Aztek Airbrush

I retired my Aztek after having too many nozzles getting clogged up inside. I had to disassemble the whole nozzle to clean it, but during this process some of them got damaged so I got fed up with spending money on new nozzles. Other than that the Aztek was a very good airbrush.

I have no idea why so many people have trouble with Ateks and their nozzles using acrylic paints.

All I use in the 470 is acrylics, and only 1 nozzle, the tan one.

It's been 2 years now, and the nozzle has NEVER clogged on me, and only twice has the brush itself failed me and needed a damn good cleaning.
Otherwise she still gives clean spray patterns and nice fine lines.

Paints I use are Gunze Sangyo and Tamiya, both thinned with Tamiya X-20A, doesnt matter if they are flat or gloss or any inbetween.

I must add that all my paint/thinner mixes are done with a 60 cc syringe, so maybe I have found the correct balance to suit my brush type.

Dont get me wrong, this does not make me an Aztek only man, but till I can find a Badger, or maybe an Omni for a decent price here in Australia, then I'll use what I've got.

QUOTE: Originally posted by unnamedplayer kik36: good going, your absolutly right -Aztek airbrushes are made of plastic, so they dissolve and you buy another one -aztek airbrushes are cheap, so you can buy many -aztek airbrushes are MADE to be broken, then bought again. repeat as nessicary -aztek airbrushes are so bad you use it once, then put it in the case -aztek airbrushes come in wooden cases so you can throw them in a fire and they will melt and burn -the nozzles are made only to use once, contrary to popular belief

I have used an Aztek for many years now and I once "forgot" an Aztek tip in lacquer thinner (which is pretty aggressive stuff) for a period of 3 weeks and when I pulled it out of the pot it was in perfect condition and I continued to use it long afterwards without any change in performance. The bottom line is: your tips have to be squeeky clean. I take them appart to clean them.
Testors claims that they resist to pretty much all known chemicals and it seems to be the case.
As for the body, avoit soaking it. I use Q-tips and a folded over pipe cleaner dipped in thinner to clean around the trigger needle pin where in goes into the body while giving a back an forth motion to the trigger to move the pin in and out as I clean the pin.
As far as cleaning solutions go, I use Alcohol (70% Isopropyl) for when Tamiya acrylics are not dried yet and use lacquer thinner for when its dried up as well as for enamels.

10 years of Aztek use and quite satisfied !!!

Happy painting !

not me... i soaked one in super powerful lacquor, stuff powerful enough to blind you and to melt abs styrene or polystyrene 1/4 in think in under a minnute... stupid aztek, wish they would use needles instead :<

I hope I did not make a mistake here , I am just getting back into modelling,which I have been away for some years now ,I used to hand paint my aircraft ,tanks ,cars and ships. Now I just got two Aztek airbrushes 220 and 470, I hope I did not make a mistake. I would like to know is there any canadians on this forum who use Co2 for air supply.

I am an Aztek buyer and I found the best thing that helps me is to have a bottle of rubbing alchohol and permenantly keep my nozzles in there. I take the nozzle out, spay with it and when I am done I return it to its resting place, always replacing the alcholhol as needed. That way any left over paint (I use Acrylics) thats still in the nozzle will not dry and can be easily sprayed out for next use. It works for me. I also mostly use the white nozzle for all applications.