You have an airbrush, your models are screaming for that coat of paint that will bring it to life. But, you’ve used it and now you need to clean and/or troubleshoot it. Read on.
Always always do this in a neat workspace and focus on what’s in your hand. It is all too easy to knock over your airbrush or paint pots, which is a pain to clean and a waste of your hard earned money. As with airbrushing the cleaning involves chemicals which are hazardous so stick to a well ventilated area and keep that face mask on.
1. Disassembly and reassembly for normal cleaning procedure
After every painting session, there’s going to be paint left within the brush that needs to be cleaned out. If you don’t, then your airbrush will likely be jam up next time you use it. This is the procedure for a normal clean up:
First pour any excess paint back into its bottle/jar; you can always reuse liquid paint left in the cap so don’t waste it.
You will still have some paint left in the cup, so wipe this out with a paper towel or lint free cloth.
I use an old rag than doesn’t shed as it’s effective at cleaning and there is nothing that can come off it and clog up the airbrush.
Pour into the cup some airbrush cleaning fluid or thinner. I use a cheap, easy to find, brand of generic lacquer thinner which so far has been effective for cleaning up acrylic and lacquer paint (I will have to test how it handles enamels).
Remove the cup lid, cover the tip of the brush with your finger (without touching the needle but enough to prevent air and paint coming out), push down and back on the trigger (as you normally do when you want to put paint down) and you will see bubbles forming in the cup.
This is called backflow and can be useful for mixing paint, and in this case, cleaning out the nozzle and around the needle. As with normal painting, DO NOT TILT THE AIRBRUSH BACK, you don’t want thinner/thinned paint running through the rear of middle and back sections of the brush.
After a few seconds of backflow, I pour the dirty thinner onto my cleaning rag (you’ll see why in a bit), and repeat the backflow clean, except, instead of pouring the thinner onto my rag I’ll spray it through the brush (as if I’m laying paint down). Repeat this until you’re no longer spraying paint, only thinner.
Now unscrew the rear of the airbrush casing and the nut you find inside.
Place the nut aside. This nut holds your needle in place, unscrewing it will allow you to GENTLY pull out the needle.
You don’t want to bend your needle so ensure you pull it out in a straight line.
You will see the needle has some paint on it. Remember that dirty thinner we poured onto the cleaning rag/paper towel? Use it to wipe the needle clean being very careful to AVOID BENDING THE NEEDLE. Airbrushes don’t work with bent needles (though it is possible to bend them back into shape, safe yourself the trouble).
I repeat this process a few times, carefully pushing the needle back into its place, pulling it out and cleaning off the paint I find. Repeat this process until it comes out of the airbrush clean.
Set aside the needle and arm yourself with a few cotton swabs that are not soaked, but wet, with airbrush cleaning fluid/thinner. Now that the needle is out, you’re going to clean out the airbrush tip by placing bud against nozzle tip and gently twisting, as much of the cup as possible, the lid (or equivalent) and the body of the airbrush.
2. Reassembling the airbrush after a standard cleaning
Now, carefully replace the needle, nut, and rear casing. he only items of note are not to use any strength when replacing the needle and the nut.
- If you encounter any resistance while pushing, pull the needle out slightly and try again until the needle goes all the way through the airbrush smoothly.
- When you get the needle into the nozzle, stop pushing as soon as you encounter resistance. The nozzle is fragile and can be easily cracked if too much force is applied.
- Finally, when reapplying the nut that holds the needle in place, tighten until the nut is firm enough to pull the needle back with the trigger. You don’t need it any tighter than that.
Congratulations, you have done a basic airbrush clean! Do this at the end of every paint session.
Sometimes though, you’re troubleshooting some problem and need to go further; if that’s the case head on over to Part 2 (coming soon!)