning smell. Well my compressor died. Maybe that was the problem all along. Anyone suggest a reliable compressor that wont hurt the wallet so?

Thanks everyone for all your help

Sent from my LG-H870 using Tapatalk
budget?
what you plan to spray?
 
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