Paasche H Airbrush - Constantly clogging

[hooterville75]

Can anyone tell me what it takes to keep a Paasche H series airbrush from clogging about ten seconds into spraying ? Im shooting Vallejo Model Air paint. Ive the past two attempts even tried thinning the paint a tiny little bit with rubbing alcohol hoping to cure the problem but the same happened. Ill take the bottom fed cup off, take the tip and needle off, clean both, put it back on, start spraying again and it works like it should for about ten seconds and then back to the same clogging. I clean the needle tip with a qtip or rag, nothing. Starting to get very frustrating. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Hoping Donn Yost will chime in here as this is his brush of choice I believe.

Also with the different 1, 3, and 5 tips. Do you need a different needle for each or does the needle that comes with the kit work for all three tips ? Ive only ever used the 3 tip because thats what was on the airbrush when I received it and couldnt seem to figure out how to get either of the other two tips on. Thanks in advance. (So frustrated Im about to send my Badger Patriot 105 back to Badger, get it fixed and go back to using that one ).

[JunkPile]

#3 tip with #3 needle and so on. Only.

[LoneWolf15]

Each head has a corresponding needle ! As for the clogging ? Seems that your paint is way too thick ! You'll have to experiment with thinning it until you get it to flow out consistently .

[Chief Joseph]

Are you maybe getting an external-mix version of "tip dry"? When shooting acrylic paint through an internal-mix airbrush, it has a tendency to dry out and form a blockage where the needle emerges from the tip, causing the paint flow to stop. Some acrylics are better than others in this respect, but they'll all do it given the right conditions. If this is what is happening to you, you can try adding a retarder to the paint to let it flow easier. Vallejo's Model Air thinner will probably work better than rubbing alcohol, or you can even try Future. Lots of modelers use Vallejo Model Air successfully, and there is a lot of discussion about it over on the various military modeling boards.