.2mm vs .4mm Airbrush Nozzle

Hit the wrong button...

I meant to add that if the .4 nozzle will do what you need then go with it. You won't have to reduce nearly as much.

And, adding glycerin is basically using a retarder to slow drying. The amount I use doesn't seem to have much effect on actual drying time on the model but it does cut down on tip dry.

Tony

You're right, it can be interesting. I'm not a long time user of acrylics, Tamiya or otherwise, but they seem to work pretty well. This spring I bought a Badger Sotar. I've never seen it listed anywhere exactly what the tip size is but it's at least .021, maybe smaller. Like you said, higher pressure and thicker paints will work too. But once I started thinning more and used lower pressure the stoppages and tip dry weren't nearly as bad. Except white, white drives me nuts. One thing I have noticed with very thin Tamiya paints is that if I have mixed colors they seem to seperate at times. Like maybe using yellow green mixed with a dark green. It may spray well but when it hits the model sometimes you see the different colors and just have to hope the last coat doesn't do that. I thought maybe it was because of the glycerin but had the same thing happen without it. And with all the alcohol the surface has to be clean. Any oil from your hands is a disaster.

Tony

Been trying more thinner - it's very interesting. Not quite sure it's better than high pressure, thicker paint. (Although it is if it doesn't clog the brush.) I have noticed that one advantage of the thin coat is that if you're quick you simply wipe off a little booboo. As for big ones, I spent about an hour removing the entire deck on HMS Rodney which had been the victim of an earlier lapse in judgement. Good old Goo Gone had the thing wiped clean. Replaced with my own deck color of Tamiya mix and heavily thinned: first coats dark, the last two lighter. Looked fine but boring.  Now, gulp, I've covered the whole kit with a very light oil wash: dark gray on the hull and a light umber on the deck. Hope its not insane to try to make a ship the way the MIG guys make tanks. But the brush is working fine.

Thirds. Try denatured alcohol and thin the heck out of it. Heck, fill the cup or bottle up with about as much alcohol as you'll need to paint whatever you're working on and then add enough DROPS of paint to get color. Seriously. You can use less air pressure too. If you're still having too much tip dry then try adding glycerin to the alcohol before mixing with paint. I use 10 - 15 drops of glycerin to an ounce of denatured alcohol. Glycerin is cheap and can be found at most drugstores. Another thing that will help is to remember and practice this: air on...paint on...paint off...air off.

And if your paint job goes wrong, a little spray of Windex and Tamiya acrylics will wash right off. Even after it's dry.

Tony

I will second what Phil has said - it's all in the mix. I use an H&S Infinity with a full set of needle, I use all of them but most often use the 0.2mm set. I use predominantly Tamiya acrylics I can't say I have a clogging issue - even with the 0.15mm needle set.

Tamiya's recommended ration is 2>3 parts thinner to 1 part paint - I find 3 thinner to 1 paint work fine. Once you start getting to grips with it all you can start adjusting the ratio's to suit your style & airbrush.

Yikes. Live and learn. I've been mixing in 25-33% Tamiya thinner. I'll sure give your advice a shot. At this stage I consider every kit a practice kit and as long as trusty "Goo-Gone" is handy, I can make a whopper of a mistake and simply start over.

I'm also going to give Life Color paints a shot. I bought the primes plus a couple of extras and have heard they're very airbrush friendly.

Eric

EBergerud

Bought a HS Evolution with a .2mm tip and it's a fine brush no doubt. However, I use Tamiya acrylics usually, and I'm finding it necessary to clear out the tip frequently. Don't claim expert status, but it strikes me that the small nozzle not only is inherently easier to clog, but as the process begins it inhibits the cleaning with airbrush solution etc simply because not enough air is blowing through. The question is whether the advantages of the .2mm tip are worth the candle. I'd think that a .4mm tip would still provide a pretty good control and could only help with the clogging issue. Opinions?

Hi Eric,

You may wish to experiment with a thinner mix with your Tamiya acrylics. Tamiya acrylics actually have quite a dense pigment load and can be thinned out much further than many people realise. 

If you are using Tamiya X-20A thinner, you won't really get much further than about 2 parts thinner to 1 part paint. If you go much further than that, it will tend to bead and run.

However, if you use denatured alcohol (ethanol) you can take it as far as 75-80% thinner and still get decent coverage (however you may need to do multiple passes to build up to your desired colour depth).

You will almost certainly get clogging if you use Tamiya's metallics though - I have an airbrush with a 0.35mm nozzle and it will clog if the paint isn't thinned just right.

0.2mm is really in "detail" territory and 0.4mm is certainly better suited to broader coverage. However, don't think that 0.4mm is too wide for detail painting - with a steady hand, lower pressure, thinner paint and a close airbrush to subject distance,  you can quite easily do very tight "detail" work.