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This week the hobby store in my town is having a huge clearance sale, and among the items I noticed all of their airbrushes are for sale. They had a few iwata brand brushes and the like, so I am debating getting one. My question is should I go with a siphone fed or gravity fed airbrush? From my limited experience siphon fed spray tools dont work to well (used the GW spray gun and the testor spray gun) and while I realize Spray guns are much different from airbrushes, the principle is the same. So any tips as to which will serve me better? (I have a large unassembled army that i am trying to base coat before i pull it off the sprues, so that will be my main use)


Thanks in advance!

Gravity feeds will give you more consistency than siphon. BoLS just ran an article on airbrushes you might find some good info there, haven't had a chance to read though just yet myself.

Siphon feed brushes can give you the same consistency as a Gravity feed brush, the main issue is that you need quite a quantity of paint to get that, and generally painting miniatures we don't use that much paint so using a Gravity fed brush is more suited for us, unless your intending to paint a whole army at a time.

Winter wrote:Siphon feed brushes can give you the same consistency as a Gravity feed brush, the main issue is that you need quite a quantity of paint to get that, and generally painting miniatures we don't use that much paint so using a Gravity fed brush is more suited for us, unless your intending to paint a whole army at a time.

Imo Gravity feed is all-around much better suited to our purposes... a little paint goes a long way with an AB, and in Siphon feeds you can't really work with small amounts of paint (as noted). The jar needs to have a substantial amount of paint before it will draw. Further even if you intend to paint your whole army at a time, you will likely have major difficulties when trying to use one giant batch of paint... evaporation will really ruin your day and clog up your brush.

I have a siphon feed right now myself, and while I've found a suitable enough work around in the way of a side mounting metal paint cup, it still requires me to put enough mix in to fill the tube leading into the airbrush. I'll definitely be upgrading later this year to a gravity feed with a nice small needle. An upgrade to my compressor will be a nice addition too ^_-...

The key is keep it clean, every time before, every time after! No exceptions, dismantle it, brush it, and soak it in solvent every time.

I also recommend using pre mixed airbrush paints as well, createx has a decent line, I use their autocolor series regularly with a siphon cup. They come in squeeze bottles and you can load the cup with as much or as little as needed and you can switch colors right in the cup on the fly, eliminating the need for in between cleans and mix bottles completely.

http://www.autoaircolors.com/products/paint/paint_frames.html

I have tried out many airbrushes, badger, aztec, paasche and others, for cost, durability and effect, nothing has beaten the paasche siphon feed, I use. (Tastes will vary.)

http://www.paascheairbrush.com/double_action_airbrushes.html


Good luck!

Paasche does make some nice airbrushes... I think the new-ish Talon Gravity feed looks really cool (and cheap!).

But I recommend NOT soaking your airbrush in solvent. It will remove the necessary lube from certain areas, it can dissolve your o-rings, and it allows the dissolved paints to crystallize in strange and unwanted places in the brush. Check out the Guru's site for cleaning instructions:
http://www.airbrushguru.com/cleaning-your-airbrush.html

Keeping it clean is the key though...

Thanks for all the help guys, unfortunately my local store ONLY sells siphon fed, but you all saved me a decent bit of money and frustration as I was on the verge of buying one.