When I get splatter

I attribute it to either low air pressure or paint being too thick. 

Have you tried Badgers Model Flex?

Badger's Model Flex paint is made for airbrushing straight from the bottle. Most other paint is too thick as it comes from the bottle and will need to be thinned quite a bit.

You will notice Model Flex is the consistency of whole milk - very fluid.

" paint splatter, and then nothing. "

I hate it when that happens :> )  Sounds like it might be clogged up somewhere. I'd start by trying to spray water to make sure the paint is just not too thick. If it won't spray water then look for the clog. If it's a clog from water based paint you might be able to dissolve it with cleaning solution. Windshield washer fluid or an ammonia based household cleaner. I use the ammonia cleaner as it seems stronger and can even eat dried paint off the chrome finish if left on for a few minutes. My brushes are paasche and the cleaner doesn't seem to hurt them but I haven't used a badger for a long time so I'm not sure if they are ammonia proofed.  For a minor clog I usually just dip the brush in a bowl of the cleaner for a couple of minutes then take it out and rinse with water and see if it sprays. When trying to unclog it I turn up the pressure to 40 pounds or so to help blow the crap out. .DaveBranum

Oz, It seems to me that in

Oz,

It seems to me that in one of the badger videos I saw a while back that the badger rep said do not use ammonia. He didn't say why, just don't use it.  Im sure some people have used it without problems.

Can you spray plain water as a test?

I'm also curious, it sounds like you're using a jar rather than a color cup; if you have a cup does that work?

Does the jar cap have a small hole in it to allow air to be sucked in to replace the paint as it's sucked up?  Seems to me you'd have a problem if a vacuum gets created in an enclosed jar by the brush trying to pull up paint from a fully sealed bottle.

Too Low

Your air pressure is too low.  A siphon feed airbrush needs a higher air pressure than a gravity feed airbrush.  You also need to thin the paint with the appropriate thinner.  As Joe stated the paint should be thinned to the consistency of skim milk.

Another thing you might try,

Another thing you might try, is the needle tip. There are some made for thicker paints like water based, and they have bigger needle tips.

I had the same problem. When I used solvent based paint, it worked perfect, but as soon as I used water based paint, nothing came out. So I had to change it to a larger needle point tip. I had 3 that came with my airbrush set.

Badger 'Splatter'

Oz,

  You have a Badger 350 - the paint is mixed externally at the tip.  I suspect you have a clog between the paint bottle and the tip.  Take the tip assembly apart and clean it up with lacquer thinner(remove the nylon O-Rings first!).

  Now, try to spray some water - this should now work. and proves that you have a clean path.

  Mix your paint with the correct thinner to the consistency of 2% milk(or something close).  Floquil/Polly Scale needs to be thinned - how much depends on the color pigment.  Badger paint should be 'air brush' ready.  I have used a Badger 350 and 20-25 lbs of air is more than enough.  Open the valve as you give it air until you get the desired stream of paint.  The Badger 350 will lay down paint quite nice.  It is not my 'go to' air brush for weathering - External mix air brushes usually produce too much 'splatter' at low(12-15 lb air pressures) with very thinned paint when weathering).

  Oh, and has been mentioned, make sure the small air hole in the top of the jar cap is not clogged!

Jim