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Hi folks

Is the Citadel spray gun OK for a beginner attempting airbrushing for the first time?
How long does a can of propellant last on average?
And how messy is this process anyway?

Thanks for any advice


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Edit:
D'oh - did a search and found a few similar topics. If no one has anything significant to contribute this can be deleted - sorry admins!

It's crap

it is utter garbage, if ur trying to base coat an entire army a single base color... i guess you could use it... if not. spend ur money on an air compressor and an airbrush so you can actually do detail work

Thanks - I'm a complete newbie to the airbrush concept so just didn't want to spend loads on something only to find out that it was far too complicated!

I'll do my research - for example I don't even know if you have to have specific airbrush type paint or if anything will do!

To put it in even further context for you, it is a poor quality example of the worst possible type of airbrush for miniature painting you can get.

Any paint sold as suitable for miniatures ( and some that isn't) will work through an airbrush, you need to thin a lot more than you would if applying with a normal brush.

My best advice, from my experience, is to buy specially formulated paint (Vallejo and Badger both have ranges) which will get you used to what the correct consistency looks and handles like, then you can start thinning regular paint yourself, but use a proper thinner, water will make it work, but will reduce how well the paint sticks to the mini.

Try http://www.airbrushsupplyonline.com/complete-kits/complete-d-action-airbrush-kit-w-2-airbrush?zenid=qsa3kvna8mjhgp3c9vdgb84942

It's what I started with, and its been brilliant, have just upgraded to a better brush, but compressor still fine, although one with a tank is better if you can afford it. Factor in the cost of a Citadel gun, plus a few cans of propellant and it suddenly doesn't look like much money at all!!

I made the mistake of buying it. It doesn't work. It has one job and I've gone through 5 different citadel base paints making absolutely sure I wasn't doing anything wrong, because following the directions did not work. I had to hold it upside down for paint to come out of it and even then it wasn't fine enough to create a blending effect, the outer area of the spray was in noticeably large spots, making it useless for blending anything. Do NOT get it; it is one of the purest wastes of time and money I've ever made.

You wonder why Citadel/GW bothered in the first place then!
In other words, I could put good money on Eavy Metal not using this product?

How big of an investment can you expect when you want to start airbrushing? Can I get new, usable stuff for roundabout 100€?

Well, they say they use it in their guides, but I would be suspicious.

It's probably better on a compressor, the cans of propellant won't be anywhere near as consistent in the pressure they produce, and siphon feed type brushes need a high PSI to work properly, which the cans probably don't produce.


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tommse wrote:
How big of an investment can you expect when you want to start airbrushing? Can I get new, usable stuff for roundabout 100€?

Well, this was done with the setup I linked to earlier



All of the green (including the wash) was done with an airbrush, I didn't use a normal brush until it was time to do the smaller details like wounds etc..

I'll leave it up to you to decide whether its worth the investment or not, but a whole unit of 10 took probably no more than 6 hours from bits to based over three evenings, which is where I find it really worthwhile.

 azreal13 wrote:
Well, they say they use it in their guides, but I would be suspicious.

It's probably better on a compressor, the cans of propellant won't be anywhere near as consistent in the pressure they produce, and siphon feed type brushes need a high PSI to work properly, which the cans probably don't produce.

Actually, compressors have problems, too. They have to keep compressing the air as you spray and that causes the paint to actually stop as you spray it and clog the gun. The best thing is actually a canister, the sort of thing you'd see a valve on, to power your spray gun. They're usually easy to find in the same places you can find spray guns.

 Quarterdime wrote:


Actually, compressors have problems, too. They have to keep compressing the air as you spray and that causes the paint to actually stop as you spray it and clog the gun. The best thing is actually a canister, the sort of thing you'd see a valve on, to power your spray gun. They're usually easy to find in the same places you can find spray guns.

Well, I wouldn't touch a gun, canned air or compressor!

My compressor cuts off when I stop spraying though, which is pretty standard AFAIK, so I'm not quite clear on what you're trying to explain?

All good advice here. This is how I think of it: it is like buying a guitar. Buy a cheap one and the poor sound will turn you off playing. Buy a really expensive one, and you probably won't appreciate the difference (immediately anyway). There is a middle ground though, that gives you what you want without costing everything you have.

Edit: GW airbrush is equal to a cheap and nasty guitar that turns your beautiful riffs into vomit.

I have used mine once, to spray a Stormtalon in orange for my marine army, and I was really satisfied with the results actually. I missed a few bits, and gave those a touch up with a brush, but it really wasn't that bad.

Its good for basecoating large models. I personally wouldn't use it because for the price of it (£20+£10 for the can of propellant) I can get a Beginner's Airbrush from the model shop 4 doors down, and a 1L propellant canister with it. Or if I shell out another £30 I can get a compressor too.

Thanks guys this is all helpful
I might go for something in the £50-£100 range and see how I get on.

I see this as helping me to speed up painting. At the moment it takes me hours for one mini as I'm just not that fast. I've taken to batch painting instead which seems to speed the process up although maybe that's an illusion!

Priming, base coating and some shading techniques are quick with the airbrush when you start out (I've been doing it for almost a year now). I'm still a long way from mastering the fancy stuff but it does speed up many aspects.

HOWEVER be prepared when you first start to spend a fair bit of time cleaning the airbrush. There are numerous videos on Youtube on cleaning an airbrush and I highly recommend that you spend some time before you put paint in it learning how to dis-and-reassemble it.

I also found it was worth it "wasting" some paint and just spraying cardboard/paper/styrene sheets to get a feel for how the paint came out, distance from the subject, etc. Better than drowning a model when it matters!

 NiallCampbell wrote:
You wonder why Citadel/GW bothered in the first place then!

To rip people off. Just as with their green stuff, sculpting tool and hobby knife.

The citadel spray gun thing, is a cheaply made, single action, siphon feed brush, that needs loads of pressure to spray the citadel paints in their natrual state. The paint still requires thinning, even for a siphon feed. especially with cans of compressed air that dont have a very high psi to start with and die off quickly.
A compressor attached to a tank with a regulator and moisture trap is the best solution for air supply. (google for AS186 compressor, thats the most common, bog standardy sort of airbrush compressor out there)
Look for gravity fed, dual action airbrushes, made out of all chrome plated metal, with a 0.3mm or larger tip, and a 2-5ml paint cup (5ml is prob a bit large, certainly wont need larger)