So how do you clean an air brush?
 

I'm interested to know how folk clean air brushes?
Is it necessary to disassemble each time?
I just immersed it in a bucket of warm water and blew air through it for a bit, and used a paintbrush to clean the nozzle that never seemed to clean itself... Seemed OK, but will I run into trouble?
And how much cleaning is needed between colours?
Thank you.

That's about what I do, I use mostly water based paint, also helps to use some reducer as well. I also use some cellulose thinners from time to time, or you can buy airbrush cleaner in an aerosol.

Thanks. Yeh, it's all water based paint. What is the 'reducer' used for?
Do you just run a bit of cellulose thinners through the airbrush now and again?
Thank you.

The "reducer" is a solvent for water based paints. Seems to give a smoother finish and goes on more evenly.

Very useful if doing fades, certainly with solid colours such as blacks and whites

Reducer is what used to be called thinners, and yes use a bit of cellulose thinners now and again as its strong but might attack the seals on cheaper brushes.

i'll show my ignorance here, but is it not sufficient to use water to thin down water based paint?

You can do but, personally, I find the proper reducer is always best.

As for cleaning it, I take the crown off, pull the trigger so the needle is in and blow it through, run it under the tap, blow it through etc... until clean. takes less than a minute to do.

If using solvent based paint instead of water based then I use thinners.

Some very small pipe cleaner like brushes can also be useful.

Hope that helps you a bit.

Martin