Airbrushing Part 4

I'm all too aware that I didn't finish my previous series of posts on airbrushing, so with the Lysander ticking along in the background I'll get down to that here.

I left the last post on this topic at the stage of actually using the airbrush to paint. That leaves the question of cleaning the airbrush, both as you're going along and when cleaning up at the end of a painting session.

Cleaning as you go along:

It's not unreasonable to want to use various colours in succession during the same painting session, yet without cleaning between colours you're going to end up with a clogged and unusable airbrush or, perhaps even worse, a tool which spits paint all over your model. Cue lots of swearing and a desperate attempt to salvage the situation - it's all too familiar as a scenario.

So you've used the airbrush to spray a colour and need to change to another colour. You can't just put the new colour into the cup because when you try to spray the model you'll get a jet of the previous colour first. The new colour will also mix with the previous colour so you need to clean out the airbrush. This doesn't require a complete strip-down, but just enough of a clean to make sure that the old colour is no longer going to emerge from the airbrush and so that you're not going to get clogging.

Using the Iwata Medea cleaning pot shown below I shoot some airbrush cleaner through, usually in addition to wiping the cup and the needle tip with cotton buds. I use either the Iwata Medea airbrush cleaner or the Vallejo version, although this latter is pungent, to say the least. Often you need to turn up the pressure, while I also find that shooting the cleaner through in a stop-start process means that the cleaner gets a chance to eat into the paint inside the airbrush.

I've found that it's possible to repeat this process with different colours several times, but of course airbrushes are precision instruments and there comes a point when you need to strip them down properly. In addition, the type of paint can be an issue - some clog more than others, with Lifecolor at one extreme (more likely to clog) and Vallejo at another (less likely to clog). The amount of thinning can of course have an impact too. This isn't a measure of which paint is best, but each presents different requirements for cleaning.


Cleaning at end of the session:

You might have used one, a few, or a large number of different colours; you might have been spraying for a long time, or for just a few minutes; you might have an airbrush which is working pretty well, but you might have something which is spattered with different paint colours and which isn't going to co-operate for much longer without a good clean. If you've finished your paint session or the airbrush is begging for mercy it's time to strip it down and clean it with cleaning brushes and cotton buds. At this stage I follow the process outlined above but in addition I take the various removable parts, such as the needle, the fittings at the tip, the cup, etc. These are given a good clean, possibly supplementing the cotton buds with other tools, such as the airbrush cleaning brush included with the Harder and Steenbeck Infinity or the cleaning brushes shown in the image below - this set was bought from The Airbrush Company. Harder and Steenbeck also make a small cleaning tool which allows you to scrape inside the removable tip of their airbrushes. This needs to be bought separately (I got mine from Everything Airbrush) but is money well spent.

The important thing is to make sure that the airbrush is completely clear of paint, especially the tip. At this stage I also clean things like pipettes, stirrers, etc. These various items are then left on some kitchen towel overnight to dry, not least to allow the various rubber seals to settle down.


Regular maintenance:

Cleaning the airbrush at the end of the session is basic good practice for looking after this expensive equipment but it is also worth stripping the airbrush down on a regular basis for a more thorough clean. The cleaning pot shown above comes with a plastic container (in the top right of the image below) and this is useful for soaking different parts of the airbrush in some cleaner. I don't immerse the body of the airbrush in any cleaner (it's really not a good idea), but its amazing how many little bits of paint end up collecting at the bottom of the container, even after a few minutes.

The above image shows the Iwata airbrush after being stripped down. I find that this is particularly necessary when I've put varnish through the Iwata and then the airbrush hasn't been used for a few days. This usually means that the needle sticks, so it's necessary to put some cleaner into the side of the airbrush and this usually does the trick when it has been allowed to sink in for a few minutes. At this stage it's usually possible to unjam the airbrush and then strip it down into its constituent parts.

The brushes shown in the above image are particularly useful for cleaning out the hole on either side of the Revolution for the separate side-feed cup, which is a notable area of clogging for this design of airbrush. The spanner is for removing the tip of the airbrush and is supplied in the box. Once the tip is removed the thinnest of the brushes is used to clean out the body of the airbrush where the tip fitting was located, while inter-dental brushes are useful for cleaning the tip. Once clean the tip can be replaced but it's all too easy to overdo the tightening with the spanner - the thread is tiny and can snap so be gentle. For the Infinity this isn't an issue since the tip is part of a set of inter-locking pieces which can be screwed back in place by hand.

For both the Iwata and the Infinity I use kitchen towel dipped in cleaner to wipe the needle clean. The needle for the Infinity is particularly delicate and prone to being bent, so if this has happened it can be repaired by gently rubbing the tip along some fine sandpaper. Iwata needles need to be given some lubricant (the blue tube in the above image) before being fitted back into the main body of the airbrush, but the Infinity absolutely does not - Harder and Steenback are adamant that this will damage the airbrush.

For some reason I find stripping down my airbrushes and giving them a good clean is quite a therapeutic exercise - I certainly like looking after such expensive equipment. The comments above represent my own way of doing things and I'm sure others have their own method, cleaning tools, preferred cleaners, etc. It seems to work for me but it has been a process of trial and error.

Zigerastica