airbrush only brushes air

[chipmunk]

I was painting a French fighter last night (Paasche VL with Tamiya acrylics), did the gray and brown first. When I started the green no paint came out of the airbrush, just air. Tried both a closed bottle and open cup with the same results. The airbrush seems clean as far as I can tell, connections secure, openings open, etc. I tried briefly sticking my finger over the nozzle, air bubbles into the bottle but it just doesn't draw up the paint. I recleaned, waited a while (sometimes that works too), but to no avail. Seems like it must be a simple problem but I'm baffled. Any suggestions?

[MickeyThickey]

Try breaking it down, reaming out the colour cup's siphon tube with a pipe cleaner to clean out dried-on paint, and checking the paint nozzles for any flakes or clogs. It sounds to me like there's some sort of debris up in the paint nozzle - I had a similar problem (well, symptom) recently trying to spray Testors PLA fluorescent orange, the pigment came out of solution, leaving putty-like blobs of fluorescent orange all through the brush.

[Airbusteacher]

Think of all the money you're saving by not using any paint.

Make sure the hole in the bottle at the top is clear of obstruction. A slight vacuum will result if it's blocked and no paint will com out.

HTH

[urloony]

You may want to clean out your brush occasionally with lacquer thinner. Acrylics can be notorious for building up within your brush. The pipe cleaner works great or a q-tip.