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I do a bit of airbrushing on cars and motorcycles, so I have airbrushes already. They seem realy daunting when you first try them, but once you've worked with them for a little while, you get the hang of it. Different airbrushes are for doing different things, some are almost like scaled down paint guns that spray big patterns, some will spray hair thin lines, like the ones used in manicureing. It's all about the needle set up. I use Master series airbrushs which I purchased from airbrushdepot.com. They work about the same as the more expensive Iwatas, but only cost 40 to 50 bucks apiece.

I would get one but I would want a high quality one. Since I'm strapped for cash till next year I don't see one in the near future.

ive recently bought an airbrush and compressor kit. i did try the GW style gun and propellant can with mixed results for some halloween props. Ive found that for tanks and big stuff like terain its invaluable. The expense is really not the equipment its the paint it gobbles up way too quickly.

im going to using my airbrush for my 5 bastions and 6ft of defense walls.

Ok this is bad self advertisement but after reading some of the comments I had to

You can use an airbrush to paint tanks and miniatures but you need a good one to paint miniatures.

A good brush wont gobble up paint unless your trying to cover a lot of area. I typically put 3 drops of paint for each color change. If im doing coverage of a tank(devilfish) I put in about 20 drops of paint for the entire surface coverage.

You can do blending very well and other cool effects but basically it can do almost anything a paint brush can do if you use your head and are patient(and have a decent one)

The compressor can be loud but for 160USD or so you can get compressors that I dont mind being traped in a tinny bathroom with for hours. My wife doesnt complain about the noise at all and even goes to sleep in the next room many nights while im painting. I do have the compressor on foam to dampen the noise but its really not that loud
I use a Eurotec 10A compressor with a 2gallon or so tank.

It can cost as little as 200 for compressor and double action brush for base coats and some nice stenciled effects or as much as 350 for a decent brush and compressor and at this starting value you can do almost anything. My airbrush is an infinity.

So horrible self advertisement. See the following links for what can be done with an AB.
The following is my guide for starting out and some basic techniques. I appreciate constructive criticisms and questions so I can make the guide more complete.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/251253.page
or a couple of my favorites so far


Otherwise check out my gallery as the vast majority of my vehicles, most of my suits, and about 30% of my minis are airbrushed

Im trying to drum up support for airbrush artists so we can get some awesome things painted and break the stupid paradigms about painting I keep hearing.
Dont get me wrong. airbrushing is hard and challenging. and thats why im doing it.

If my models looked like yours mate, I would do some self promotion too!

I just started dabbling in air brushing, trying out simple color fade transitions on some tanks for my Imperial Guard with a Badger 150 double action. I have some pictures in the dakka gallery at this link.

I hope to get more practice with it and eventually try out some fine lines and other more advanced techniques.

I just bought one the other day.Still need t save up for the compressor but I'm almost there.Then I will start with the basic airbrush drills using food colouring and water and when confindent enough will move on to minis and paint.Not painting whole minis,unless they requir only one colour.However I will be using it to give my minis an even basecoat,once I get the hang of it.

I wan't one, but don't know were to get one

I have an Iwata CM-B... and a compressor.

I don't get a lot of time to use it, and it's a little bit too much airbrush for me still, so it's slow going.

going to give it a go on my rebuilt space wolves soon, though.

I was gonna get a 99.99$ compressor but then the plastic spray gun came out which I think I will get but I have heard mixed reviews.

Although possibly overpowered i posses an binks and bullers airbrush/paint gun with the capacity of 1 litre......good for spraying titans

I want one just so I can base coat things in colours other than black and white, for example use DA green (equivalent) on DA, saves some painting

Theyre very interesting, but it seems like it would take too long to get the hang of, so I wont get one until Im fantastically rich and buy a vehicle heavy army.

I have a double action one and a compressor. It is really nice for tanks and base coats

The guys at our LFGS were raving about them so we bought one. Whist I was at work my partner had a go using it to base coat his dudes which worked well at first and then became a disaster. I really wanna have a crack myself for my tanks but....time time time to sit down and work it out.

In the meantime, my tanks are still unpainted.

Just picking up my first and eager to learn...

Airbrushes do not replace your standard brushes, but they do offer a number of alternative skill sets and advantages

I do not own one, but i have a family member that owns one so no reason to buy one.

I've been trying to get more and more people to at least consider a simple airbrushing set for their kit because it's easily one of the best tools I've picked up in years. It can get expensive, but it all comes down to what you're going to try and do with it.

To that end, I've been trying to collect as much info under TPC's Airbrush Tag as I can. A lot of it is basic, but it might be helpful to some folks here on the fence.

If you are really good with an A/B it actually can replace a brush but that is neither here nor there. I come from the automotive side and graphic art/sign painting school so I was using an A/B before a brush. My mentor is a brush painter and has taught me a thing or two with a brush and technique, but combining the 2 can be amazing.

I stick with the good old brush,I only use spray cans for the black undercoat.

Anyway my friend got the Citadel spray gun (the flamer),
he tried to use it that day and the paint didn't mix right,he had to dip the nozzle in paint thinner afterwards to clean it,then a week later he told me that it just stopped working.

So I won't get one anytime soon.

I have one, but it's for side jobs on cars...I haven't used it on minis yet

The Citadel brush is cheap. Like I said a good Iwata is 100 USD and it'll do anything. Get some goo gone if your A/B gets gummed up and let it soak. I keep a bottle of universal oil next to the a/b and I just put some in the cup when it sits that way if there is anything in there it won't stick. I just run a little mineral spirits through it after that to clean out the oil then run some water through and it's ready to paint again.

Sarpedon_702 wrote:The Citadel brush is cheap. Like I said a good Iwata is 100 USD and it'll do anything. Get some goo gone if your A/B gets gummed up and let it soak. I keep a bottle of universal oil next to the a/b and I just put some in the cup when it sits that way if there is anything in there it won't stick. I just run a little mineral spirits through it after that to clean out the oil then run some water through and it's ready to paint again.

I'm more of a Sata guy, but Iwata is still pretty good

...and ALWAYS clean the brush after use!!!!!!! There's nothing worse than trying to take apart and clean a paint gun/air brush that wasn't cleaned after use. You also have no excuse to not clean it - it's two or three parts that screw on/off and takes 5-10 minutes

Sata's good stuff too. and yeah cleaning the A/B after each use is tantamount to making it easy to work with. I left a 1/4 pot of createx once and it took me about 6 hours of soaking and scrubbing to get that bastard clean.

Sarpedon_702 wrote:Sata's good stuff too. and yeah cleaning the A/B after each use is tantamount to making it easy to work with. I left a 1/4 pot of createx once and it took me about 6 hours of soaking and scrubbing to get that bastard clean.

Ouch. I was going to paint a fender, and the paint gun i was using wasn't cleaned correctly....so, I made my first spray, and the needle stuck causing paint to leak out all down the fender

Needless to say, I had to wait for the paint to cure, sand it down, and do it again...all could have been avoided by proper maintenance

I have a basic dual action airbrush and a mid size copressor.
I absolutely love it! even smooth base coats all the time in any colour I can mix up!

my set up cost me about $130 for the airbrush kit (brush, regulator, hoses cleaning kit) and I got my compressor on sale for $50 at a local tool supply store.

it is by far the best $200 I have spent in a loooong time. I will be buying at least 1 more air brush in the future.

here is the setup I use:

i have badger that i perma-barrowed from my dad but i started out with a cheap airbrush compressor starter kit from harbor freight that cost like 75 bucks for the whole shabang. the cheap one is great for just laying down paint but the badger is more for precision which i have not quite figured out yet. I mostly just use it for priming, base coats and zenethil effects as well as coats of future but im working on learning the finer points of lighting. Any way airbrushes are rad but they are a pain to clean.

Spray Paint from Walmart for basecoating marines.

When i get the money i will go the whole shibang.

This will be when my painting gets better. I really want to use one to do a blood soaked army.

Always seemed like more a hassle than it was worth to me.