I’m that way too. Sometimes I just run down to paint a couple small parts. The longest time I spend airbrushing would be when I paint the overall model.
Unfortunately my embellished account is close to fact. There is no actual booze (Hawaii drinking laws prohibit the purchasing or consumption of alcoholic beverages for anyone under the age of 21 years) and they don’t hire a DJ (maybe I was just hearing the neighbor’s kids).
But they do release a pheromone, which makes them go nuts. The females (I THINK, as I didn’t check IDs) start running around flapping their wings in short buzzes. The males then jump in and suddenly the patio turns into a cockroach horror movie as dozens of them just start running and clumsily flying everywhere. And there are wild mating choo-choo conga lines. Remember the movie “Bug”? “We live” indeed.
I actually once sat through a swarm as I was almost done painting a model. I hate touching roaches, especially the big ones, but after several of them flew into my drying parts and started going for my neck, hair and face, I got angry and started backhanding them as they approached. The other times when they swarmed, it just got too crazy and there were too many of them to deal with.
And these guys are the big American Cockroaches, yes the kind you find in the garbage and sewers. The weather here is warm all year round, so they are a backyard fixture, hiding in rock and CMU walls by day and roaming the yard at night. We call them “B-52s”, after the famous Boeing bomber, not the 80’s new wave band. Kate Pierson would have hated the ones that head for your hair!
As we like to say “Lucky you live Hawaii”.
You need a better plan, maybe a cheap backyard screen house or some such thing if you can’t paint in the house.
Nah they do that only once in a while It’s just annoying when an airbrushing session coincides with their party. I airbrush outside at night because it’s cooler. Daytime is just too hot and there is too much glare from the yard. No spray painting inside - house rules.
In 60 years of modeling I painted one model outdoors when away camping one summer. I still remember it, a 39 Ford sedan, green with tan interior. First car model I used flat paint on the interior. But house rules are house rules.
I actually enjoy the cleanup process. I use primarily acrylics (Vallejo, MMP, Tamiya and Gunze). It is best to clean right after your painting session due to the quick drying properties of acrylics. As any fine instrument, when something goes array in their function, first step is to clean it thoroughly - tells you something of the importance of clean equipment.
Just got back into models a few years ago and I had the same issue. I also hated cleaning between using enamels and acrylics. Here’s how I resolved much of it. As Greg said, gravity brushes are much easier to clean. I sold my old Paasche’s and bought 4 new airbrushes. 2 Iwata’s and 2 Paasche makeup/nail polish airbrushes, all grav feed. I also have all my cleanup supplies laid out.
I have 1 Iwata and 1 Paasche for enamels and the other 2 for acrylics. I put a splitter on my compressor.
The gravity feed makeup brushes are excellent for small jobs (faces, cockpits, etc…) and their small size cup saves on wasted paint.
I keep the following supplies in or near my paintbox
bulk plastic droppers/pipettes so I don’t have to deal with paint dripping on the bottles/threadding. I tear off sheets of toillet paper squares and put them on a hook. I have a jar of q-tips, airbrush cleaning tools, cleaning liquids (water, airbrush cleaner and laquer thinner) and a long needle nose pair of tweezers.
After applying a coat of paint; 1) 1square of TP in the cup, a squirt of thinner or water to moisten, use tweezers to swish around. 2)fill cup with cleaner, spray. 3) more cleaner in cup, use q-tips to wipe needle at base of cup. 4) flush cup 1 more time. 5) wipe with 1 more pre moistened TP square.
It works for me
I have iwata neo. To me it’s a great brush. Matter of fact iwata makes tamiya airbrush. So basically you’ve got a tamiya airbrush. I’ve gotten busy after airbrushing and forgot to clean it for serval days. And cleaning after that long no problem. My trick is AK’s perfect cleaner. It’s a universal cleaner for acrylics. Also works on paint brushes. If you spray and need to have a big break in between. Pour just a little in and brush the inside and spray. Then put a few drops in and you can come back in hours later. No problem. I use it to clean everything and I’ve not found anything better
I have an ancient Badger 200. It’s so old I’m not even sure. Single action, siphon feed, screw on jar, one size. I dump paint. Refill it about 1/4 full with cleaning solvent. Pull siphon tube & wipe with soaked paper towel. Run it through a couple times with a cleaner solvent soaked pipe cleaner. Shake or stir the jar contents. I have spare lids. Dump. Wipe. Refill with cleaner. Assemble tube and jar. Spray and backflush. If I’m spraying another color this is when I do that. If not, I disassemble and wipe the jar, tube, needle and nozzle. Lube needle and reassemble. I guess a complete clean takes five to ten minutes.
Swap out the jar and use a cup instead. Cleanup is much faster. The cup holds less paint, which is a minus only when painting large models. I switched years ago and haven’t used the jar ever since.
[quote user=“Real G”
And these guys are the big American Cockroaches, yes the kind you find in the garbage and sewers. The weather here is warm all year round, so they are a backyard fixture, hiding in rock and CMU walls by day and roaming the yard at night. We call them “B-52s”, after the famous Boeing bomber, not the 80’s new wave band. Kate Pierson would have hated the ones that head for your hair!
[/quote]
Not to get off of the topic, but I have a story. A few years ago my wife and I stayed at a mansion in Fort Meyers that had been converted into a hotel. My wife told me that she saw a mouse run into the closet. I opened the door and this giant roach the size of a mouse was looking at me. I wacked it a few times with my shoe and it just sat there looking at me. Finally I disposed of it. I went to the concierge to complain about the roach. He told me that the locals call them “steel heads” because the shells are so hard. “The only way to kill it is to flip it over and crush its belly.” I said thanks and immedietly went to the bar and had two shots of Wild Turkey.
They are so commonplace here in Florida, they have their own cute euphameism. “Palmetto Bug”.
I didn’t know they were also prolific in Hawaii, but I guess that makes sense.
You could be a writer, RealG, you crack me up.
Thanks Greg, but I’m just describing what I occasionally go through while painting - honest! [:D]
”Steelheads”! Never had a run in with them. The Hawaii roaches are big and soft from all those plate lunches and fruit punch (the unofficial State drink). Would Steelheads be the type seen in “Damnation Alley”? Another roachy movie. And arguably the most chilling to me, especially when they started boiling out of the department store!
Sorry to keep derailing the thread, but I just remembered a bug more horrifying than a Steelhead - the giant waterbug! I have never seen one in the wild, but a flying aquatic bug that can bite hard, suck the juices out of fish and tadpoles, and looks like a big dead cockroach is top bug in my book!
Back to airbrushes - so yeah, try thinking soothing, non-cockroachy thoughts as you lovingly clean the parts. Think of the wonderful painting session that just ended, and be happy. Happy. Happy… And no cockroaches…
Airbrushing is my favorite part of modeling. Seriously. 
I really don’t mind tearing my airbrushes down to clean them. I do it a lot when I’m painting. Maybe I’m just odd. Lol When I mainly built cars I used a Badger 360 all the time. Use a bottle for larger stuff and the small cup for Alclad and details. So, I kept an airtight Rubbermaid container full of either Purple Power or Castrol Super Clean to drop my bottles and caps in when I was finished. Let them soak for a while and a good rinse was all they really needed. Keep an old toothbrush handy for stubborn stuff and a pipe cleaner to run through the suction tube in the caps. I don’t know, I got used to it. I really don’t mind cleaning multiple times during a painting session. Tony