Weird paint effect

[Ron Bell]

Recently I airbrushed some Testers Fluorescent Orange paint and had something strange happen. While the paint went on well, as soon as I started spraying, gossamer strands were floating in the air all around me. At first I thought the moving air had stirred up some old cobwebs, but I noticed that they had a slight tint of color similar to what I was spraying. They didn't seem to be emanating from where I was spraying, they just sort of "appeared" all around me. They settled on things and did, indeed, look like cobwebs but were easily brushed away and did not leave any residue. Have I unleashed some portal to hell or can someone give me a more scientific explanation. 

[ghodges]

I seem to recall the same thing happening to me long ago when I tried to airbrush it, except it was also "spiderwebbing" out from the airbrush as well. Since your paint actually made it onto the model it sounds like a much milder form of the problem I had. My guess is that it's drying and sticking to itself in the air.... in my case so badly it never went onto the surfaces and in your case only enough to where the residual particles in the air bonded together, and since they were essentially dry they simply brushed away after they settled.

I never found an answer as I've never tried airbrushing it since then. The only answer that comes to mind is perhaps adding a retarder of some sort into the mix.

 

Gil 

[Stikpusher]

I’ve had that happen with Mr Color lacquers. I had been warned about the quirk by other users of the brand. Something to do with some of the paint drying in the air as it leaves the airbrush nozzle before reaching the surface of the model and leaving those cotton candy like strands all over. Odd that it happened with Testors paint though. In nearly 40 years of airbrushing those paints I’ve never encountered that phenomenon with them.