Airbrush woes at altitude

[Cave_Dweller]

So, I live at 8500 ft above sea level (colorado) and I've always had issues with paint drying very fast with brush painting techniques. I paint a lot of miniatures and use a lot of fine tipped brushes with minimal amounts of very thinned paints. Sometimes paint dries in less and a minute on those fine brushes and its a constant battle to keep things wet.

Now I'm getting into airbrushes, and I have a badger patriot 105 which has been very nice so far. But during the last few sessions with it, I noticed my paint was spattering all over my model after only a few minutes and eventually paint started bubbling in the cup. Upon inspection I noticed the tip of the airbrush was caked over with a thick layer of dried paint.

So I took the brush apart and found the bottom of the cup was clogged, as well as the nozzle parts the needle goes through. This happens after only a few minutes of brushing on several occasions.

I've been using a variety of paints including tamiya, citadel, Vallejo and testors. All acrylics. I use tamiya x20a thinner for all of these paints and try to get them at a consistency similar to 2% milk.

This is obviously quite frustrating and I'm wondering what else to try. Paint dries extremely fast at this altitude and I had thought the x20a was a retardant, that would slow paint drying times. I've had great results with it in my brush painting, although as I mentioned it is always a battle to keep brushes from drying too fast.


Any advice?

I have the official badger airbrush cleaner solvent, but what else should I be using to clean my brush?

Thanks!

 

[Elm City Hobbies]

X20 won't work with Vallejo paints, as they aren't the same base, and if you tried using it in your airbrush that way, it would likely turn it into a curdled mess. Just not compatible.

For Vallejo, use their own thinner, as it is formulated for their paint.

Sounds like you need a bit of retarder in your paint, more than what the various thinners have in them. Only way to keep them from drying too fast.

 

[sunsanvil]

Thin your Vallejo with their Glaze Medium. It is very similar in consistency to their original thinner (not the "new" solvent based one) and will extend the dry/cure time immensely.

You might also try lowering the temperature in the room a little.

 

[Cave_Dweller]

Thanks for the replies. Is there a general retardant you can recommend?

 

[Chris S]

Have you tried enamels thinned with White spirit ? ,it will certainly give you a lot more time to work than any of the acrylics ,bit smelly tho .

Chris.

 

[Cave_Dweller]

I haven't tried enamels yet. Mainly going to stick to acrylics due to fume issues. I don't have a proper vent hood. So far acrylics haven proven difficult to say the least. Paint just dries out so damn fast up here on the mountain.