Airbrush or paint disaster?

[perfectionist]

Hi all,

I am currently building/painting a Valkyrie and one of my mates was kind enough to lend me his airbrush, since I realy wanted to avoid those pesky brush streaks on the larger panels.

 

I basecoated the aircraft chaos black with the spray can - no problem

I airbrushed a basic coat of catachan green - no problem

 

After letting the the green coat dry I airbrushed a black wash over the entire model, to darken the green a bit and get some basic shading done. After letting the wash dry I noticed that there were white stains all over the model. Luckily I was able to drybrush them away, but still annoying!

 

Now my question is, did anyone experience the same or am I doing something wrong? (First time I used an airbrush)

 

FYI, all paints are GW, the wash is Vallejo "black shade 73301" thinned with "open thinner" by Golden and water in the ratio: 50:30:20

 

Cheers,

Perfectionist

[Bloodmange]

Don't Feel bad this has happend to me too. I used GW washes on the interior of my Rhino and I got a white cloudyness in the corners that was easily wipe away-able. After a second touch up on the effected areas it was fixed though.

[ShinyRhino]

What's the water source where you live? Public supply? Private, drilled well?

This may be an issue of water impurity. Softeners, filter elements, etc can all leach into your water from various sources. Heavily-chlorinated public water supplies can, and do often contain a variety of goodies that make the water safe to drink, but reacy oddly with paints and art additives.

[perfectionist]

What's the water source where you live? Public supply? Private, drilled well?

This may be an issue of water impurity. Softeners, filter elements, etc can all leach into your water from various sources. Heavily-chlorinated public water supplies can, and do often contain a variety of goodies that make the water safe to drink, but reacy oddly with paints and art additives.

 

I get water from a public water supply, it's low in chlorine and the water is relatively "soft" with 7.4 °dH. You do make a valid point, however I have been using this wash for quite some time now and I never had this problem before.

Could be coincidence, but never happened when I applied it with a normal brush.

 

Cheers,

Perfectionist

[mikemc]

It is also possible that the additives to the public water supply have change. I know where I live they will up the chlorine depending on the season and how much organic material is in the runnoff. Sometimes we get in a chlorine taste in the fall. Or they just changed additives.

[winterdyne]

You may notice a white buildup if you're mixing an alcohol based thinner with the water - this does happen with Tamiya thinners, I've never used the brand you mention so I can't comment on that. I advise against mixing thinners and water, and instead using plain water with a few drops of acrylic flow improver instead, or using pure thinners appropriate for the brand of paint - don't thin Tamiya or similar paints with water...