I’ve been airbrushing only for a year now and still find it frustrating too often. I use Sparmax dual-action airbrushes Max-3 and SP-20x (just arrived this week). Vallejo Air and Tamiya Paints. Ditto for thinners and I use Tamiya Airbrush cleaner. I usually thin paint 50/50, PSI between 15-25 and clean the airbrush often and methodically - I’ve watched so many videos on airbrush cleaning…
Question: When using the preset handle to control the flow of paint, I find that it only works for a few seconds then the paint stops flowing. Obviously it’s getting clogged somewhere, but releasing the preset handle so that more paint/air flows usually unblocks things. Is this normal?
I usually give up after a while and just release the preset handle to maximum open. As a benefit, I’ve become more accurate, but I’d just like the airbrush to work as it should.
Question: The cleaning brush that comes with the Sparmaxes doesn’t seem adequate to really get inside all the nooks and crannys - especially between the the paint cup and nozzle. What should I use?
Question: Backflushing: seems like some people recommend this gargling procedure, others don’t. What say you?
I backflush and don’t tear down my airbrushes very often. But I flush and back flush several times till I’m sure it’s spraying clear fluid. I end with a little water sprayed through after flushing as this is neutral between Tamiya, Vallejo and craft paints which are the acrylics I use. I also use lacquers and especially clear lacquers, I use more thinner flushing than I do thinning lol ! Enamels flush easy with lacquer thinner. I have one double action brush that has to be torn down on the tip end if using lacquer but I don’t care for that brush much so rarely use it anyway…
Don’t mix Tamiya products with Vallejo is my suggestion and when switching from one to the other give a quick flush with some water after your quick flush with cleaner… Vallejo Model Air is good paint but you need to stick with their own additives, thinners and such. Even more so with Vallejo Model Color paints. Model air can take only a small hint of alcohol in the thinner ( still not advisable), Model Color will totally hickup on it and clog your airbrush.
You could be getting tip dry, what you describe about the airbrush stopping it’s flow when cut back sounds like that. I use Liquitex retarder in my acrylics for airbrushing. Vallejo also makes a flowaid for their paints that is supposed to help this. I just have the liquitex on hand, it’s very liquid unlike some retarders and works for me so I never bought the Vallejo flow aid.Most guys do though who airbrush Vallejo products a lot. I’ve never had Tamiya tip dry on me that I recall. I do in dryer weather use a little retarder in that as well. I think their thinner which I don’t use already has some in it fwiw. I highly suggest you not put Tamiya thinner in Vallejo paints though.
I don’t think the frustration will ever go away completely, but keep going. Eventually things will start to click and it will get easier. It takes time and practice. You say a year, but if you only work a couple of hours a month, that isn’t that long.
Your first question sounds like “tip dry”. Since you get it to flow with more air pressure/wider angle, that seems to be the most likely cause. Your paint is probably too thick for the air pressure/needle size you are trying to use. You will probably need several light thin coats/passes with things to get the coverage you need. You aren’t going to be able to get the same result with a single pass using a thinned 10 psi mixture compared to spraying a thicker primer at 25 psi with a wide open .5mm needle.
For cleaning, one lesson I learned is that I try to never let the airbrush cup go completely empty to the point where all I am getting is air and no more paint. I try to always keep the airbrush cup “wet”. Kind of like adding water to the sauce pan as soon as you are done emptying the soup out. Much easier to clean before things start to dry. If you have lower humidity, some of the acrylics will dry very fast in the brush. Remember if the sides of the airbrush cup have dried paint, it won’t be long before that will be the state of things at the bottom of the bowl too. I always have a bottle of distilled water on hand and blow a lot if that through. I use 3 or 4 bowls full of that and that really helps to start the cleaning process.
Backflushing? I don’t do it as I find that I don’t need to if I keep cleaning quickly. I have done it and I don’t think you can actually harm the airbrush. I don’t recall any manufacurers saying don’t do it.
For me, I experimented with a lot of “pro” ideas and processes and slowly over the last few years settled on what worked best for me. For model air and Model Color, I can just squirt in some thinner and a couple of drops of Flow-Aid and kind of eyeball it. With Mission Models, I count drops and try to be very precise and get the best results I have ever had. Some folks will only use laquers and enamels and that is OK too. If there was only one way to do it, only one brand would be around. Patience:)
I don’t know if this is something you’d be comfortable with or not but, one thing I’ve found that helps reduce tip dry is polishing the needle. I’ll polish it from behind where it passes through the needle bearing or seal to the tip. I start with 1200 or 1500 grit sandpaper and work up to 12000. Finish with some metal polish. I use Flitz. Now, I didn’t buy all this stuff just to polish airbrush needles, I already had it on hand, but it does help. You don’t have to go to 12000 grit. If you could go up to 2000 or 2500 and then use metal polish that’s enough. I’ve had MicroMesh polishing cloths forever and that’s how I get the higher grits. Cut some sandpaper in to 1 or 2 inch squares, fold it over and pinch the needle lightly in the paper with your thumb and index finger. Then turn the needle with your other hand. A drop of light oil of some type helps. Use a light touch and be careful and you’ll be fine. It does help and honestly makes the brush more responsive overall. Using the needle limiter does make dealing with tip dry more frustrating but it’s just one of those things. I think Harder & Steenbeck have a good idea with the limiter they use on some of their brushes, you can adjust it and then just pop it on or off like an ink pen. I don’t have one but it’s a good idea. Lol. Thinning your paint more and/ or using a flow improve or retarder will help too. Turning up the air pressure may too. Outside of Tamiya bottled acrylics I pretty much stick with lacquers and a few enamels. Not much problem with tip dry with them. Since I’m working from my phone this may end up as one big paragraph. My apologies if it does.
I didn’t see a comment about your question about the preset handle, so thought I’d add my 2 cents on that part of it.
Everything I’ve ever read, plus my personal experience spraying various brands of acrylics points to them being mostly useless for acrylic paints. My advice would be to learn trigger control and minimize dry tip using the various advice given above rather than trying to make the preset handle behave the way you think it should.
I think you could expect the preset control to work fine with a good solvent-based paint, though.