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Author Topic: Advice selecting airbrush  (Read 968 times)

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Offline kaldolaf

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Advice selecting airbrush
« on: May 13, 2015, 02:34:41 PM »
Hi All,

So my wife and I have been getting a lot of painting done lately but we are avoiding all our vehicles like the plaque (2 devilfish and 2 hammerheads for my Tau and a wave serpent for her Eldar).  We had started trying painting them by brush testing on one of my devilfish but just hate how long it takes not to mention very visible brush strokes.

I had briefly considered the citadel spray gun but have heard too many bad experiences with it that and it seems to not even be sold by GW anymore.

I'd like to find a basic and affordable airbrush.  Ideally I'd like to stay under $100 US, $150 tops.  I'm really only looking to spray base coats and maybe some camo effects.  I'd probably also spray base coats on figures as well as vehicles.

Can anyone offer any advice on getting started with airbrushing for the uses above?

Also, aside from priming which we do in the garage, we do all our painting in the den.  Will we be fine airbrushing inside and do we need any sort of booth or enclosure to catch over spray? (I've seen some hobby airbrush booths on amazon).

Any help is greatly appreciated!


Offline khaine

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Re: Advice selecting airbrush
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2015, 01:25:04 PM »
Ok…

The GW spray gun isn’t a very good airbrush because it isn’t and airbrush it’s a spray gun. GW never marketed it as an airbrush but the paint+air=painted stuff equation made a lot of people think it was intended as an airbrush. That said it is(was?) a great spray gun that does exactly what it says on the tin that was easy to use and maintain.
For the description of what you are saying you want to do a spray gun would be fine.

That said an airbrush would give you a lot more options in the long run, just because you only want to base coat this week doesn’t mean you only want to base coat forever.

So assuming you go with the airbrush option there’s a few things to consider:

Single/Dual Action.

Single action allows only for an adjustment of air flow, dual action allows you to adjust the air flow and the paint flow. Dual gives you a lot more control, but may cost a little more as can be a little harder to maintain.

Gravity/Siphon feed.
Gravity feeds generally have a small cup mounted on the top/side of the airbrush and use (drum roll) gravity to help feed the paint into the airbrush. Siphon feeds normally have a glass bottle that plugs into the bottom of the airbrush and uses the air flow to draw paint up into the brush. Gravity feeds tend to be a bit easier to work with, easier to switch colours with and less wasteful. Siphon feeds allow you to set them up with more paint so you can spray for longer without having to keep topping up.

Internal/External mix.
Internals mix the paint and air inside the body of the airbrush, externals mix the paint with the air flow after the air leaves the nozzle. Externals are a little easier to maintain and… well have nothing else going for them, 90%+ of airbrushes you look at will be internals.

For the record the GW “spray gun” would class as a single action (Pull trigger to spray) siphon feed (Glass bottle under the brush) external mix (The paint chamber is mounted in front of the air nozzle) airbrush… Kind of…

Last thing to consider is the air supply. Compressed air cans are cheap to get started with, but by the time you’ve done 5+ cans you could have bought a cheap(ish) compressor, they also run out at annoying times leaving you unable to do anything until you get another, which depending on where you live can be a major task. Cans also suffer with pressure drop, when you spray the cans temperature drops drastically and so does the pressure, also towards the end of the cans life you’ll be working with a greatly reduced pressure from what you started with.
Compressors are more expensive to start with, take up more room and are noisy. But the are cheaper long term, give a more consistent (And often adjustable) air pressure (Doubly so if the compressor also has and air tank, a feature that also helps reduce the noise as the pump will shut off after the tank reaches a set pressure and only start again when it drops a little.)

In short  a single action, siphon feed airbrush would cover you for what you currently plan on doing (base coating). If you wanted to think more long term there are some good sets like this that would give you a lot more options (Couldn’t find it on the US Amazon, but £88 works out at around $140, just under your top end budget but most of that money is going on the compressor)

Do some googleing (The terms I used above should help you get started) and check out some youtube videos, there’s a lot of info out there and kit that ranged from $20-$1000+. Also check out price/availability of compressed air cans.



*Edit*
Beware top end brand named airbrushes at crazy low prices, if it seems too good to be true and is shipping from China chances are good it’s a knock off, while they can still be perfectly good brushes in their own rights you’re not getting an amazing bargain just a cheap brush with another companies name stamped on it.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 01:35:27 PM by khaine »

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Offline kaldolaf

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Re: Advice selecting airbrush
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2015, 11:26:28 AM »
Thanks for all the advice and information Khaine!

I've done some looking on Amazon and I'm leaning toward the Paasche H-SET.

I'm having some issue deciding on a compressor though. I was leaning toward this compressor but I'm a little unsure about the Paasche hose connecting.  Some people are saying the compressor has a 1/8 BSP connection, others say it is 1/4 BSP.  As best I can tell, the hose that comes with the Paasche brush is a 1/4 NPT connection.

The other compressor I'd consider is the Paasche D3000R.  Looks like with this there wouldn't be any connection confusion.  On the other hand, the compressor is almost double the cost of the first compressor and pushes me quite a bit over the budget I was looking to stay in.

I tried looking for adapters to connect the 1/4 NPT female on the hose to the either 1/8 or 1/4 BSP on the compressor but I can't seem to find one that does NPT to BSP.  They all seem to be either NPT or BSP on both sides of the adapter.

Any thoughts on the compressor or other ideas?

Offline khaine

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Re: Advice selecting airbrush
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2015, 01:30:26 PM »
No problem.

Did a quick search on that airbrush and it's got some good reviews, large capacity and easy to maintain with the option of a cup feed. Should be good for base coating which was what you were after.  :)

Connector wise... I found this thread about the... err... thread sounds like Paasche uses a custom fitting but there are adaptors available. Maybe worth a trip around the interwebz and asking at a few dedicated airbrush forums where you're more likely to find somebody who has had direct experience.

Compressor wise you're looking at a "get what you pay for", the Paasche is more powerful, quieter and probably comes with the better warranty (And also should fit the brush without an adaptor) The other compressor is... well cheaper... Again somebody with hands on experience with the Paasche airbrush can probably give you the best advice on what to go for.

  There's no stopping what can't be stopped, no killing what can't be killed

You can't see the eyes of the demon until him come calling.

This is dread man, truly dread.


"Childhood is when you idolize Batman. Adulthood is when you realize that the Joker makes more sense."

Offline Slick Samos

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Re: Advice selecting airbrush
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2015, 06:15:25 PM »
I know this comment isn't helpful, but do any of you remember the spray gun April Fools ... that would have been awesome!

April Fools! | Miniature Miscellany
Play more games, paint more models...

 


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