After cleaning gunk from my fancy airbrush nozzle more than once, I decided to try some solvent dilutions. Was I surprised to find that Tamiya air brush cleaner clumps Vallejo paint. Thank goodness it does at least dissolve Tamiya paint but still with tiny clumps. I was shocked and wonder if there is a more universal cleaner. I think 90% alcohol might be better but haven’t tested yet.
Any insight appreciated
Vallejo and alcohol is gel city inside your airbrush. But you can get by with some alcohol in a mix of water, dish soap and the alcohol if you really flush the airbrush with hot water first, then clean/flush etc. with that solution. Or Try the Iwata Medea Airbrush cleaner they sell at Hobby Lobby for your Vallejo ( don’t breath sprayed fumes from this stuff, it will cut your airway right off, keep it contained in a cleaning bucket. I use an old tissue box lined with paper towel and get the nozzle inside the box,then it’s fine)… Everything else acrylic I use my own homebrew acrylic thinner to clean up with,including the tough to clean Stynylrez primer, it works great. That and hot tap water at the sink, the hotter the better.
Now and then I tear down the front of my brushes and soak overnight in lacquer thinner. Some folks only clean with lacquer thinner. Lacquer thinner is an acquired taste, generally it gives me a head ache but the more I use it the less so. However I married an asthmatic, now that’s another story. So generally speaking I find ways around using lacquer inside. Now she loves her art work sprayed in clear lacquer ( she only works with acrylics herself) but I do them outside if to use lacquer. Her artist grade acrylics accept clear lacquer fine.
Lacquer thinner petty much cleans everything.
Madea Airbrush cleaner dies a good job on Vallejo also its not as noxious in odor as LT
On the rare occasions that I run a water-based acrylic like Vallejo or MRP Aqua/Figure paints through my airbrush (a Paasche H), I use Walmart’s Great Value Glass Cleaner. For everything else, including alcohol-based acrylic’s like Tamiya, I use MEK. Keep in mind though that I don’t clean my airbrush using the spray-through/flushing method, which wouldn’t be too safe with MEK. What I do is to keep a couple of old pickle relish jars filled with those cleaners. Since the Paasche H is an external mix airbrush, all of the parts that are in contact with the paint separate completely from the rest of the airbrush. That allows me to drop all of those parts into the relish jar of cleaner. Then I seal the jar and put that in an ultrasonic cleaner that I then fill the rest of the way with water to transmit the sound waves…run that for about 30 minutes to get everything nice and clean. When the parts are clean, I just rinse them under hot water and let them air dry. Color cups and needle/cone sets for the H are relatively inexpensive, so I have several sets, and I just rotate them so I can paint with another color while the previous one is being cleaned. When the chrome plating eventually wears off of them (which takes several years), I just buy another set. The airbrush itself, I have had for 37 years, and have rarely had to do much to it for maintenance.
Thanks for the recollection about Madea as i remember I had better luck with it than Tamiya’s
Guess the bottom line is to check a sample of each paint/cleaner before gunking up a nozzle. [:O]