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I've been looking around at air brushes recently, primarily because of all the work I see Lbursley do (the man is an inspiration) and all of the fine pieces I see posted here. I've got a general price range I'm looking to stick to (around 200$) and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for the novice air brusher, such as brand or type. I'm not trying to eliminate brush painting entirely, I'd just like to try my hand at this, so any ideas or opinions would be welcome.

Of course, I could buy one and suck righteously at it so this could be a total waste.

air brushing is super easy to do, so no worries that your gonna screw it up.

is that $200 including an air compressor? If so, your probably a bit off of what you'd want to spend for a real good setup.

I love my Iwata HP-CS + Paasche D3000R setup, and it ran me $280... plus ~$30 more for an airbrush hose + airbrush cleaning station, and then ANOTHER $40-$50 for some Vallejo paints.

tcpglobal - Either their Ebay store or their website. Good packages and good brushes. A little out of your range but I picked up an Iwata HPCP with a compressor with a tank for $250. This topic's been covered a lot on these forums and you can find a lot of info by doing a quick search on the P&M thread.

Check out this recent thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/410680.page

Y'know, I hadn't thought about the price of the compressor or the cleaning kit. Time to update that price goal, lol.

Edit: That thread was a stupid amount of help. Thanks guys! Sorry for the double threadedness, I'll remember that search feature in the future.

the cleaning kit is basically just a stand attached to a cup, with a lid on the top. You can spray into the cup, and the lid catches all the fumes / spray back.

So you can just pour water / airbrush cleaner through it while at your paint station, and not have to go to a sink after every color change.

Granted, you don't always want to change it between colors (when doing a gradient, residual color left in helps it blend!) but when going from black to white, its nice not to have to get up to clean it.

I recommend a Paasche Talon and a little airbrush compressor from Harbor Freight(some people say no to this, mine works perfect, no pulsing, and whisper quiet).

These 2 will easily stay below $200.

Aerethan wrote:I recommend a Paasche Talon and a little airbrush compressor from Harbor Freight(some people say no to this, mine works perfect, no pulsing, and whisper quiet).

These 2 will easily stay below $200.

I had one from harbor freight... when airbrushing for more than 30 minutes, it started shooting condensation through my brush.

ruined a few models :(

L2moisturetrap?

I'm not saying they are perfect, but with a decent regulator and moisture trap they work just fine. I've run mine for an hour with not a single problem.

Aerethan wrote:L2moisturetrap?

I'm not saying they are perfect, but with a decent regulator and moisture trap they work just fine. I've run mine for an hour with not a single problem.

it had a moisture trap :(

maybe I needed a pistol grip one on the airbrush...

Whatever, that, plus the lack of a tank or regulator, convinced me to get my d3000r, so I can adjust the pressure of my brush.

No more moisture, even pressure for the whole session.

Harbor does have one with a tank on it. Odd that you still had moisture with a trap.

I'd been looking at harbor freight just because they're local enough that I wouldn't have to order a whole kit (I'm impatient). I'll check around though, you guys have given me lots of excellent info.

I say try the Harbor one and if it doesn't work sell it on ebay. Mine works wonders for me.

I bought this package here: http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/ihp.aspx#IWA4004
In all honesty, the airbrush is higher end than I will probably ever need. However, I have hundreds of models that I have put time, energy, sweat and blood into (I have literally bled all over several models during an xacto knife mishap), why would I compromise on the paint application?

I have 2 moisture traps on it, one at the compressor, 1 on the hose just before the quick release and I've never had a problem. Again, probably overkill but why compromise...

Finally, I would highly recommend getting a tank on your compressor unless you don't mind hearing it running constantly. I live in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment with a non-hobbyist girlfriend, the tank is a must.

As for the differences in the type of brush, like gravity feed or bottom feed. Are there any cons aside from the bottom feed adding weight to the front of the brush?

gravity feed generally requires less air pressure, and is better for fine detail work with small amounts of paint. If your going to be mostly basecoating with the brush, then a bottom feed is fine. If your going to be doing very fine details (airbrushing power swords, highlighting things, ect) then your going to want to get a gravity feed.

I can put a single drop of paint in my HP CS and spray a fine detail... I'd need to waste 4x that paint in a bottom feed one just to get it to pick up the color through the feed.

Gravity feed is 100% what you want for this. Syphon feeds require alot of paint in the jar to work properly.

With a gravity feed you can do a few drops at a time or a lot if you are base coating an entire unit.

GWs "Paint thrower" is a good example of what to expect from a siphon fed airbrush. If all you want to do is toss a basecoat on 30 Pink Horrors, it's great, but as mentioned above, if you want to do really anything more than that without wasting a ton of paint, gravity fed is best.

Vallejo Air paints come in an eyedropper and can just be loaded straight into the brush, no mixing/thinning required. Those coupled with a good, top fed airbrush = win!