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I understand that different airbrushes have different uses/strengths/weaknesses... but the compressor is the mainstay of any airbrush operation. I have about $350-$400 to spend on a new set up and do not mind having to 'try out' different airbrushes as needed. I am, however, only wanting to purchase one compressor (to last a while). I also need one that is reasonably quiet as I work 3-11 and would like to paint when I get home while my family is asleep... I am thinking about purchasing a Badger Patriot 105 brush in order to cut some costs in my budget to get a good compressor. I figure I could always upgrade the brush later but I do not want to have to purchase a compressor later. I work with air tools for a living and I know having the best tool in your hand can be worthless without the right air supply. So am also leary of purchasing a "budget compressor" due to some horror stories I have heard from some friends that have gone that route. Am I on the right track with this thought process? Just wondering if any experienced air brush painters could help me along the right path.... Thanks!

Todd

A 'budget' compressor would probably be something like an AS186 (sold everywhere! made in china) theyre alright, but are a tad noisy, I cant use my AS196 (twin piston version) at night without disturbing the family, Theyre only about £100 though.
For silence, If you already own a larger setup in the garrage / workshop, have you considered getting a portable tank, I've seen a 24 Liter tank with a manometer and 1/4inch out/input for £70, looked to be made of sturdy black plastic, said to be able to hold 8bars.
That kind of tank would be good enough to do an hour, maybe two of solid spraying work.
I've done something similar by filling up my 24L compressor early in the evening, and then switching to it when it becomes too late to use my smaller airbrush compressor indoors. This was when i was working on a custom painted guitar freehand airbrushed all over, I didnt stop the airflow at all for the entire session except to clear tip dry or refil the paint cup and i got a good 90 minutes of air at 20psi ish.

Doing this would be a truely silent airsource during the night, but obviously has a limited work time... which I dont see to be much of a problem for mini painting tbh.

for an airbrush.. I'l admit I'm a Harder & Steenbeck fanboy, theyre simply beautiful brushes in every respect! But all the big brands offer a wide range of decent looking models at a few price ranges Didnt get on with the badger one I owned for a bit, the nozzle assembly and funny air hose size annoyed me.

You might want to browse a beauty supply site for the airbrush and compressor, might be cheaper that way. Manicurists use airbrushes all the time and there are some "silent" compressors too. How silent are they I have no clue. I think HairySticks makes excellent suggestions, the portable tank would probably be the quietest. As for airbrush I use an Iwata Eclipse airbrush and it works great.

Thanks for all the input! Sadly I don't have a compressor at home, but I could possibly fill a tank at work for those weeknight painting sessions. I was looking on YouTube and I guess a lot of guys run an auxiliary tank so their compressors do not have to work as much. I absolutely love the Steinbeck airbrushes! They are very sexy brushes... Also, I considered a manicure style compressor and will look into it more as they are cheaper and possibly quieter. Right now I have been youtubing different compressors in order to gauge sound levels. I guess additional padding can be placed around the compressors to help muffle them. Right now I am leaning toward the Badger Aspire Pro which will leave a little more in my budget to get a little bit better brush. I also have to get an adapter for 220-110 since I am in Germany.

Are there any additional items I should consider adding to the initial start up purchase? I have debated on getting some Vellejo model air primers and paints so I can get started right away. I mainly have GW paints on hand.

I cant comment about the Vallejo paints and primers as I dont have any, But do hear nothing but praise here on dakka for them, I've been meaning to try them at some point, but its going to set me back a fair bit of cash for a set and I'm quite comfortable mixing and thinning paints.
Perhaps because I took a course on repairing and spraying car panels, or perhaps because I learned to use the airbrush for painting canvases and custom car panels first.
But I digress, The citadel paints you have on hand already will spray just fine through most airbrushes with a little preparation.
For thinning them my product of choice is Liquitex Airbrush Medium (theres also a Golden Airbrush medium which I've not tryed but expect similar results from).
It's a fluid acrylic binding medium with a low viscosity specifically designed to thin artists acrylics down to sprayable thickness without destroying the paint film surface tension. Artists acrylics have a thickness comparable to butter, and so the Citadel paints being rather a lot thinner natrually are rather easy to thin out for airbrushing.
They are however rather expensive for the amount of colour in a pot, I would consider craft acrylics similar to those used for terrain and larger projects when you're going to be spraying lots of a colour. (Saying this; I use Citadel Naggaroth Night, Xereus purple and Genestealer Purple all thinned out with Liquitex Airbrush Medium to provide the 3 stages of highlight on my Purple Space Marines and ive got through 2-3 pots of each int he time all my other colours are only half used up)

Ok cool! Yeah I'll go that route... I have experience with mixing and thinning aircraft paints and primers through a traditional HVLP gun so hopefully I can figure out the thinning for GW paints. Thanks for the run down on the liquitex medium, I will be sure to pick some up!

I wouldv'e suggetsed a ratio for thinning, But with that medium its any ratio that is required. As its pure acrylic binder there is no such thing as over thined only too weak a colour.
My airbrush is a 0.2mm tip H&S Evolution Silverline and I have no problems spraying citadel's mixed with airbrush medium and absolutely nothing else. This mix can't achieve super fine freehand airbrush detailing that you might see on custom cars or motor cycles.. but it can base and shade a mini. A tiny tiny drop of water/flow aid can knock the viscosity down that touch more for detailing, but too much messes with the dry time and surface tensions too much for any serious work. Isoproyl alcohol does a better job than water because of the really quick dry time. I think Tamiya Thinner is mostly this.
Noticing your German flag next to your name, being in Germany? (my flags USA yet im in the UK lol!) Harder & Steenbeck should be available localy as its a German company? potentially with the best prices anywhere in the world too

Edit; useful accessories to get might include a stand for the airbrush, a cleaning pot for it (mine is 2 in 1 with the stand actually), some pippettes and mixing cups... disposable shot glasses are a good size here, Some cleaning picks and brushes for the airbrush, depending on brand any tooling needed for the airbrushes strip down (H&S actually is totally tool-less except the needle seal right in the center of the brush which has a special screw driver with a prong to align the seal right.. you wont need that for a while yet, some brand have a screw on nozzle with a rather delicate teeny weeny thread or places for spanners to grip onto; which arent required as finger tight is enough on a well made brush) and somethign to clean the airbrush up with, I use pure acetone, which is a bit overkill the brushes are chrome plated, so avoid stuff that corrodes chrome... such as vinegar (many glass cleaners contain this as a flow aid/degreaser).. and youl be fine

Right on! Yeah I am loading up the Amazon cart... I think it would be cool to pick up a brush made in Germany since I am in Germany, both as a souvenir and to use, but unfortunately the exchange rate kills any kind of resemblence of a deal that could be had...

Is there a standard hose diameter (1/4 or 1/8)? Is an inline water filter necessary on the airbrush hose? I see on that is sold with it, but I am not sure if it is necessary/critical since I would be spraying water based paint. Also, I noticed there are multiple kinds of the liquitex medium including an irredescent (sp?) one... there is also a matte medium which I am familiar with since I have been using Vellejo matte medium for thinning my paints on my wet pallet. Thanks for all the helpful input! There is nothing more frustrating than making a big purchase and not having everything... but I'm sure some hiccups are to be expected...

Most airbrushing stuff is 1/8inch bsp fittings, occasionally the compressor end is a 1/4inch. Some ptfe tape round the threads might be handy if you have leaky joins too
Quick release couplings can be handy if your likely to have more than one brush to use, but for just one its a bit of a nice unnecessary tidbit lol.
Moisture traps are good, but theres a balance between filtering the moisture and killing off all the pressure from the compressor, as the motor gets hot it will condense moisture into the air its pumping, this can condensate in the hose or the airbrush and cause it to spit a drop, with is the most annoying thing that could happen to most freehand airbrush artists and causes something known as spidering, which can also happen when spraying too wet with too much pressure (basically thats what happens for the brief time the drop of water comes out)
Most airbrushing compressors will have a moisture trap/manometer as their output (thats 1), Ive then got one in the middle of my hose (2) and another that attaches to the bottom of my brush (3) this allows me to spray with a relatively hot compressor... you could however just stop periodically, go have a sandwich and a cup of tea or something (how British of me!)

Yeah Liquitex do all mediums, theyre all great at their jobs too! I can't fault them! Another brand is Windsor and Newton, altho they do not do an airbrushers medium.

Matte Medium - semi transparent, matte finish,medium viscosity

Ultra Matt Medium - Opaque, Matt finish,Thick viscosity

Glaze Medium - High Gloss finish, High transparency, medium viscosity

Irridescant medium - Semi Transparent, Thick viscosity, glossy finish, with irridescant flakes which give a light interference effect (shiny from one angle, dull from another etc), flake size is pretty large.

Airbrushing Medium - Very thin viscosity, satin finish, doesnt affect colour transparency much at all.

Fabric Medium - Ive never bought this one... but its supposed to make the paint adhere to fabrics and survive being washed... for t shirts or something like that perhaps.

Gloss medium - Like Matte, but gloss lol! Semi transparent, glossy finish, medium viscosity

Blending medium - Been meaning to try this one, sounds like a mixture of gloss medium and drying retarder mostly. (might be useful for people who tend to put too much retarder in as this has binders mixed in to avoid the over-retarding issue) could probably make your own from the other mediums available tbh.. in a matte finish too which might be prefered for mini's.

They also do some additives; flow aid, dry time retarder, Primers, varnishes, Texture mediums (good for basing, variety of styles)

All good products that I enjoy and use a lot. Other brands are fine too, usually Liquitex just have a reputation and a history with acrylic coating technologies.

Another question as I load up my shopping cart... The Vallejo acrylic polyurathane primers seem like a better deal than the smaller model air primer containers... Will these work if they are thinned out with the medium? So much to learn with this new evolution to my hobby! Lol

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00AMB88IS/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

Can't say I've tryed those particular primers, but again i've seen them praised here on dakka dakka, afaik they run okay straight form the bottle with a slightly higher psi setting, I've avoided them as i had my doubts with it going through my 0.2mm nozzle airbrush. I could however purchase a 0.4 or 6 mm setup for my brush easily enough.

I decided to go ahead and get the premixed model air primer from Vallejo after skimming through some threads on here... I did take the advice and order enough filters to run 3 filters... Plus the mid filter will have a regulator that I can adjust at the work bench level vs reaching down to adjust the pressure. I ordered a Badger Aspire Pro and an Iwata Eclipse HP-CS... Both seemed affordable and seem to have gotten good reviews here on Dakka and the rest of the net... I also picked up the other suggested items (hoses, pipe cleaners, plastic mixing containters, etc). I feel like a newbie again lol even though I have painted with a brush for some time now. I have a Nid army that I plan on using to learn how to air brush... I am not too keen on the Nid army itself but I am interested in the lessons it could present during painting with an air brush before I start taking the air brush to expensive SM or finecast models... Is this a normal thing for people to do? How did others hone their air brush skills?