MrSimon Posted February 19, 2013 Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 Hi. I'm new to the site and have been reading like crazy. Lots of cool stuff. All my stuff to get started painting lures is on the way .... I'm pumped. My questions are about changing colors while painting a lure. Obviously with one airbrush I'll have to switch colors and clean the brush multiple times while painting a lure. From what I've seen, sometimes you only spray a tiny bit of paint on the lure, then switch to a different color. Having to clean between colors seems like an incredibly inefficient way to paint .... like you'd spend more time cleaning than actually painting. Is it just the nature of the beast? How long does it actually take to clean and switch colors? Do people use multiple brushes .... one for each color? Is it better to do an assembly line type thing where you paint a half dozen baits at once? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atlasstone Posted February 19, 2013 Report Share Posted February 19, 2013 For me, if I am doing more than one of the same design, I will shoot one color on all then move to the next. It generally doesn't take me very long to clean between colors. I use a wash bottle so that I can spray water down in my cup, then I back flush it, shoot the rest of the water out, run a little cleaner through and I'm ready to move one. It takes me about 30 seconds to a minute to clean. I have my station set up with a hair dryer fixed in such a way that my bait sits under the dryer to set the paint while I clean. Two birds with one stone. I have two brushes, but they are set up with different needles for different applications rather than moving between colors. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-Mac Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 I clean for about a minute or two after each color, and go through a bunch of Q-tips. Going from reds to a lighter color seems to take a greater cleaning effort. Only in a few situations (going from a light to a dark shade in the same color) do I not do a full scale clean. Nevertheless, I still try to get most of the other paint out. As for multiple brushes, I shoot with only 1. If the paint dries on the needle tip or in the gun then you can't shoot worth a darn anyway. It's less headache to clean wet paint than dry paint from a gun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 I hang my brush with the nozzle and cup in the water of my cleaning tuperware between colors, so I can dry the lure's paint, and then clean the brush without the tip drying out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mythos Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 some good tips on this thread. I may have to invest in a cleaning tuperware. Mark, do you use acetone in the tuperware for cleaning? Is there any harm with acetone inside the plastic tuperware? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 (edited) When painting one lure at a time I clean between each color change. I rinse out the cup with clean water and backflush once with clean water as well. I then pour a small amount of acetone in the bowl and repeat the backflush. This all takes less than 1 minute. You'd be surprised at just how much paint the acetone removes even after the initial clean with water. The Iwata line of airbrushes have a Teflon needle seal that is not harmed by the acetone. A clean airbrush is of the utmost importance in my opinion. Nothing can cause more grief than a brush that isn't spraying properly. Once you develop a cleaning ritual that suits your needs it will become second nature after a while and you won't even think about it. Ben Edited February 20, 2013 by RayburnGuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biggamefish Posted February 20, 2013 Report Share Posted February 20, 2013 one thing i learn is to never leave paint in air brush gun for over 5 days lol took alot of scrubbing & cleaning to do. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djd3mon Posted February 25, 2013 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 I will try and start from light colors to dark colors. Ex: White, yellow, orange, red, blue, black I take 1 paper towel rip it in half and clead my brush that way. I then spray out the excess on my paint booth. Ill add a darker color and spray the airbrush until I know the new color has taken over. I used to clean very thoroughly with cleaner and q-tips but I was taking way to long to clean just to dump more paint in the brush. My new method works like a charm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted February 26, 2013 Report Share Posted February 26, 2013 Mythos, Acetone will eat right through most plastics, and I would be afraid even tupperware. I only add the acetone to the cup of the brush, like Ben said, and backflush, or fill a glass jar part way with acetone and soak the brush parts in it overnight, if I can't get it clean by backflushing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
