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Hi guys,

recently I have decided to re-boot my space marines, taking them back to scratch and decide on one of the mainstream chapters rarther than a home brew, the current rendition of the rules combined with personal prefereance lead me to make a decidion and as such I have setout to not only restart from the ground up, but to actually get down and paint as I go.

now, I do not own an airbrush or paintgun yet and as I would like to start painting properly and make them look cool, getting one will help leaps and bounds as I am told by my local group.

now I know I don't want the Citedel one, as I would rarther get one that doesn't require propellant, but rarther a compressor of some sort.

however from here is where I am stuck, I have no idea what to expect, I know quallity matters and the cheapest option is not going to be the best option as this is the norm usually.

so I would like you guys to help me, could you provide advice on both the best place to get one, your experiances with yours, pro's and cons. ect ect and expected price range for a decent one.

cheers in advance

The videos are good, and please....please do a search.
Sincerely, I am not trying to be a jerk...but this question LITERALLY gets asked about once every ten days.
I am trying to point you to an existing resource that will save you time.

Tons of people have taken the time to share there thoughts in hundreds of posts on this exact topic....so, take a look, do some searches (and watch the vids...they get posted about every two weeks).

If you don't want to do that, then by any brand name dual action gravity feed brush and any cheap "airbrush compressor".

That should last you at least a year.

And buy airbrush paints, they are worth every penny.

I have been searching and looking at various posts online regarding airbrushes and compressors ect, I was asking you guys what you personally use and why you use what you do, what your experiences are ect.

I have my eye on a couple of bits of kit and plan to save to pick them up, but the bombardment of information, while good, can get a little confusing as to, why this over that.

I agree with the consensus that grav fed and duel trigger are the way forward, I'm also not looking for a cheap, one hit wonder that breaks within a year, I'm looking for good quality brush and good quality compressor that's not too large and was looking for personal experiances of those here.

I know with compressors, getting one that has a tank, moister condenser and pressure gauge are musts as you'll ideally need those anyway so may aswell get a system with them installed, noise is also a factor due to living in a flat (apartment)

I use an airbrush now and have had a few different ones. I have just bought the Iwata Neo. I going back to my cheap £12.50 chinese one. the neo is terrible. Saving up for the badger renegade.

as looking at the Iwata HP CS brush with a compatible compressor or the Iwata compressor to go with it, all in all if comes just shy of £400 but I don't think that figure includes everything I need.....that being said its a good start since it's the brush and power scource.

Possibly on the best beginner brushes I would recommend is the badger patriot 105.

This thing is a good quality brush that is not very picky in what you put through it or how you clean it.
I would suggest NOT going for a more expensive or "finer" brush.

One of the biggest misconceptions about airbrushes is that the more expensive ones are "better" - and what that adjective may mean for airbrushes - quality is more important.

Similar to normal brushes, airbrushes sort of have a "size" often how fine the needle tip is.
Here is a comparison:

Very fine tip airbrush;
* allows for very precises control over limited areas - if you have the skill to use it.
* allows for very thin line work - again, once you have the skill to use it.
* is VERY intolerant of poor quality paint
* is sensitive to pressure changes (11 psi and 16psi behave very differently).
* requires exceptional care with delicate parts when cleaning
* must be cleaned well.
* does not give large area of coverage (i.e. not ideal for basecoating a lot of things, or vehicles).


Larger needle airbrush;
* larger coverage area
* can do lines and details, just not as precise.
* accepts paints of greater varying viscosity
* not too picky about the quality of paint
* not too picky about pressure
* does not require as much cleaning
* more tolerant to damage


The fine brush is a precision instrument which requires much tighter tolerances to even function - there fore it is sometimes misconstrued as "better" than another brush that might be just as good of "quality" but not as picky.

Here is an example - tragically the needle on one of my finer brushes got slightly bent - it made the brush almost impossible to use (its a precision instrument). It was not happy. I had to get a new one.
My patriot 105 and my iwata hpcs? I bent the needle on a patriot 105 a while ago...and just bent it back, and it still works in a very acceptable manner.

I have a couple of precision brushes (and used more) and can say it would have been a very frustrating experience trying to learn with one - kind of like if your first model was a land raider, and you had a 10/0 brush....

As stated above, I would get either a badger patriot 105, or Iwata hpcs. Both are great quality brushes which while allowing you to do amazing things, they are workhorses that will last years and are more forgiving to new users.


As far as compressors go, most in the sub $100 range are about the same with only minor variances. You have already listed most of the important features (although a tank is not as big a deal, but it will be more noisy).

If you are going to be in an apartment, I would suggest the paasche D3000R, as it is one of the quietest compressors out there (most compressors don't even have a decibel rating).

thanks for the input, very helpful.