DIY Airbrush Cleaner: Recipe, Ratios & Safety Tips
Updated: November 2026 · By Hobbyteka Workshop Team
White primer clogged our airbrushes faster than we could justify buying bottled cleaner, so our painter mixed her own. The recipe is 73% distilled water, 25% isopropyl alcohol (IPA), 1% dish soap and 1% glycerin. She's used it for about eight months on Vallejo, Kaleido, Citadel and Green Stuff World acrylics, and a 500 ml bottle costs us under €1.
| Ingredient | 500 ml bottle | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Distilled water | 365 ml | Base of the mix; leaves no mineral deposits like tap water can |
| Isopropyl alcohol, 99% | 125 ml | Dissolves fresh acrylic paint |
| Dish soap (we use Fairy) | 5 ml | Wets surfaces and lifts paint off metal |
| Glycerin | 5 ml | Slows drying; it's a common ingredient in acrylic retarders |
Glycerin stays at 1% because more of it can leave a sticky film. At this amount we haven't seen any.
Safety first: IPA is highly flammable. Mix and use it away from open flames, heaters and cigarettes. Keep it out of your eyes and away from children and pets. Full safety notes are below.
Use a decent dish soap. We use Fairy. A thin, cheap soap that cleans dishes badly cleans airbrushes badly too.
Our bottle is a soft plastic squeeze bottle with a long, bent spout and a tube that reaches the bottom. One squeeze puts cleaner straight into the airbrush cup. Label yours with what's inside and the word "Flammable".
What It Costs
About €0.77 per 500 ml, or roughly €0.30 per figure, at German prices in October 2026. A 500 ml bottle lasts us 2–3 figures, depending on their size.
The first purchase is about €30, and it lasts for dozens of bottles.
| Ingredient | What we pay | In 500 ml of cleaner |
|---|---|---|
| Distilled water | €1 for 2 l | €0.18 |
| Isopropyl alcohol 99% | €20 for 5 l | €0.50 |
| Glycerin 99.5% | €5.98 for 500 ml | €0.06 |
| Fairy dish soap | €2.50 for 450 ml | €0.03 |
Which Paints It Cleans
Water-based acrylics, including primers. We use it with Vallejo, Kaleido, Citadel and Green Stuff World paints and primers. In eight months it hasn't caused clogs, sticky residue or swollen seals.
Vallejo works too, at this dilution. You'll find plenty of forum posts warning that IPA turns Vallejo paint into rubbery goo inside the airbrush. That hasn't happened to us with this mix. Still, when you try a new paint line, put a drop of paint and a drop of cleaner together in the cup first and see what happens.
White primer was the reason we made it. It's the hardest paint we clean out of an airbrush, and it goes through bottled cleaner fast. Vallejo primer is slightly gritty; Kaleido primer is thinner. This mix handles both.
Alcohol-based paints: use straight IPA instead. We tested this cleaner on alcohol-based paints, and it doesn't shift them. The paint is the problem here: in our tests, only isopropyl alcohol cleaned it out. If you paint with them, straight IPA is your cleaner. Watch your seals if you do (more on that below).
When We Add More IPA
For sessions with a lot of color changes, our painter swaps 50 ml of water for 50 ml of IPA. That's 315 ml water, 175 ml IPA, 5 ml soap and 5 ml glycerin, or about 35% IPA. She keeps the soap and glycerin the same and never goes higher.
More IPA cleans faster, but straight or very strong IPA is hard on airbrush seals. The water, soap and glycerin keep the mix gentle enough for daily use.
Is It Safe for Airbrush Seals?
At 25% IPA, we've had no seal problems. Our Sparmax MAX-3 is over a year old and has run on this cleaner for the last eight months. Our Harder & Steenbeck Evolution CR Plus and Gaahleri GHAD-39 are three months old and have used nothing else. None of them has had a problem.
Straight IPA is a different story. Some airbrushes have rubber O-rings inside, and frequent contact with straight IPA wears them out fast. An occasional flush won't hurt. Many current airbrushes are built to handle alcohol, but check your manual for what your model's seals allow, and don't make straight IPA your everyday cleaner.
Two rules from Harder & Steenbeck's cleaning instructions apply to any airbrush: never soak the whole airbrush in cleaner or solvent, and remember that cleaning washes lubricant out of the moving parts. Clean only the parts that touch paint.
Safety
- Fire. IPA burns easily, and so do its vapors. A flame can travel along the vapor back to the bottle. Mix and use the cleaner away from candles, stoves, heaters, sparks and cigarettes, and treat the finished mix as flammable.
- Eyes. IPA causes serious eye irritation. Wear safety glasses when you mix it and when you spray it through the airbrush. If it gets in your eyes, rinse with water for several minutes.
- Breathing. The vapor can make you drowsy or dizzy. Spray into a cleaning pot or a spray booth with extraction. We wear a respirator, mostly because IPA smells strong.
- Skin. Gloves are a good idea; the safety data sheet of your IPA says which material to use.
- It's a chemical. Don't drink it, don't use it on skin or wounds, and keep it away from children and pets. Use it for cleaning airbrushes and nothing else.
Storage, Shelf Life and Disposal
Storage: a closed, labeled bottle, somewhere cool, away from heat and out of reach of children.
Shelf life: we don't know the limit, because a bottle never lasts long enough to find out. We haven't noticed any change in smell.
Disposal: paint residue can harm sewage systems, so don't pour your rinse jar down the drain or the toilet. Let the water evaporate and throw the dried paint away with household waste (in Germany, Restmüll). Local rules vary, so check yours.
A note from our workshop: This is our own recipe. We worked it out for our paints and our airbrushes and have used it for about eight months, and we're sharing it as it is. It doesn't come from any paint or airbrush maker, and none of them has tested or approved it. Your paints, airbrush and seals may react differently, so follow your manufacturer's instructions and try it on your own gear with care. You mix and use it at your own risk: we can't take responsibility for damage to equipment or for injuries from mixing, storing or using it.
Painting your own figures? Our unpainted resin figures arrive cured and cleaned, ready for primer: browse the catalog. Rather skip the airbrush? We hand-paint figures through Custom Orders.