what am i doin wrong ?

i usually paint with rattle cans i rekon they r very user friendly Tamiya is my preffered brand, i can usually get a pretty good finish without too much trouble, however i have run out of colors so have tried using acrylic lacquers, i used to use a cheap and nasty airbrush and found that i had to thin lacqers about 10 to 1 to get the paint to go through the gun, this was then covered in Tamiya rattle can clear, but now i have a better quality gun all kinds of adjustable thingys, paint goes throug with only a 2to 3 to 1 mix, but i am not getting much of a shine more like a sheen and the surface is very rough, kinda like wet and dry sandpaper! gunna hafta try polishing the last one, never had to do that before, is this normal ? or am i doing something wrong ? should i still be thinning the paint 10 to 1 ?

Definitely sounds like you paint is to thick, it's drying before it hits the body - the consistency of Milk is how I airbrush any type of paint, and rubbing between coats is a good idea if your after a smooth finish and I also sand and polish the final coat as it's never totally smooth otherwise. HTH

thanks Paul

had another thought .....wonder if the bling powder is contributing to the rough finish

Too low air pressure could also be causing the problem - paints moving slower than it should be.
I spray with about 35 psi but have tried it set lower and got a sandpaper finish.
Also - nozzle too far from the thing being painted?

thanks Zen that could be, i have been using about 27psi, still learnin how to use the new one! probably a combination of both low air and thick paint