Airbrush vs Paint

the airbrush is only as good as the paint that goes thru it. Go with the cheap 99% iso, mixed 1:2:2 iso:tamiya thinner: gunze thinner. had most success with this mix, and straight iso is pretty good for cleaning.

QUOTE: What he needs is a retarder as acrylics are notorious for drying quickly on the needle.

not if you use tamiya brand thinner. i cant stress this point enough. tamiya paints go through any of my airbrushes like a dream. its the only acrylic that ive really stuck with because it is so easy to work with. i rarely, if ever experience tip dry with tamiya. i may have to stop now and again and clean the tip, but its not much. i have to do that with enamels too though. later.

QUOTE: Originally posted by ArmorMaster Don't thin tam acrylics with water, thats # 1. Tam acrys are fine paints, just thin them with iso or house stuff.

I think if he thins the paint with Iso then he may have an even worse tip dry problem as Iso tends to make paint dry quicker.
What he needs is a retarder as acrylics are notorious for drying quickly on the needle.

Mike

Thanks for the great tips Saltydog. I didn't realize that tamiya thinner had drying retarders in it. I normaly thin my paint exclusely with tamiya thinner.

Don't thin tam acrylics with water, thats # 1. Tam acrys are fine paints, just thin them with iso or house stuff.

roman, i use tamiya acrylics and i have a plain old iwata hp-c. i dont know what size needle/nozzle you have in you're hp-c+. i personally bought the .4mm n/n conversion kit for my hp-c and it works much better than the factory .3mm n/n combo. however, i used the .3mm n/n for a couple of weeks until i discovered the larger n/n conversion kit. this is what ive found to work for me: when im doing fine line cammo i start my thinning ratio at 2 parts paint 3 parts thinner and with tamiya paints i reccomend biting the bullet and getting the tamiya thinner. water has too much surface tension to be a real good thinner for tamiya, plus, the tamiya thinner has drying retarders in with the alcohol mix to help with the tip dry. crank the pressure down to around max 12psi and min. 8psi. you should be able to find a sweet spot some where in that range. you may find it necessary to thin even further. you're gonna have to learn patience here because its gonna take more passes to build the color but you can achieve some soft tight edges this way. i usually put on all my cammo colors with a 50:50 ratio and clean up with the above ratio to save a little time. if you dont have any superlube, i'd purchase some asap. this little love potion helps tremendously with tip dry. hope this helps my friend. happy painting, later.

thanks Digger but allow me to clearify myself. The paint it drying on the tip during spray. To clear the dried paint I lightly clean the tip with a wetted Q-tip. To resolve the problem completely I have to flush the airbrush.

I would suggest that a piece of sponge wetted with a piece of tape.Tape the wetted sponge over the tip to form a cap.This will keep the paint moist at the tip when you set it down for a few minutes.This should cure this problem without thinnig the paint any more.Digger