When I was a kid I only brushed testors enamel paints as airbrushes where not a common thing (1959- 1965), later, when my son was young I got back into modeling (1988-1991) and bought a Badger single action airbrush and then about 10 years ago I had some old kits in the attic so I bought a Paanche dual action airbrush but it was a bottom feeder which required more paint just to use it and wasted paint. I never completed some of those kits at that time and wanted to do so now so I bought an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS and I have not used it yet. I have quite a few old paints from years ago (most are Model Master Enamels) and wanted to use what I have so I was wondering if I should clean my airbrush by running something through it first before using it.
I always give mine a thorough cleaning when new. Take off any residues that may not play nicely with paint.
You can have some machining residue in a new airbrush. I usually just pull the tip and needle. Flush those and wipe down. Then squirt straight through the body with a squeeze bottle of lacquer thinner or sometimes Iwata Medea airbrush cleaner. Minimally invasive routine and put it back together. I follow that with spraying either alcohol or lacquer thinner through the brush and check the pattern. All that takes about 5 min. lol. Now I consider it ready for paint.
I remember one guy here in the forum upon removing the head and nozzle tip on a new AB, found metal shavings inside. So you don’t want to risk shooting that stuff forward into the tip. But even if that’s not the case, there can be machining oils and such.
It can’t hurt.
I also shoot a little thinner before each time I use just to make sure it’s not blocked,before I add paint
Neat thing about spraying with thinner is that thinner is easiest thing to spray. Thus it becomes a test, If it doesn’t spray thinner there is a problem.
I Dunno!
This is fact. Every time I buy something like a New Airbrush, I do run it through a cleaning cycle, that way if it gets cantankerous I know it’s not from the way it was assenbled at the factory and all their dust is off of it!