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As the title says, Im looking to buy an airbrush. I have never used one before and want to get set up 100% What are the essentials I will need? I'm not Bill Gates but I can throw a little money around at my hobbies. Im looking to spend under $300 if possible. Let me know and thanks a ton!

There are a zillion threads about this that "search" will offer you great assistance on

That said, with a $300 budget, I would suggest splitting it about half-and-half, to get a good, trouble-free compressor with a tank and a decent airbrush. There are many out there; in my opinion, the Iwata HP-CS is an excellent choice. It's around $100-$110 USD, is very easy to clean, and capable of doing everything from beginner tasks to some pretty advanced stuff. The trigger is very smooth, the machined parts are of excellent quality and engineering, and the needle is also a nice, hardened steel that doesn't damage easily, unlike some cheap airbrushes.

I would avoid a super-high-end airbrush, even if you see a really good deal on one. Most of them will come with really fine needles that are just a pain to use for workhorse tasks (like priming and basecoating) and will greatly frustrate a beginning airbrusher.

Hp-cs was my first brush, it's fantastic

I am a decent painter with brushes nothing outstanding by any means. I am looking to get a much cleaner model. Is it better to undercoat your models with the airbrsush or use a spray primer? Do most people use velejo air for their airbrush projects?

You have to decide how far you want to go with your airbrush. I got a dirt cheap one because i only use it for basecoating and some easy blending. If you want to do some real work with an airbrush, you better follow Talys' advice=)

valhallanguitar wrote:
I am a decent painter with brushes nothing outstanding by any means. I am looking to get a much cleaner model. Is it better to undercoat your models with the airbrsush or use a spray primer? Do most people use velejo air for their airbrush projects?

Once you've got an airbrush, it is inefficient to use rattle cans to prime.

Vallejo air is great, but you can thin any paint you want to use

For your first brush go with this and experiment:

http://www.harborfreight.com/15-hp-58-psi-oilless-airbrush-compressor-kit-60328.html

Then when you'r if you decide this is what you want to get into i would grab a Badger Krome or Sotar 20/20.

This is a reply of mine from another airbrush thread. Obviously, these are only my opinions and may differ from other peoples' experiences or opinions:


My opinion is that a starter airbrush should be an internal mix, gravity fed airbrush.


Internal mix vs external mix - Pretty much like it sounds. The paint is mixed with the air internally vs externally. External mix is more apt to get "spitty" or grainy and it's less well-suited to detail work.

Gravity fed vs siphon fed - Gravity fed airbrushes have a metal cup attached to the top and the paint flows down into the chamber to be mixed with air, while siphon-fed have (usually) a glass jar with a male nozzle that is wedged inside of a female nozzle on the airbrush and the paint is sucked up by the air flow. In my opinion, let the gravity work for you and have the paint just fall into airbrush naturally. Gravity still works against the siphon-fed paint jar, too, only not in the way you would like. I have had jars fall out of airbrushes before. As they get old and worn. One plus to the siphon-fed, though, is that the paint jars can be a bit easier to clean, I've found.


I firmly believe (and will always recommend) that a beginner airbrush artist should get a basic airbrush. I don't believe you should spend hundreds on a top-of-the-line model. I would definitely go for dual action, but you needn't worry much about super fine detail or other bells and whistles. You didn't learn how to ride a Harley Superglide at 5 years old. You started with a bike with training wheels. Airbrushing is not like learning with a paintbrush. Detail mastery takes a lot longer to achieve. It's far easier to slap a highlight line across a rounded edge of a Space Marine boot with a fine brush, touching the model. It's totally different to get paint where you want it when there's empty space between your nozzle and the model. When you can't feel the tactile feedback of the brush. You're not sure where your paint is going until you see it on the models. By then, it may be too late. Get something basic. When you have more bells and whistles, more features, you have more things to try to learn all at once. Keep the learning curve slight. Just worry about getting paint where you want it. Getting the right consistency. Learning how to properly clean your airbrush.

Badger and Paasche both have fantastic low end airbrushes that are perfect for beginners.


Next, I can't stress enough the importance of cleaning your airbrush. Even the teeniest, tiniest speck of dried paint on a needle will cause the microns thin fine spray to spit paint and make your model look like it's covered in blood splatter evidence. Additionally, be sure to research proper handling of airbrush needles and other internal parts.

Finally, don't be super cheap on your choice of compressor. You don't need one that will pressure wash your sidewalk and driveway, but you can end up with one that's underpowered and find yourself consistently with sub par painting results. When you ultimately upgrade your airbrush, you can still find uses for your old ones. Maybe you don't want to have to detail clean your super-expensive $300 airbrush for simply spraying large areas on a model. You can break out that old introductory guy you spent $45 on and do that job. However, if you find out down the road that you've bought an inadequate compressor and have to buy a new one, you've got no use for that old one. Money wasted.


That's my advice. Take it as you will.


t l;dr - for starting painters, buy a lower end, dual action, gravity fed, internal mix airbrush and don't skimp on a compressor


Ghidorah

similar to what they've said, start basic

I still on ly have a basic, mostly for priming tbh due to our weather.

I got an Iwata neo - it has a .5 I think needle, so pretty big, good for priming maybe a basic undercoat type thing.

one of the main reasons I got it, I could put my hands on it physically before I bought it, and check it out. And Hobby Lobby offers even those on their 40% off coupon.

My next airbrush, when I have cash, is prolly going to be the badger Krome for actual use in painting.

I would highly recommend that you do a forum search. There are several threads that have very good recommendations with explanations, allowing you to judge whether or not the recommendation applies to your case.

Unlike Gidorah I don't think it matters where you start with an airbrush. As long as you get a gravity fed dual action brush it's fine as a high end brush operates exactly the same as a cheapo ebay brush. Just make sure you don't start off with a too small nozzle/needle size. For starting out you'll want 0.3 or 0.4mm.
H&S have kits for several of their models where you get both a small and a large needle/nozzle set. Somewhat pricey, but it's good to have.


And remember to be safe; use a mask while spraying, if you plan on spraying in a room with pets or other people, get or build a spray booth. If you want to spray something other than the usual acrylic model paints; vallejo, citadel etc., make sure to check if they contain solvents. Fumes are a bit trickier to filter.

valhallanguitar wrote:I am a decent painter with brushes nothing outstanding by any means. I am looking to get a much cleaner model. Is it better to undercoat your models with the airbrsush or use a spray primer? Do most people use velejo air for their airbrush projects?

You'll get varying opinions on different paint. Most people will just airbrush whatever paint they used to hairy brush paint with (which for miniature painters are typically water based acrylics) and maybe get a few airbrush specific paints like Badger, Vallejo Air or Citadel Air to go along with them.

I think a good way to start out is to buy 1 or 2 airbrush specific paints (prethinned) to get you started and give you a feel for how to thin your paint, as they're a much easier starting point. Once you've figured out how to thin the paint, you can really spray with any of your typical hobby paints, they each have different strengths and weaknesses.

After I was becoming more familiar with using an airbrush I branched out a bit more and started spraying with alcohol based acrylics (Tamiya and Gunze) and lacquers (Gunze and Gaia, I've not tried Gaia though) and enamels (Testors Model Master, Humbrol, Tamiya). I prefer spraying all of those over regular water based acrylics, but they do have their downsides. Enamels have a slow drying time and stink to high heaven for a long period after spraying. Lacquers are somewhat toxic so you need good ventilation and a mask and the thinners tend to be a bit more expensive, they also eat rubber seals (not a problem if your airbrush uses teflon seals).

Priming wise, again, you'll get varying opinions on it. I personally don't like Vallejo's PU primer but it's going to be what most people recommend, honestly don't know why people like it so much, I'd rather use a spray can Personally I really like lacquer based primers, I own several of the Gunze variety and they all lay down really smoothly, dries almost immediately and is quite tough, though they require a bit of thinning for airbrush use (which means you need to buy a lacquer thinner, I recommend something like Gunze over a hardware store lacquer thinners as the hardware store stuff is a lot harsher). I have occasionally just mixed a lacquer thinner with an alcohol based acrylic (Gunze or Tamiya) and used that as a primer because it actually comes out quite tough.

kb_lock wrote:Once you've got an airbrush, it is inefficient to use rattle cans to prime.

Depends what you call "inefficient" I guess. Once you have an airbrush it's typically cheaper to airbrush your primer rather than rattle canning because you waste far less paint.

But rattle canning is still faster for me, even with a semi-permanent airbrush setup it's quicker to take my models outside and spray them with a can than it is to airbrush prime them. Rattle cans just lay down paint so much faster and there's no time spent setting up before or cleaning up afterwards.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

kb_lock wrote:Once you've got an airbrush, it is inefficient to use rattle cans to prime.

Depends what you call "inefficient" I guess. Once you have an airbrush it's typically cheaper to airbrush your primer rather than rattle canning because you waste far less paint.

But rattle canning is still faster for me, even with a semi-permanent airbrush setup it's quicker to take my models outside and spray them with a can than it is to airbrush prime them. Rattle cans just lay down paint so much faster and there's no time spent setting up before or cleaning up afterwards.

The 200ml bottles of Vallejo primer last *forever*. I think 1 bottle costs about $20 and lasts me 2+ years -- I mean, I can literally prime a thousand plus miniatures. It's obscene how much cheaper it is than rattle can, if you're buying the large size primers.

For me, priming efficiency in terms of time, it really depends on how many models I can prime at once. If I'm priming enough pieces, airbrush is much, much faster. If it's one model, all put together, sure, no way you can beat a rattle can! There is also the matter of priming the model close to the basecoat colors. With airbrush, it's not hard to prime in many colors, which really helps the basecoat process speed up.

On the note of basecoats, it's way, way faster to basecoat with an airbrush versus paintbrush, for everything but the tiniest or multi-colored jobs, I think.

Yeah I'm going to have to disagree with you on the speed thing. Rattle can is almost always faster for me, even for big batches, because the cone is larger and flow rate is higher. You can turn up the air pressure and move the brush further away to lay down more paint with an airbrush, but then you get too much air in to it which has it's own problems. Unless you actually have a decent spray gun that's designed for a wide pattern and high flow rate from the beginning.

Granted I mostly prime with my airbrush, I don't do it for speed though, I just get sick of buying rattle cans A $10, 40ml bottle of lacquer primer will last me ages (it's not prethinned like the Vallejo stuff so it's probably more like 80ml in the end).

Most the pros I know that paint big models and have airbrushes (but lack spray guns) still just prime with Tamiya rattle cans.