Turbodork Behaving Decidedly Oddly...

[Evil Eye]

In a fit of sleeplessness I decided to do some airbrushing tonight, and tested out a few paints through my trusty Iwata Eclipse. First up was Green Stuff World Martian Green, thinned roughly 50/50 with Mr. Aqueous Thinner and sprayed at 15PSI. No problems at all, worked like a charm, and cleaned out super easy. Then I decided to try out one of my Turbodork paints through the same airbrush, also thinned with Mr. Aqueous Thinner, but at a higher thinner-to-paint ratio as the paint seemed very thick. Unfortunately, whilst at first it seemed to be behaving well, as the cup ran down the thinner and paint somehow separated, causing the paint to form a large, oddly cheese-like blob in the chamber of the airbrush. I've never had this happen before; generally the "curdling" is immediate and the result of insufficient or incompatible thinner, but this time it started just fine and then suddenly decided to form a solid lump. What happened here? Did I need to shake the paint more zealously (TD seems to need to be shaken a LOT) or did I need to thin it more? I had wondered if there was a vestige of lacquer thinner or something in the cup, which can cause acrylics to turn to paste, but the last paint I used in it was also an acrylic sprayed with the exact same thinner.

[Arkhanist]

Check the rest of the bottle. I had an older but unused bottle of turbo dork recently that looked fine but just kept forming little clumps in the airbrush, coverage was terrible, and was a sod to clean out. When I took off the lid of the pot to give it a real stir, there was a big semi-solid lump in the middle - and drawing out the stick, it was the consistency of cottage cheese. I assumed it had a very low temperature at some point during transit, as they have only just reworked their formula to be more freeze resistant (stynylrez had the same problem, if I recall correctly). Mine was from asset drop so I just binned it, but if it's a recent purchase and it's the same for you, you should be able to get a replacement. Normally, turbodork should be similar consistency and performance as GSW colourshift.

Edited October 2, 2021 by Arkhanist

[Magos Takatus]

That's really interesting, Arkhanist, I've had most of my Turbodork paint as that thick consistency, I thought it was just the way the paint was formulated. I just tried to keep thinning it. I haven't tested Turbodork over a large area so I haven't seen how bad it is when sprayed in it's extra chunky consistency. They have some really nice looking colours so I'd like to make more use of them in the future.

[Arkhanist]

That's really interesting, Arkhanist, I've had most of my Turbodork paint as that thick consistency, I thought it was just the way the paint was formulated. I just tried to keep thinning it. I haven't tested Turbodork over a large area so I haven't seen how bad it is when sprayed in it's extra chunky consistency. They have some really nice looking colours so I'd like to make more use of them in the future.

I don't have any of the turbodork straight metallics admittedly, but the 8 turboshift ones (apart from the one that curdled!) I have are all airbrush-ready consistency, similar to GSW and vallejo model air - I don't need to thin them at all. Obviously coverage requires multiple thin coats, but that's as intended.

[Evil Eye]

Hmmm, this is very strange. I decanted a little bit of the same paint and it was thin enough to airbrush, albeit with some tip-dry. However, I tried another paint (Laserface) and out the bottle it was way too thick to airbrush, but of the three thinners I tried (Vallejo, S75 and Mr Aqueous) none of them worked- they all caused the pigment to separate and clump up. I would blame it on them having been in my shed and gotten too cold...but I bought these particular paints after I'd moved out and transferred my workspace indoors, so they shouldn't have been able to get too cold.