Cleaning Colourcoats from airbrush?

[sapperastro]

Hello all,

 

Broke my airbrush out for a bit of 1/35 armour painting, and have used my usual Mineral Turps to clean up after Humbrol. Now, I haven't run Colourcoats through the AB yet, only brushed painted, so what is the best thing to use with Colourcoats and cleaning the AB? Still the old Mineral turps (white spirit over there I believe)? Or does this need the evil laq thinner?

[Graham T]

Well they're enamels so I guess white spirit is the way to go.  I usually use Xtracolour paints where white spirit is the recommended thinner/cleaner.  I'm almost sure that I read somewhere that Xtracolour & Colourcoats are made by the same people but I could be wrong.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I use mineral / white spirits or turpentine substitutes for cleaning. Every half a dozen colours or so I remove the needle to give it a wipe and I have a selection of small bottle brushes which I use maybe once every 3 months or so just to keep everything shiny and new.

 

Cellulose / lacquer thinner works fine for cleaning and is very effective, but it's not necessary at all. We use cellulose to thin Colourcoats for spraying on to unprimed steel lids, but I try not to use cellulose for modelling purposes.

 

Note I don't particularly recommend white spirits for thinning. It will work, but you still get a bit of smell and drying times are not great. Using the intended naptha based thinner reduces odour to hot-acrylic levels, gets better adhesion than any acrylic ever will and gives drying times approaching those of cellulose thinner - it stays wet long enough to self level the paint film and achieve a silky smooth finish but dries quick enough to be handled shortly after cleaning is finished when applied in multiple coats rather than flooded in a single pass.

[sapperastro]

Thanks fellas,

 

Even though they seem similar,  I have had different times in the past where some enamels clean up a treat with just white spirit, while other times (even without accidentally leaving the paint to dry in the brush) where much of the paint would not come out without Lacquer thinner being blasted through. As for thinning for use, I usually use either Humbrol or Tamiya enamel thinner, both of which can be easily gotten here.