Wednesday 30 April 2014

Airbrush skipping problems

Wow, just.... wow.
 Recieved my brand new shiny Iwata Eclipse about 3 weeks ago. After rummaging about for a while I found a compressor that should do the job with getting something out of it, an AS189 with tank and airfilter. I was happy as an otter when it arrived and fast as a shark to get the painting going.

Is this the rascal in this drama?

Said and done, connected the brush to the compressor. Put it to 30 psi to begin with and diluted my paint with about 3/1 ration of water/paint. Then I went to try some doodles on a piece of paper- This is when the shit hit the fan. Oh, the horror! From the very first line i tried to draw it began skipping. For you who don't know what skipping is: Skipping is when you get a broken line when spraying with your airbrush. Paint flows, creating a beatiful thin line only to stop and only give air. Starts flowing again, stops, starts, stops etc.

I thought it would be an easy fix. Changed the psi to 20- Same problem. Thinning the paint even more- Same problem. 15psi maybe? Nope! Thinned the paint to almost water and then it flowed as it should, but the paint is way too thin and splashes of the pressure if you try to put it onto a model. This is when I went into forum berzerk-mode. I checked every single site I could find about the problem:



Paint stuck in the nozzle
Cleaned the whole gun thoroughly and tried to look if I could see some paint residues in the nozzle but to no awail. I even took it to a friend of mine who works as dental technician and borrowed their ultrasonic cleaner and let it soak in 30 minutes. Problem persists.

Damaged needle
Needle looks fine. Dont feel as sharp as my ancient airbursh though so could be a  manufacturing problem, but no bend or other damage that i could see. Going to compare to a friends Eclipse soon.

Compressor issues
Water in the air? Hard to say, tank and airfilter should minimize any traces of water. Pressure problems? Also hard to say, tried to hold a steady flow against the skin but coudnt feel any changes in the pressure. Going to try it with another compressor at previous mentioned friends place.



I'm a wee bit worried about the Iwata. It was listed as 0.3mm needle and Eclipses don't come with 0.3mm needle but I took it for being a typo from the seller . It also came with the wrong spanner, a spanner made for screw-on nozzles, not self centering as the Eclipses. Fraud maybe? Looks authentic thou and came in sealed package.
Hopefully there's problem with the compressor since it's the cheapest equipment so I can send it as a warranty errand and buy a cheap one from a local store while waiting.The Iwata is ordered from Japan.

Friday 4 April 2014

Iwata incoming

Oooh, I´'m exited. After some long thoughts and a bit of research i finally decided which airbrush to go for. I had Iwata in mind pretty early since that's the brand that turned up on most searches and seems to be a solid choice. The hard part was to decide which model.

 I tend to go for expensive stuff when I buy something, this is how my mind works; 1. I start looking at the cheapest alternative. 2. I Look at the second cheapest, thinking "Hmm, not a biggie. Lets go for that one instead." Then repeat step 2 untill my bank account reach its pain treshold or no more costly options are available. This time I restrained my impulses to go for the super-mega-top-notch-high-line-model. My vote went for the Iwata Eclipse HP-CS. Not the cheapest one and not the most expensive either. The pro's seem to agree that it´s a good choice for first timers and an allrounder.

Full plate and packing steel


Ordered it from ebay since it's half the price compared to Swedish retailers. I'm a bit worried though since I noticed that the description says that it got a 0.3mm nozzle and as far as I know they only come with .35mm. It's new and unopened so it's not modified in any way. Hopefully thats just a mistyping from the seller and not a fraud, fingers crossed. But they had only possitive feedback so I should be okay. Otherwise I'll be forced to make a trip to Tokyo to clear the air with someone.

Also a .3mm could prove to be more of a challenge to use. I know for a fact that airbrushing isn't easy. I got myself a real low budget one many years ago. With low budget I mean really low budget. You know the kind of equipment they make from broken parts that they sweep from the floor. Then put together to some kind of abomination that even the 7:th circle of hell would be proud of.

I was doing mural paintings at that time for a laser tag arena and it wasn't pretty on close inspection, lots of stains and splashes. As I'm older and wiser now (ehr...) I understand that much of my problems then was partially caused by too thick paint in the gun. But my first first tries with the Iwata will probably make puppies cry in despair anyway. I'm not looking for miracles to happen beacuse of the equipment, but it will surely speed up the process with laying the initial shadow and highlights.