Yeah spotting a cracked nozzle is tough with poor eyes. You have to use your fingernail to catch it.
I hope you meant Model air, not Model color.
In my limited experience, Model Color requires much thinning to try to airbrush.
You should still try the mechanical mixing.
Good luck.
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Two thumbs up for Master Airbrush, has worked fine for me with getting smooth and fine results. Cheap enough that when I can’t fix it I can just toss it and buy another that’ll last me a year or so.
@Petro , that’s an interesting idea, I’ll have to try that with my paints.
Doug, it really does seem like the airbrush gods don’t like you very much. I hope the new nozzle/needle helps!
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@Damraska, reading of your adventures with airbrushes seems to be a recurrent theme - with each of us at one time or another struggling with our trusted/hated/favorite tool!
I too only shoot acrylics, and mostly Vallejo Model Air through a couple of different Badger air brushes. I have experienced the situation you describe above, with paint being shot out of the brush at an angle, favoring one side or the other, that is, not a full and balanced distribution of paint on the target. This in turn leading to a complete clog, and no spray at all! It took me a lot of failed attempts to get this resolved.
I found that my problem stemmed from having a tiny amount of paint, maybe even a small dot’s worth, stuck to the inside of the final cone (no idea what the part is actually called, but the last piece of the airbrush that surrounds the pin). Like you I tried soaking etc and no luck.
I eventually resorted to using a very fine strand of hard wire to pick at the inside of that last cone, along with sacrificing an old small paint brush flooded (working like a pipe cleaner) with AB cleaner to thoroughly clean the part. To my surprise, I am usually able to eventually flick out a small chunk of whatever was gumming up the tip.
So now, I thoroughly wash the gun after each use, and make it a point to only use “fresh” paint. I use old paint for hand brushing. I still have to pick out the gunk from the tip now and then, but at least I now know why it usually gunks up.
I also make it a point to carefully consider which brush I am using for which tasks - one of my airbrushes has a fairly fine tip, which is great for small targets, but not at all great for spraying bigger surfaces for a longer period of time, which inevitably leads to a clog. I figured this obvious point out by being lazy, and not just switching brushes 
In some cases, I’ll use rattle cans to establish a base color, and then go over it again with the airbrush to change color tones and add details etc -
Good luck - I hope you get this resolved and back to building -
Cheers
Nick
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I started adding zimmerit to the Dragon Jagdpanther G1.
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@Petro Over the last year or so, I have used Game Color, Model Air (new), Model Air (old), Model Color (new), Model Color (old), and Panzer Aces paints by Vallejo. They all have different requirements for airbrush use. It is really complicated.
@CKPlasticModels Thank you for your kind remark and offering more feedback on the alternate airbrush.
@Stickframe Thank you for your advice and kind remarks. If I purchase a second airbrush, I will dedicate one to painting and the other to priming.
Edit: I ordered that airbrush.
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Wow! Awesome job on that zimmerit! That turned out great IMO.
Are you using a roller or something else?
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More zimmerit.
This is something like 9 hours of work.
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@CKPlasticModels I use a popsicle stick. Super high tech.
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Doug,
did you get the new AB? Any luck with these same paints?
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I received the new airbrush a few days ago. The last part needed to fix the old airbrush arrives tomorrow.
I have not had much time to experiment but the new airbrush is definitely better in some ways. The ability to limit trigger travel is fantastic. It can spray a very fine line but I am still working on spray control like artists (not model builders) demonstrate in videos. Cleaning is weird. Clogs still happen but are significantly easier to trouble shoot. The gigantic paint cup interfering with line of sight down the barrel is a negative. Ability to cap the color cup is a positive. Paint really needs to be mixed in a second container which is a negative. Having fully mixed paint everywhere in the cup is a positive.
I am no longer watching model making videos to master this thing. I am now all in on videos by fine artists doing photo-realistic work.
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Making zimmerit is laborious. Getting it under tools is challenging to the point of painful. I try to work on it an hour or two every other day.
Just opened this one for the World War I campaign.
My bad luck streak with models continues. It did not come with any decals. Off to eBay it goes.
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The fact that you are making your own is awesome! Most people just go with molded on or after market stuff. It might be easier to do the zimmerit before you put the tools on, but that can cause its own problems.
Keep at it, what you have is looking good so far!
Ken
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The zimmerit is looking awesome! Much better than cookie cutter aftermarket sheets. The sweat equity is paying off!
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The zimmeritt method is very interesting, it looks nearly a sort of adhesive tape. What material are you employing? Epoxy putty?
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@tankerken Thanks! This is my fifth attempt at zimmerit. Fourth using Milliput.
In the specific case of Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion 654, the maintenance company always moved the tools. Eventually. There are pictures of Jagdpanthers from 654 with tools in the expected places, with tools and hangers pulled off, and with tools moved and the zimmerit patched. Pictures with tools and hangers removed show big areas without zimmerit. Maybe the zimmerit was never there. Maybe it was scraped off when removing the tool hangers. Dunno.
@Armor_Buff Haha! Sweat equity.
@MassimoTessitori Thank you for stopping by. I am using standard grade, green-yellow Milliput. It is a two part epoxy putty. When making zimmerit, each batch is smaller than a pea and work time is about one hour.
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Interesting. How do you work it to obtain that regular stripe? I suppose that you roll it on a flat surface, cut it by blade and move it on the model. How do you manage to remove it from the surface without breaking it?
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