USS Enterprise Model Build – Part 6 – Airbrush troubles

Every once in a while my airbrush would act up and at the beginning I had no idea how to fix it. The most common problems are:

• airbrush paint start to bubble up and out of the airbrush color cup
• the airbrush starts to sputter and spray bigger paint blobs

Fixing the annoying bubbling

After some googling I realized that there should be a small amount of grease between the nozzle and the airbrush body to prevent the bubbling. At first I thought that I had not correctly tightened all the parts but after tightening the heck out of everything did not fix the bubbling, I finally found this tip online.

I just used a chapstick and put a tiny amount of it onto the back of the nozzle. And voilà – that fixed it.

Sputtering airbrush

This also happens to me every once in a wile. Most of the time the paint is too thick which prevents it from flowing properly through the airbrush and then you get this terrible sputtering.

So I make sure that I always clean the airbrush really well after use.

I have also realized that maybe my standard Revell airbrush was not the best choice I could have made. However I have decided that I will keep using it until I am more proficient so that I at least get my moneys worth out of the product.