I went to do my first ever rolling stock repaint with my airbrush and hit a problem. My airbrush has always been a bit problematic, attributed to using very old Humbrol enamels. Since moving to acrylic and getting a quality airbrush, most problems have gone away. I know I am pushing the limits by using artist acrylics and household paint, but even so, with patience of experimenting with mixtures and pressures, I should obtain reasonable results.
I am now ready to paint the bodies of the Jetstar project, having started with a rattle can primer, I tried the first topcoat with my airbrush. It was not working well and trying to increase pressure, I suddenly realised the air compressor was running all the time and never cutting off, as unable to get up to 4 bar. In fact I could barely get 0.5bar.
Something was wrong with my AS186 compressor!
I had no other option than to strip it down!
It was very quickly apparent that the reed valve on top of the piston was bent up. A quick fix to straighten out and re-assemble. No-go!
After several strip downs and rebuilds with micro adjustments of the valve yielding no satisfaction. I was perplexed. Eventually I tried testing the output of the piston head on its own (having re-assemble not only the head each time but also the connecting pipe to the tank) to see if it would make pressure without the chain of connector/tank/regulator/hoses. Blow me if it cut off straight away when I plugged up the output with my finger!
So the connecting pipe was leaking, I replaced the two O rings that form the actual seal and hey presto everything works as it should do!