Advice needed on preparation and tools for painting.

as for cleanng ue ab, this was posted on here by mikeV, hes da man!
when i 1st got my ab, i used to dread painmting coz of the cleanup, but dont get frustrated, u will get in2 a rythm of cleaning very quick, and it will only take u a min or so to do.... here goes
Cleaning a Siphon-feed airbrush

I like to spray out the airbrush at higher pressures and use 50 psi myself, but if yours only puts out 20-30 then just use as much pressure as you can.

Dump the excess paint out and wipe the cup with a paper towel or rag.
Fill the cup about ½-¾ of the way with cleaner and then take an old paintbrush and wipe around inside the cup and down in the bottom of the cup around the needle with it to break loose the paint particles. Just dab it into the needle area in the bottom of the cup and it cleans very well.
I like a flat paintbrush about 3/8” wide, but you can use what you want. Just make sure the paintbrush is not one of those real cheap ones that the hairs fall out of, as you don’t want the hair getting into the airbrush and possibly causing problems down the road.

After that, spray the cleaner out of the airbrush.
You can now look into the cup to see how well you cleaned it.
If you see paint particles around the bottom of the cup still, then add a few drops of cleaner to the cup and dab the paintbrush into that area to break it loose, and fill the cup up about ½ way again with cleaner, wipe around in the cup with the paintbrush again and spray that out.
Wipe the inside of the cup with a soft rag or paper towel to clean any paint on the sides of the cup that may still be there. An old cotton T-shirt works good for this.
If you still see any residual paint particles, then once again dab the paintbrush around inside the cup with a few drops of cleaner in the bottom of the cup.

Fill the cup halfway with cleaner once more and hold a rag over the end of the airbrush to stop air from coming out of the tip. Push down on the trigger and pull back slowly and you will bubbles in the color cup as you are back flushing the airbrush. If you use high pressures to clean like I do then be careful doing this because if you have lacquer or other toxic cleaners in the cup and you pull the trigger back too far, it can shoot the cleaner up out of the cup and possibly into your eyes. That is why I say to pull the trigger back slowly until you get a pretty good amount of bubbles coming back into the cup. Do this for maybe 5 seconds or so and then look to see if any paint particles have appeared in the cup. Sometimes you will see paint particles, and sometimes you don’t, but I mention this just to let you see that back flushing can clean areas that just spraying out the airbrush can sometimes miss.
If there were very little paint particles in the cup from back flushing, then spray that cleaner out, fill the cup about ¼ way once more with cleaner and spray that out.

Remove the color cup, turn the airbrush over and clean inside the siphon-tube opening with a cotton swab soaked in thinner or cleaner for your paint type.
Also clean the siphon tube of the color cup with a pipe cleaner or brush soaked in thinner.
After it is good and clean then put the cup back into the airbrush and fill the cup ¾ of the way with filtered or distilled water for acrylics or thinner for enamels and spray that all out.
You can fill it about ½ way once more if you like and spray that out also, but if it seems clean enough it is not necessary.
Some people like to then just spray air through the airbrush for several seconds to dry out the insides, but that is up to you. Sometimes I do it and sometimes I don’t.
Now wipe the inside of the cup out with a rag, wipe any paint off the outside of the airbrush and you are done.



About every 3 or 4 times of using the airbrush I will take the needle out after cleaning the airbrush and wipe it off with a rag with some thinner on it to get any paint that may have not gotten cleaned quite well enough in previous cleanings. I then apply Badger Needle Juice or Medea Super Lube to the needle to help eliminate tip dry and keep paint from adhering to the needle. I also like a drop on the trigger to make it smoother as well as putting a drop on my finger and rubbing it around inside the color cup to make paint removal easier when cleaning.
These two products do not affect paint at all and are safe with enamels, lacquers, acrylics, and urethanes.

Every airbrush expert I know does not recommend disassembly to clean it each time and I agree.
Disassembling the airbrush each time is not necessary and I don’t personally recommend it because the potential of damaging the needle, tip, needle bearing, and other parts increases each time you take it apart. Some people feel it is better to take it apart each time and give it a thorough cleaning, and you have to make that decision yourself.

I hope this is helpful

id steer clear of pipettes for trasferring paint, coz thrye too unreliable (eg. i find that when i have the desired amount of paint in the pipette, and i pull it outta the paint, then if i release the pressure on the bulb, the paint will fly upwards, and make a mess in the bulb... dunno if i explained this clearly, but if u use em, ull know what im talking bout)
i only use the pipesttes for thinners for cleaning the ab
for paint i too use syringes, w/out the needle. i find the r very accurate, just pull the plunger out a bit b4 u suck the paint up, that way its easier5 to see how much u have in there...
straws r good too, only for small amounts tho... i use them mainly for brush paintng, or if i only need to ab a small area and just judge the paint to thinner ratio
hope this helps!!

A pipette is a small plastic tube with a sqeeze bulb on the end, looks like an eye dropper, but they are cheap and disposable.

What the heck is a "pipettes" ???

I use very small aluminum foil tart shells for mixing paint. After the tarts are eaten, instead of throwing the shells into the recycling bin, I wash them and recycle them downstairs to my modelling bench. I also use the 3 oz. dispolable paper drinking glasses that are designed to be put in a dispenser--the ones with flat bottoms.

For transferring and measuring paint and thinner, I use syringes--without needles, of course! These syringes are designed to be used with catheters, so they don't have needles. I have both 10 ml (1/3 oz) and 60 ml (2 oz) sizes. They flush out quite nicely with paint thinner and it doesn't seem to damage the rubber. If it does, I just throw it away. The nice thing about them is that they have marks on the sides so I can dispense a precise amount. I've also used drinking straws, but I prefer the ones that come in "drinking boxes" of juice. They're much sturdier than straws and I just cut off the point.

looks like they've answered most of your questions... I'd like to add I use the pipettes for paint and thinner transfer to the cup too. less worry about drip and you can be fairly accurate on your ratio of paint to thinner that way (most pipettes are graduated with ml marks on the side) until I found these I used drinking straws too with decent results but since then I always keep a healthy supply of them around!

You can get them in the kids science section of Hobby Lobby or order them from online. My LHS just started carrying them so I have a steady supply source handy now.

Larger cans of solvent are the fastest way to do flush outs. I've got one with a wide flip top lid, so I can swish the whole front of a gravity feed airbrush around in mineral spirits. When I bring it up, the gravity cup is almost full, so I can use microbrushes to swish what's in the cup then spray it back into the can. The large can of mineral spirits is on the floor in the pic, so that's the only thing not visible. You can see the alcohol container where I spray alcohol and windex into though. It's up on the desk corner.

Microbrushes and Butler GUM Proxabrushes don't need to be thrown away every time you use them. They can withstand harsh chemicals.

I've got small glass jars that hold the pipettes and the microbrushes that are used for airbrush cleaning. I stand those tools in the jars like pens in a pen cup.

i usually mix the paint in the cup (iwata HP-C) adding thinner first. to transfer paint, i use soda straws.; just dip in the jar and put your finger over the other end. then stir with a toothpick.

for brush paining, just use a small jar or plastic lid from something. i usually swish the brushes around in laquer thinner regardless of the paint used since it cleans everything very quickly.

i used the propellant cans once about 15 years ago - never again. i use a compressor. i have a big home depot compressor in the garage i use for big stuff with a spray gun; but use a badger million-air silent for the airbrush stuff.

i actually moved all my painting operations to the garage - much less stressful in cleaning - don't have to worry so much about dripping stuff on the carpet - plus much better ventilation with the doors open (but still use a ventilator).

to clean the airbrush, i use a concoction that is popular here: 2 parts distilled / ro water, 1 part windex, 1 part simple green. spray liberally then final flush with water. i usually lube the needle at the end of the day.

after you do it awhile, you get a routine that is fairly quick and painless. i love painting with an airbrush.
gw.