school me on air brushing kits

[1930artdeco]

I am going to be in need of learning how to airbrush shortly. Does anyone have knowledge of which airbrush is best to get, learn on? I need it only here and there occasionally. But I don't want a cheap one either I need to be able to learn to mix paints and then shoot them well. I have a small section of my Sun Dist. tester that needs a repaint.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[RTM]

Good luck, following along. I've been hacking at it, the Art n Crafts websites aren't as much help as I would like.

 

[gahrajmahal]

I still use an old Paasche airbrush single action like I used in the custom van shops in the 70’s. This one came from my father in law. He used it to spray antique toys. His air source was a spare tire, so not much spraying time. My dad had one like it too, his he used to spray food coloring on baked goods. (He owned a bakery). It is a simple design with a screw needle for paint pattern size (round). When you push the button you get air and paint simultaneously. It uses glass jars and the whole setup is easy to maintain and clean. I’d buy something on eBay to try them out.

Get the magazine “Airbrush Action”

 

[Davefr]

Iwata Eclispe HP-CS is a great all around gravity feed airbrush. If you want more info, go to the Barbados Rex channel on Youtube.

Barbatos Rex

I'm a Gunpla and model builder living in the state of Rhode Island, USA. I've been a model builder since my dad thought me when I was only 12 years old. Now in my 50s and I'm back to building once again. I hope to share some knowledge here and to have some fun doing it.

www.youtube.com

 

[isb cornbinder]

I am going to be in need of learning how to airbrush shortly. Does anyone have knowledge of which airbrush is best to get, learn on? I need it only here and there occasionally. But I don't want a cheap one either I need to be able to learn to mix paints and then shoot them well. I have a small section of my Sun Dist. tester that needs a repaint.

Thanks,

Mike

I have two PAASCHE, I got the first one 47 years ago. It still works. So, I bought a second Paasche, this time with a mini compressor and tank. I am confident that I can sell my Paasche for more than I paid.

 

[1930artdeco]

Thanks folks, for air I have a 12 gal compressor. Can I dial it down for these guns or do I need a small compressor that comes with one?

Mike

 

[Beerhippie]

Thanks folks, for air I have a 12 gal compressor. Can I dial it down for these guns or do I need a small compressor that comes with one?

Mike

Gonna depend on the regulator of your comp. Usually, it's more practical to just use a dedicated regulator for low-pressure tools. That way, you can still use the main air for other things while set up for 'brushing.

I was given a nice Paasche VL series set a few years ago.





At least, I think it's nice. It had been used at least once and not cleaned well. All I've done so far is to get it it good and clean. I'll have to figure out how to use it someday.

Last time I looked for airbrush tutorials on YT (a couple of years ago), all I found were lists of books to buy and folks advertising their books.

 

[Firebrick43]

Thanks folks, for air I have a 12 gal compressor. Can I dial it down for these guns or do I need a small compressor that comes with one?

Mike

You can put a regulator on it and turn it down.

Define small. Dual action Round pattern air brushes don't do well with coverage even if you open them up with many paints. They are too wet in the center and dry spray at the sides. My .5mm round pattern Iwata does terrible even to do the kids derby cars on the main body color.

Plus the paint cups are too small as well if you talking bigger than a few square inches.

There are some fan pattern airbrushes now that have a much better pattern for coverage and paint cups sized correctly for doing areas larger than a few square inches but not large enough to use a jamb gun.

 

[2oolhound]

I used to use Badger 150 and I think a 100 as well. Both dual action. Press down for air, pull back for paint. They came with instructions on how to get started. You drew a grid pattern of 1" squares on a page and started making small dots on the center. You learned to start the air and then the paint and then let off the paint, then the air. You got pretty good fast. I retouched photos but did motorcycles and things too. Badgers were considered average.

Funny story: I bought a coffee grinder (hand crank) from the health food store (it looked kinda antique). I painted it light brown or creamy brown all over then hi lit the edges in dark brown but faded the paint in gradually. Mounted it in my camper. Several years later my brother buys my camper and freaked out on the grinder. Turns out he'd been looking at the same one in the health food store and figured this one must have been the ORIGINAL ANTIQUE ONE! He took it into the health food store and they all thought it was the original antique one too. I had a hard time convincing him otherwise. I'd disassembled it to paint it so the way all the components fit back together made it look like it must have been a factory job.

10 years ago a local guy was selling one of the famed Paasche Turbo brushes. I could have had it for $50. They were the go to of graphic artists who worked in the big magazines world wide.

I used an air pump from a vacuum easel at 1st. Then a small diaphram compressor but diaphram compressors pulsate and cause problems when airbrushing. Guys put a second schrader valve on an inner tube and rigged it between the compressor and the air brush so it would iron out the pulsating. Your big tank would be fine.

Graphic arts and photo retouching are all done on computers now so they took a tumble in pricing in the 90's to 2010.

 

[1930artdeco]

Thank you all, how about Harbor Freight guns? I am only painting about 6 sq. inches on my dist. machine. Maybe I can learn with the HF one and graduate to one that is better.

 

[no704]

As a kid I built a lot of models, mostly airplanes. Air brush was a game changer for camo paint jobs. Powered with a full size spare tire!

 

[isb cornbinder]

Thanks folks, for air I have a 12 gal compressor. Can I dial it down for these guns or do I need a small compressor that comes with one?

Mike

I would suggest that you place an inline small tank and regulator after the main tank. Thie should reduce or eliminate the pulsing in the air supply line. There was time when the rebuild and service kits for big trucks air dryers came with a small tank. These one gallon tanks were not used. I got several of these tanks for $5 each. Call around to the parts departments, You might get lucky.

 

[Aaron_W]

Harder and Steenbeck just introduced a new airbrush specifically targeting new airbrush users, but it is a high quality airbrush with growth potential. Not cheap, but not terribly expensive either $120. Granted for $120 you are getting the airbrush and nothing more. There are quite a few quality brands where that kind of money will include a couple different size needles and a hose.

Ultra 2024



H&S also has a youtube channel, much of it is blatant marketing, but they do have quite a few helpful videos for beginners.

The Ultra seems to me to be a product hoping to catch beginners early and help win them over to the brand as they work their way into more advanced (and more expensive) airbrushes.


Anyway, between being made in Germany, and the helpful youtube channel they got my money as I once again try to learn to airbrush.



If you want something cheaper Gaahleri is a budget brand getting good reviews, their GHAD-39 and pistol style GHAD-68 are in the $50 price range.

Harbor Freight's Black Widow line is also getting pretty good reviews, but the big question is long term parts and service, and they really are not that cheap at $80.

Badger, Paasche, and Iwata are the classic big names that always come up.

 

[Aaron_W]

It sounds like your use is touch ups on tool restorations?

Just asking because quantity of paint may have some impact on choice. Gravity feed are generally preferred for small amounts of paint, like figure painting, models, as detail brushes on larger art projects. Gravity feed are generally limited to fairly small paint quantity having 5-10ml paint cups. Syphon feed allows the use of small cups like a gravity feed, or larger jars (typically 30-150ml, 1-5oz) so they are preferred for painting larger surfaces.

 

[Dixie_Flatline]

Thank you all, how about Harbor Freight guns? I am only painting about 6 sq. inches on my dist. machine. Maybe I can learn with the HF one and graduate to one that is better.

I tried to use the HF airbrush and did some testing on scraps, I could not get good results, so I went and bought a Badger. It was night and day difference even if its not considered a top-of-the-line airbrush. If this is a one time sort of thing why not just give it the rattle can treatment?

 

[isb cornbinder]

This may be an option for a spray kit that puts out more paint than Paasche. It came off a MAC TOOL truck. It was a gift to me for some repairs I did on a friend's HD.