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I'm looking to get into the terrifying world of airbrushing after a friend let me borrow one of his crappy brushes to play around with. Now I'm looking for a good starter airbrush with all the lovely double action, gravity feeding goodness I've heard about. I'm looking to dip my toe slightly more in the water here and not blow too much cash, maybe about £200 for compressor and brush. Are there any good deals out there or starter kits? I've seen a few on eBay, but... Well eBay...

I got a compressor on ebay and it is great. You can get a compressor and tank for about £50-60.

Vallejo do an airbrush and paint kit - I think there are two, one about £80 and the other about £140 (off the top of my head the actual cost could be quite different as it is several years since I got mine!) - take a look at the paints the kit contains and see if you think it is worth it. The brush is reasonable - double action, gravity fed.

I would also suggest also getting a cheap ultrasonic cleaning bath - you can get them for about £15-£30. Stick your brush parts in there after each use and sonify the heck out of it to get all the paint and gunk out and stop it building up over time, which will require an extended cleaning session

This is relevant for my interests, I'm in the same situation, though not in the UK obv.
Still researching on all this airbrush business, its quite intimidating...

Get a name brand brush and a compressor with a tank and you can't really go wrong.

Euros should look at harder steenbeck brushes and buy what you can afford to replace a needle on

http://www.everythingairbrush.com/

These guys are based in the UK, Theyre pretty much my goto place for most airbrushy things.

Stock all the spare parts for many of the brushes they sell too.
Harder and Steenbeck are my personal favs, but they stock a few brands, compressors and accessories too.

I had a AS196 compressor from them roughly 4 years ago. Just this year I stopped using it in favor of a 24L air tank which I fill with a much larger louder compressor in the shed. It gives me about an hours worth of airbrushing per fill ... takes 2mins to fill. Tank was £70 but I already had a larger comrpessor for running hvlp guns, just it was too loud to use inside the house (97dB) - Wickes stores with a Toolstation counter can provide the more beefy end of compressors and the air tank that I got if you like that idea.

The AS196 still operates very well even now 4 years on but I prefer the quietness of the air tank for an hour at a time.

Ive broken 3 airbrushes without managing to damage the compressor. It was about £100ish, its reasonably quiet, I can run it in the house no problems, just at night time it would disturb others trying to sleep. Which led me to the tank idea - a truely quiet compressor woudlve set me back 4-600 minimum.



As for looking at Harder and Steenbeck yes look theyre sexy!
On a serious note though, the needles all cost the same for their range.... if buying a H&S... see about stretching to a Evolution CR plus model, theyre triple chrome coated, with ptfe seals for use with harsh solvent paints. So your free to use raw acetone as a cleaner without any issues compared to a cheap brush with rubber orings in. (vinegar based cleaenrs or anything else that damages chrome will still feth it tho lol)

Lol another thought; the airbrush kit offered by vallejo, actually ships with a harder and steenbeck ultra or evolutiion airbrush So thats quite an array of H&S reccomendations in this thread alone... I'm refreshed to see that rather than the Iwata eclipse or Badger renegade suggestions that are more usa friendly than euro

I would have totally recommended iwata if you were in Australasia, or badger if you were in the States.

I have an Iwata hp-cs, 0.35mm. My first brush and excellent.

Which brings up needles, 0.3 to 0.4 as a stater - good enough for what you will want to do without as much clogging

Go here www.smdesigns.co.uk he's a proper world class airbrush artist and teacher, when I say world class it's a gross understatement of his skills, he has recently started carrying a very good into compressor kit at £72 I believe and stocks all the iwata gear, I would recommend an iwata neo or if your budget stretches to it one of the higher end iwatas, if looked after either will last a lifetime and give you superb results.
The compressor is very good for all the price and certainly way more than what you will need in this hobby.
As a side note the reducers, restorer, and transparent base from the auto air range is well worth having and cheaper than 'hobby' paint versions.
Have fun

Just a quick chime in so I won't hijack the thread - looking at H&S CRPlus now, not as expensive as I thought. Thanks for the hints, heard multiple good things about those.

if your anywhere near brighton I can recommend these guys
https://airbrushes.com/find_us.php
Just pop into the shop and they'll be happy to help.

I must say the Harder Steenbeck airbrushes give me warm, tingly painting feelings. I just need to decide how to dive in.

I just bought my first airbrush as I wanted to have a go and see what all the fuss was about. I managed to pick up a second hand bargain from ebay. Compressor, turntable, various cleaning bits and pieces. Water traps.2 brushes 1 unknown and 1 good starter brush for £80. I didnt want to spend to much in case its not for me.

Might be worth skimming ebay for a deal. I only looked for used items so it filters out most of the chinese rubbish.

Zond wrote:
I must say the Harder Steenbeck airbrushes give me warm, tingly painting feelings. I just need to decide how to dive in.

Hehehe I've got to hand it to those Germans... theyre fookin good at this engineering game! There are things that set them apart from other brands in terms of design, notice the trigger mechanism that H&S use, their nozzle removal/remounting is also totally tool free. The only too you will ever need for a H&S is the needle seal alignment screw driver. Which is a screw driver with a prong in the middle that the seal fits on to keep it straight and aligned as you screw it in; theres not really any alternative to this that I know of. Luckily this seal isnt often removed, I'd advise you never try unless you have the screw driver to put it back in because the airbrush wouldnt ever be the same again.

kb_lock wrote:
I would have totally recommended iwata if you were in Australasia, or badger if you were in the States.

I have an Iwata hp-cs, 0.35mm. My first brush and excellent.

Which brings up needles, 0.3 to 0.4 as a stater - good enough for what you will want to do without as much clogging

I'm curious, I've heard this similarly mentioned elsewhere for different brands for different countries. Is this more of a availability/price thing?

 Enigwolf wrote:

kb_lock wrote:
I would have totally recommended iwata if you were in Australasia, or badger if you were in the States.

I have an Iwata hp-cs, 0.35mm. My first brush and excellent.

Which brings up needles, 0.3 to 0.4 as a stater - good enough for what you will want to do without as much clogging

I'm curious, I've heard this similarly mentioned elsewhere for different brands for different countries. Is this more of a availability/price thing?

Mostly its about spares... You can probably find a good deal on a brush, but then struggle to replace the needle,nozzle and seals at a good price because of shipping costs.

Everything airbrush stock a fair selection of spares for Harder & Steenbeck, They did used to carry a huge range of spares for many brands 4 years ago when I was shopping for my airbrush... I guess I'm lucky that I chose the one theyre sticking with. (they have limited spares for badger, auerograph, sparmax, and a comprehensive parts list for Develbiss and H&S models.)

But that's why we have Amazon if we're in the US and UK right?

Maybe, My advice is to first check that the brush you feel like ordering has spare parts available to you without paying more than the parts value in shipping.

I can expect to pay £10 for a needle, £15 for a nozzle, or £40-45 for a matched pair on my H&S evolution CR plus.

You might think that buying the separate for less £ is better, but the matched pair is kinda nice tbh. (I believe the paired set also comes with a new aircap, which isnt strictly needed everytime)

ouch thats heavy money, Id stick with the iwatas. at £7 for a needle and similar for a tip you cant go wrong. Never used an H&S brush tho so I cant comment, I was turned onto Iwata due to them not using seals as the engineering was so good they were not required and the guy who taught me to airbrush used iwata so I stuck with them.
Horses for courses I guess just use whatever your comfy with and get good with it.

" the best tool is the one you use the most "

I'd like to try an iwata
Oneday maybe hehe. I cna say that H&S beats the pants out of my Badger for build quality. While the Badger beats the pants out of the 'Finespray' Cheapy branded one I had first up. All of which felt great untill I tried the next one Happy with the H&S's though... No seals sounds nice, I'm atleast rocking ptfe ones, which other brands dont seem to feel is important (it is)

iwata added a seal to the front of the air cap and another one at the join of the rear to the body but it was to appease a certain market they were not selling well in due to no seals and an opinion of poor quality. they are 100% not necessary and one of my oldest iwatas doesnt and never did have those seals on it.

some of the cheaper stuff nowadays ie £50 units really are pretty damned good. I bought a Neo gravity fed jobbie a few weeks back and I really cant fault it, granted its not been heavily used but anything I did use it on was perfectly fine and for a new person coming into airbrushing theres bugger all difference they will notice between that and a top of the line one.

HairySticks wrote:
I'd like to try an iwata
Oneday maybe hehe. I cna say that H&S beats the pants out of my Badger for build quality. While the Badger beats the pants out of the 'Finespray' Cheapy branded one I had first up. All of which felt great untill I tried the next one Happy with the H&S's though... No seals sounds nice, I'm atleast rocking ptfe ones, which other brands dont seem to feel is important (it is)

Send me your h&s and I will send you my iwata for a month or so HEH.

And I can't multi quote because android, but yes I recommended different brands for spare parts, and generally price overall.

If I lived on the moon I'd probably get a h&s

jeff200sx wrote:
iwata added a seal to the front of the air cap and another one at the join of the rear to the body but it was to appease a certain market they were not selling well in due to no seals and an opinion of poor quality. they are 100% not necessary and one of my oldest iwatas doesnt and never did have those seals on it.

some of the cheaper stuff nowadays ie £50 units really are pretty damned good. I bought a Neo gravity fed jobbie a few weeks back and I really cant fault it, granted its not been heavily used but anything I did use it on was perfectly fine and for a new person coming into airbrushing theres bugger all difference they will notice between that and a top of the line one.

This is kinda true, The main time I really notice how good an airbrush is while using it, isnt while painting models, its while freehanding a canvas or carpanel etc.

Being able to spray a very small amount of paint, consistently. Is generally what I find the more expensive brushes are offering.

If you're planning to blast a basecoat at a model for total coverage, and do some general highlighting... almost any airbrush should be alright, the fancy locking nuts, cut away handles, swappable paint cups, its all not necessary really. You want a smooth trigger mechanism with a decent resolution in the tiny movements range for achieving details, Some of the cheaper ones, well theyre almost single action because of how little trigger movement youve got between full on and full off.

The bells and whistles will never make as much difference as the trigger mechanism being quality in an airbrush.
Cut away handles are kinda nice for blasting out a clog, or rinsing out... but then again the handle comes off with a couple of twists anyway its not a hassle tbh.
The locking nut thingy at the rear end, is largely useless to most freehanders... might be handy for doing a repeated depth of colour across your army. ... not really needed, often is in the way.
So dont get fooled by the bonus features...they dont really say a great deal about the bit they should be the most proud of usually, probably because it would be a very technical speak boast about engineering feats that most of us wouldnt understand


kb_lock ; If you were local... I'd be up for that whats the worst that could happen (a needle/nozzle... merh i have a spare kicking around)

edit: all the stressing about spares hehe Look after whateevr brush you buy and itle never need a spare! I've dinged my needle about 5/6 times in the 4-5 years ive been spraying. A dinged needle usualy means a dinged nozzle too as the needle distorts it. so sometimes just a needle isnt enough.

Seals will go if you use harsh chemicals to clean... I do... I just replace them... 2 sets in those 5 years and I use 99% acetone between colours.

I dont find that spare parts are a big expenditure... but not being able to get one would put my expensive airbrush out of action (conviniently H&S seem to be sticking with the Evolution style design,An infinity CR Plus needle nozzle, would fit into a standard Evolution, the seals might too - I have both an Evolution Silverline, and a shiny new CR Plus Evolution and the parts are inter changable) . I keep a spare needle/nozzle set around for that time when you ding it and really wanted to paint.... gak happens sometimes y'know
Freehanding has me go very close to the object being painted for fine lines... thats usualy when it happens. Or being clumbsy when all is done and your dont concentrating.

Just to add a different dimension to the discussion, if you want a cheap in, then you can pick up a cheap nail airbrush kit from ebay. It will let you discover whether you have aptitued without breaking the bank.

I have also picked up a couple of 20 quid double action airbrushes which work with no issues while I learn my way in. I have a friend who went straight for the good stuff and has had costly issues due to lack of knowledge. A 20 quid bust brush is more equitable than an expensive one.

Airbrush 3 nozzles
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=161280691663&alt=web

Cheap compressor
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=181436349589&alt=web

Edit. Add in links

 Captain Jack wrote:
Just to add a different dimension to the discussion, if you want a cheap in, then you can pick up a cheap nail airbrush kit from ebay. It will let you discover whether you have aptitued without breaking the bank.

I have also picked up a couple of 20 quid double action airbrushes which work with no issues while I learn my way in. I have a friend who went straight for the good stuff and has had costly issues due to lack of knowledge. A 20 quid bust brush is more equitable than an expensive one.

Airbrush 3 nozzles
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=161280691663&alt=web

Cheap compressor
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=181436349589&alt=web

Edit. Add in links

This is fairly decent advice.
Consider a £20 brush. Vs the £100-150 H&S evolutions with £15 nozzles and £10 needles.
Itle cost you more to replace the needle and nozzle setup on the nice brush that it would to just throw away the cheap airbrush and buy a new one.
... I started out with a £50 AB182 set that was siphon fed, and had 0.35 and 8 mm nozzles and needles in the kit, only really used the 0.5mm one there.
And later upgraded to the H&S Evolution Silverline 0.2 mm Gravity fed. Both worked for a time, but I've done something to my original cheap one and it no longer functions... couldnt figure out what exactly it is, probably a seal somewhere but I cant get a new one.
About 50% of my total needle breakages in 4 years, happened in my first year, as I learned how to properly handle these things, whats good and not good to do with them etc.
It could be a prudent investment to get a relatively low quality cheap brush... Id reccomend anything 0.3 or 4mm and gravity fed really. Intending to have it ruined by your inexperience

Whilst it's a good idea I figure I may as well get a "proper" airbrush, for lack of better term and get used to the damn thing. For the past 6 weeks I've been steadily destroying a friends cheap and cheerful brush, one of those ones where you pour the paint directly onto the needle it seems, which he has three or four of. Whilst I may not jump straight into the world of Iwata Microns, I'm pretty confident I enjoy airbrushing and could do with a proper bit of kit.

I think you will be pouring the paint directly onto the needle in all gravity fed brushes tbh

The best bet is to mix in a separate cup/container, a disposable party shot glass is the best thing I've found so far. I got a pack fo 40 from a 99p store. Before that I used empty yoghurt pots a plenty. Trying a little to clean them out... but not too hard lol.. throw them if theyre all dirty beyond a quick cleaning out.

Or to use dropper bottles, I got a bucket load of 15 ml droppers to put my citadel paints into... the left overs have become great for making a handy airbrush paint dispenser

What I meant is its a wee cheap number that lacks even a cup to fit it.

like this one?



(thats a H&S Grafo T1 aimed at photo retouching I believe)

Except more cheap. And tacky. Anyway I'll end up getting a good brush over the next two weeks.

sounds good, Even a 'cupless' (its technically just a tiny non removable cup) airbrush can hold a decent amount of paint when the target object is a inch tall guy.. although if its for photo retouching, the nozzle is probably small meaning primer isnt so good, or metallics.

Because My airbrushes are 0.2mm (pretty small.. but not the smallest) I tend to not prime with them, and still use a rattle can for that. Have no problems basecoating or shading with the 0.2mm nozzle though. Its what I'm used to for freehand illustrating on canvases with (1 brush for white, 1 for black), so getting the paint thinning right is something I'm already comfortable with.

To make starting out easy, Look for approx 0.5mm nozzle... I know H&S offer 0.4, 6, and 8 but not 5 though, maybe the 0.4 would give similar benefits without sacrificing too much detail ability. - the finer nozzle brushes are pretty much more fussy about your paint thickness and lumps etc, they will clog and need the nozzle cleaning far more often while learning paint thinning skills than a wider nozzle would.