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I saw a pretty good deal on ebay. I just want everbody's opinion about the product, does it look like its suitable for flames of war german camo?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Heart-Air-Compressor-w-Dual-Action-Airbrush-6ft-Hose-Tattoo-Nail-Art-Kit-/220906645846?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336f0fe956

No... It wouldnt be.

This is mine;

http://www.tcpglobal.com/airbrushdepot/A4709.aspx

This is mine:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gravity-High-Precision-Action-Airbrush/dp/B003EJYY38/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346220643&sr=8-2

It's not as bad as you'd think though, and perfect for a novice like me.

Yeah I got about three similar ones to those and they're great for Basecoating and undercoating vehicles and infantry. They will certainly do camo as well.

The cheaper airbrushes definitely work. While more expensive airbrushes like my $200 Grex brush are better, they're not so much better that you should buy it unless you use it for a lot of other art related tasks like I do.

However, I would recommend you actually get a quality air compressor with a pressure regulator, as that's the thing that opened up more complex uses of an airbrush for 15mm models.

At the scale you're working at, doing those tiny camouflage lines or spots means you have to work close to the mini, at a very low PSI, and with very thinned down paint. The crappier compressors tend to have issues with this, putting out inconsistent pressure, or the wrong pressure, causing all sorts of problems.

I've got a couple of Iwata brushes (one gravity feed dual-action, one jar-fed single-action for base coats), and was wondering whether the braided hose I have for them might fit that Aztec. Personally, I just can't get a fine enough line with my Iwatas, and am willing to give the Aztec a shot, but would prefer to know if I need a new hose before I buy I have a good compressor with pressure regulator.

Aztec is usually found as a cheaper brand of airbrush than Iwata, that won't help you get finer lines.

To get fine lines you need the smallest nozzle possible. I have a 0.2mm nozzle standard in mine, which is the smallest I've seen.

Look for a new nozzle before you look to buying a new airbrush. You'll have to take apart your current brush's nozzle assembly to install the new nozzle, but it's not that difficult.

 Vertrucio wrote:
Aztec is usually found as a cheaper brand of airbrush than Iwata, that won't help you get finer lines.

You sure about that?



My Aztec sprays fine lines just dandy...

And you get loads of nozzles that simply screw on.

Big P, read the previous post to mine, along with my entire post, a bit more before you post please.

He was saying buying the aztech just to spray finer lines.

However, I was pointing out that the nozzle is what matters in that regard, along with pressure and paint; not the brush itself.

Thus it would be cheaper for him to get a different nozzle for his current airbrush first, instead of buying an entirely new airbrush just to do fine linework. However, some airbrushes don't have to option to change nozzles, rare, but they are out there.

After a bit more research in this area (I just decided to start trying again on my airbrushing skills), it seems part of my issue might be that I'm leaving the Needle Cap on. A lot of the "fine line" tutorials I've checked out since yesterday show that cap removed, not attached.

I don't have it at work with me right now, but I'm almost certain it's an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS, which would mean .35mm. I'm finding that the HP-CS has two sizes - 0.5mm and 0.35mm, and conflicting reports that it can (and cannot) use the Iwata 0.2mm needle and nozzle from the HP-B (as the HP-CS does not have for purchase a factory 0.2mm needle/nozzle accessory).

Thoughts?

And thank you everyone for the help so far!

No idea on the Iwata nozzles. I use a Grex and bought mine with the 0.2mm nozzle pre-installed.

Removing the needle cap helps, partly because you need to get so close to have thin lines that you'll be placing the tip closer the cap allows, but also because the needle cap focuses the air forward, causing extra pressure on the paint that can smear it up close.

So, removing the needle cap helped a lot. I was able to get a very fine line and if I kept the airbrush at an angle toward the model I could keep the paint from going everywhere (might have been too thin, but I'm not sure). Straight-on, it seemed the air pressure was too much. I found that even with a dual-action iwata the air is practically either "on" or "off"... there's very little in-between. I will probably need to invest in an airflow regulator at some point if I want to continue down this path. But - the good news is that my original issue has been resolved.

Man, I should have gone to art school. This trial-and-error self-teaching is for the birds, even with youtube and the various corners of the interwebs.

The cheapest way to go for air flow regulation is an inline air control valve.

GREX has one that works great called a MAC (micro air control) valve, they should have one that is sized for all types of brush lines.

I have mine installed just under the decoupler to my airbrush.

I cant say for sure that you can use the .2 needle and nozzle in your iwata airbrush. You can swap it to the .35 though and that should allow you to do the small lines.. You can do it with your .5 setup but it will take playing with the paint and pressure.. Since I am at work I don't have access to the pics of fine lines I have done with mine.. Doing really fine work with airbrushes is a whole new world of aggravation, than using them for standard uses.. It can be done, but be prepared to be aggravated lol..