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So, due to stuff I'm getting an airbrush with compressor.

I've settled (I think) on this: http://goo.gl/pxQSaV

It's the 'new' AS186 with cooler, 3 litre airtank and moisture trap. From what I've read this compressor is decent enough for our needs.

The company supplies the compressor in different 'kits', according to which airbrush (cheapo, Chinese knock offs).

Unless convinced otherwise, I've going with a gravity feed, dual action brush with 0,2mm nozzle and a tiny 2cc cup. I'll be using it for priming, base coating, zenithal HL, terrain and vehicles. Should I get a 'larger' brush?

What else will I need?

I've decided to mostly with Vallejo paint for both primers, air and brush. AFAIK I can use the 'Game Color' in the airbrush (diluted) or I can brush on the 'Air Color'. Should I buy mostly 'Air -' or 'Game Color'?

How should I go about cleaning the brush? Will I need one of those special 'cups' with a nozzle to blast away left over paint?

This might help:




Cleaning your airbrush is the single most important skill to learn when getting your first airbrush. If you don't know how to do this well then you're going to have lots of frustration until you do.

So, get stuff related to cleaning. Those little airbrush cleaning brushes, some airbrush cleaner, cotton swabs...

You need an airbrush cleaning station (just search iwata airbrush cleaning station in amazon); it will make your life much better.

In addition, to properly clean your airbrushes, you need something to scrub the inside of them. This means either generic small pipe cleaners, the airbrush-specific pipecleaners, or (my favorite) the dental floss things with bristles that look like pipe cleaners.

You also want a wash bottle. It looks like a water bottle with a bent or hooked straw on top; squeeze the bottle, and water comes out. This is very helpful for cleaning gravity fed airbrushes.

Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner is really good. Iwata's is a lot cheaper, but not as effective. Isopropyl will also work, but takes a little more effort.

If this is your first airbrush, buy a 0.3mm or larger, not a 0.2mm. VMA and VGA are designed to work unthinned in an airbrush of at least 0.3mm; if it's smaller, you will need to thin it. If you want to use other brands of paint (with even with thinner) without too much trouble, larger needle size is better. Iwata 0.35mm (HP-CS) is a standout for this task.

In addition, 0.2mm is not ideal for tasks like priming and basecoating, or painting terrain. And, even when everything is right, 0.2mm and smaller means you must constantly clear the tip.

What 0.2mm is really good for is fine details, and painting things like edges where you can't get the needle right to the surface. However, remember that a mask is a mask, and 0.2 won't do any better than 0.5 if you have the area masked off (yeah, the aeresolization of the paint will be different, which leads to different possibilities, but this is beyond the topic of "first airbrush").

 Dullspork wrote:


Cleaning your airbrush is the single most important skill to learn when getting your first airbrush. If you don't know how to do this well then you're going to have lots of frustration until you do.

Truer words have never been spoken. If you get paint stuck in your airbrush, the experience will be anything but fun until you clean it out. The longer it's jammed in there, the harder it is to clean it out.

My tips for first time airbrushers:

1. Learn to clean your airbrush properly after every single use.
2. Don't use too much air pressure.
3. Resist the urge to pull the trigger all the way back. You only need to pull the trigger a tiny, tiny bit, really, the minimal amount possible to release some paint.

Finally, an airbrush is not like a paintbrush, in that it's intuitive and you just get more precise by blindly painting more stuff. You really need to do the practice drills, like the ones in the Paasche "getting started" book until you are comfortable with the basics, like making dots, drawing lines, and connecting two points. This is because when you're painting on a non-flat surface, it's not really easy to immediately see your mistakes, and the result is blobs of paint pooled into crevices, or an inability to just paint a small area without spending 5x more time masking than it would take to just pull out a paintbrush.

@Dullspork and @Talys:

Thank you very much. That's good stuff.

The local library doesn't have Paasche. They do however have 'The Airbrush Book, Art, History and Technique' by Curtis and Hunt. I'll be picking that up next week.

For some reason I find the analog side of this hobby very soothing.

Now: Off to play Combat Patrol.

I would get the model air and game air ranges just to make your life a little easier when using the airbrush.

Right, well, bombs away.

Ended up ordering this: http://goo.gl/tM2gyN , a quick-link and a cleaning station.

0.3mm nozzle and a 'name brand' brush ('Sparmax')

Apparently they have a 20% discount ATM.

So, got the thing, ran some paint through it, broke the nozzle.

A couple of observations:

1. I decided to go with the 'name brand' AB (i.e. Sparmax). Turns out it's a PITA to find spare parts. The threading of the nozzle is supposedly different than the Chinese knock-offs.

2. That nozzle is really delicate and I'm a brute. Bad combination.

3. Airbrushing is not as easy as some people make it look

4. Wow, a nice, thin, even base coat is actually possible. And it's relatively easy.

That compressor looks good, I've got a 196 twin piston one from before we got them air cooled still kicking some years on.

Airbrush wise, I've been through about 5/6. cheap ones are okay at first, but I definately found that buying a mid range brush from a reputable brand made a big difference to both the easy of cleaning, and my actual ability - as more time actually gets spent spraying rather than fiddling with the brush.

I went with Harder & Steenbeck Evolution Silverline, and after 2-3 years decided to get a 2nd one, Evolution CR Plus.
The Silverline still works well however ; I didnt NEED a new one, but wanted black and white brushes on the go at one time for painting canvases.

I've tried a badger, and didnt get on with it, but they get high praise, I think all the well known brands wont be too far off the mark with quality.

H&S are easily available for EU as theyre made in Germany.
Theyre the brand that Vallejo bundle with their kits too.



I'm in the UK so it might not be so helpful, but this store;
https://www.everythingairbrush.com/
Has a good selection of everything you could need.

That looks very much like the set I have here, the 'extras' I have for it:

- cleaning station, made from a glass jar I can put the end in and fire cleaning fluid through and have it catch it, cost essentially nothing and will do for now
- quick release coupling, so you don't have the exhaust the tank each time you need to go to the sink to clean the brush out (cost about £8 from amazon, one female part for the hose and five male parts for the brushes)
- empty dropper bottles, one with a 50-50 mix of cleaning fluid and water, others for pre-thinned paint
- cardboard box to spray into, with a cork tile for the base so models are easy to rotate.
- some cheap models to practice on

I have the pressure set to about 15psi, with a gravity feed brush bought for a tenner on amazon, not used the ones from the kit as yet, gravity feed works with lower pressure and uses a lot less paint (can run with literally a drop or two for small areas)

Bought to use for priming and basecoating, with low pressure not too hard to use for camo effects and colour fades as well, just practice.

This kit is cheap, but it works, thin the paint a little, maybe 66% paint and 33% thinner with the VMA range, maybe 50-50 with the VMC and VGC ranges, primer worth putting a bit of thinner in as well.

Get the thinner and cleaner in 200ml bottles or larger.

Enjoy, this thing saves oh so much time.

the link is broken.

Det Thyge wrote:

Unless convinced otherwise, I've going with a gravity feed, dual action brush with 0,2mm nozzle and a tiny 2cc cup. I'll be using it for priming, base coating, zenithal HL, terrain and vehicles.

Ground hog day right?

No - you should not get a 0.2 nozzle brush. To be perfectly honest - what you are wanting to do, you shouldn't even get a dual action brush. You don't even need an internal mix brush...

Of those things listed, I do them all day long...quite happily with my Badger 350. It is the perfect brush for that sort of work.

Granted, it is a day late and all of that since you have already bought one...and found out it is probably not the brush for you. The upside is that you can stick that in a drawer...get a 350 and live happily ever after.