I have been air brush painting for a number of years but it is often a battle with clogging up the brush after a short time painting. I am using a good quality brush (iwata) and quality acrylic paint (Vallejo) but clogging persist even though I have tried many different methods to resolve my problems. Recently I saw a YouTube video where a guy said that many clogging problems with acrylic paints are due to small paint boogers in the paint. Even new paint and high-quality paint can experience it. He filtered all his air brush acrylic paint through nylon stocking hose material.
I decided to give it a try and it provided a huge improvement in my painting experience. Here is what I did using my Vallejo paint that come in 2 oz bottles.
1) Unscrew the top and remove the internal nozzle (it just pops out). Clean the nozzle to remove any paint that may have congealed inside the nozzle. This important to remove any congealed paint from nozzle area.
2) Mix the paint well. Some bottles may have paint that has separated and no amount of hand shaking will mix it well. I use a Badger battery powered paint mixer. The mixing disk will not fit in the 2 oz bottle unless you grind it down a small amount so it will fit into the bottle. This work well to mix up the paint. It will also break loose any congealed paint in the bottle. Any congealed paint and boogers will be filtered out in following steps.
3) Stretch some hose over the opening then reinsert the nozzle.
4) Your bottle is now ready to dispense paint as usual.
5) After you are done painting, remove the hose.
Previously, I would need to stop every 15-20 minutes and do some brush cleaning to clean it out. It also adversely impacted the quality of my paint pattern.
After straining the paint with the hose, today I was able to paint for about 2 hours straight using three different colors with zero clogging. Only brush maintenance I did was to flush the brush with some brush cleaner between colors. After I was done painting, I took my brush apart to clean it. The interior was much cleaner than I normally find. This showed me that the paint had flowed much more smoothly and did not clog up and force paint back into the brush like previously.
I am much more inclined now to use my air brush rather than grabbing a rattle can.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
I use a fine mesh tea strainer for the same reason.
.
Many people say they do not filter paints, but I always do. Even if it doesn't really do anything it is effort well spent in my oppinion.
Preventative maintenance is good.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190Many people say they do not filter paints, but I always do.
Same here. I worked in the powdered metals industry and used lots of fine-meshed stainless screens, some in the 250 to 350 mesh sizes (too fine for paints) I brought several scraps home and made paint strainers with them.
I notice that some of the non-volitale type paints will seem to collect gummy strings, especially around the jar sealing area.
Another handy tool is the battery-driven Badger paint mixer. I recall some concern when ModelFlex came out that it should not be shaken as air will be entrained for a long time and mixing would reduce this problem.
Regards, Ed
I "acquired" some filters from the local auto body shop that they use in the paint room when mixing paints.
Terry
Inspired by Addiction
See more on my YouTube Channel
I think it was more useful in the days of Floquil. That is only my impression. These days I do not have paint blobs with Valejo or Model Master Acrylic, Trucoat or Scalecoat.
However the LHS still sells Floquil, no colors you would actually want. Their Valejo Weathering products look dried out to me.
One of our members, Ron of the youtube channel ronstrains just produced a video where he uses the following filter.
He uses this filter:
Airbursh Filter
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddyHe uses this filter: Airbursh Filter
Hi Henry:
Thanks for the filter listing. I just ordered one. I have been straining my paint through a home made filter that uses automatic transmission screen. It works but it's messy.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I think that if you need to strain paint, perhaps it's time to either get rid of it or to improve your storage methods. Removing lumps of thickened paint is removing components of the paint necessary for its performance both during application and on the items to which it's applied.
Wayne
PED2) Mix the paint well. Some bottles may have paint that has separated and no amount of hand shaking will mix it well. I use a Badger battery powered paint mixer. The mixing disk will not fit in the 2 oz bottle unless you grind it down a small amount so it will fit into the bottle. This work well to mix up the paint. It will also break loose any congealed paint in the bottle. Any congealed paint and boogers will be filtered out in following steps.
I found a paint mixer from Micromark that works great, but as Doctorwayne mentioned, it also loosened up some of the globs in the paint. I ordered a set of small strainer funnels from Micromark, as well. I keep an old ice cream gallon bucket filled with wet water to drop them in after I screen the paint.
Paint mixer no. 80975
Strainer funnels no. 83119
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR