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So I've been driving myself mad trying to find a good/cheap airbrush the last couple of weeks and am now getting very frustrated with the whole thing. Really I only wanted one to do some basecoating with and so my question is this...

Will there be any noticeable difference between the quality of a basecoat applied with an airbrush vs that of a traditional brush?

Sorry if this is a noob question but I really have no idea. I can put of buying an airbrush until I get a more complicated project to work on if needs be but if I will see an improvement in my paintwork then I would rather wait and buy an airbrush. Thanks in advance!

P.S. did do a quick search but couldn't find what I was looking for, apologies if this has been answered elsewhere.

If all you're going to be doing is basecoating your models you don't need anything fancy in an airbrush. Just something to layer on some color.

The main area most people will notice a difference from just a different application of basecoating will be on large flat surfaces like tanks. As long as you keep your paint thin and avoid showing brush strokes you'll be fine with just a brush.

You can also get colored cans of primer to take care of priming and base coating in one fell swoop.

For me - thin coats.

You can get a perfectly even coat of paint - no matter what color you want - using a thinner overall coat of paint than you can reasonably do with paint jobs. You don't have to worry about fine details being obscured.

While you will probably find people who disagree - for your particular task - a simple single action, external mix airbrush like a Badger 350 (or a Chinese knock-off) will be right what you are after. It will spray your primers, base coats and varnishes without any problem and it is cheaper enough you should be able to pick one up and get a descent compressor for about the price of a boxed set of almost anything from GW.

They are limited for more precise work - but it will handle exactly what you want it to do and the learning curve is almost non-existent.

You can achieve a smooth coat without an airbrush. As Sean said, thin coats is the trick. If you're painting large flat areas, a good soft brush helps as well (a cruddy old brush will tend to leave streaks). However, to paint a smooth coat can take a lot of thin coats if you're really desperate to get a smooth coat. The WIP Leman Russ in my gallery took about 3 to 4 coats and you can still see areas which could use another going over and areas with streaks, so it can be very time consuming if you want a really smooth coat.

Of course. of you aren't desperate for a really solid and smooth coat, you can probably get away with 2 thin coats and be done with it.

I could never imagine basecoating a vehicle with a paintbrush after using airbrushing. So much smoother of coverage, and so much faster. I can get a Chimera from the box to to a decent standard in a few hours, not counting primer drying time.

The only downside you can't really basecoat metallics without going to Vallejo Model Air and I think it uses a little more paint.

#1 the layers of paint are much thinner!
#2 you can really use the transparent of the paint
#3 zenithal highlighting in the basecoat
#4 very smooth looking color gradients

Thanks for all the replies! Managed to order a fairly cheap air brush set up for a tank I've got assembled. Might go ahead with some of the infantry models before then.

Thanks again!