Model tips, How to clean your airbrush after Enamel & Acrylic paint use

How to thoroughly clean a Double action Airbrush after use with Enamel paints, (Acrylic and lacquer, (cellulose), paint procedure cleaning is exactly the same but using the relevant thinners, IPA, Cellulose etc

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Model
• kit
• plastic
• styrene
• polystyrene
• tamiya
• Humbrol
• Testors
• Vallejo
• Xtracrylix
• airbrush
• air brush
• DA
• Double action
• Cleaning
• tips
• IPA isopropyl alcohol

[mecha29guy]

Wow. Thank you very much for this video. I can tackle my airbrush cleaning with a bit more confidence now.

[spidiq8]

@mecha29guy You're welcome, glad to be of help.

[railman55]

Wow - finally an intelligent person doing a how-to on airbrushing - thanks. I tore into a cheap dual-action model from China yesterday and the actual finger trigger fell out after I removed the needle. Now I can't get the trigger back into the air brush body because the internal mechanism has been dislodged (I think). Does this happen on good airbrushes? I noticed you weren't the least bit concerned about the trigger in this demo. Maybe this is why the Chinese brush is so cheap.

[spidiq8]

@railman55 Thanks first of all for your kind words.

The trigger is merely a plunger and the only thing stopping it popping out is the needle, all gravity feed airbrushes do this, even my Iwata.

To refit, screw in the sprung plunger unit and you'll have an S shaped steel piece, this fits as an S looking at the left of the brush slot to the bottom, if it's seperate it can be a fiddle to get in place.

[spidiq8]

@railman55 You then need to hold the plunger back and wiggle the trigger in until it fits in the hole and depresses the trigger spring. (making sure the slot in the trigger is forward/back facing.

Then feed the needle back through from the front.

Hope this makes sense to you and helps some

[JKDspirit]

Hi dude...I want to use humbrol enamel paints...could I use white spirit to thin it? or should I use humbrol paint thinner? someone said if i use white spirit with it the plastic will melt?

[spidiq8]

@JKDspirit It won't melt the plastic if you thin with white spirits, you're better sticking with proper enamel thinner from Humbrol though, always stick with the proprietary thinner for the brand to be on the safe side, you'll guarantee no odd effects.

[spidiq8]

@piokz25 I thoroughly clean like this after every session. The end of a session is when i'm done painting for that day, or for a good few hours, say breaking for lunch/errands, during a session i may spray 3 to5 colours, i always start with the lightest and work to the darkest and flush between colour changes with thinners till it flows clean, the only exception is metallics, i clean before changing to a solid colour as metalflake can remain. Process takes 15-20 min max, typically 10min

[piokz25]

hi i have a Q.how many time do you clean your airbrush?is it every after the job is done?

[spidiq8]

@magmawave Glad to be of help, you're welcome.