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Hi Chaps,

TL;DR: Get "bored" of painting after spending hours on base coating and shading the main colour of a model. What entry level airbrush that is affordable will do me?

Looking for some advise on getting an airbrush that would, at least at the start, be used for base coating and pre/post shading. I really, really hate base coating and am unable to really use spray paint as I live in a flat so have to do a lot of it with brush work. I dont have much money to spend but do appreciate that you don't want to spend £30 on the entire set up! Now, I'm not an exceptional painter and my brushwork needs a lot of practise... but base coating really does kill me inside and I often find that I get "bored" of painting for the day after doing this so end up rushing my brush work to have at least something to show for it.

Would be great if I can maybe base coat my miniatures along with getting the main colours down with some pre/post shading and laying down the main colour after that (to perhaps get this effect without needing to layer 15 paints on http://imgur.com/iDfp7wd).

I am in the UK, so paint port of call is maybe over at www.everythingairbrush.com for the kit (need the entire shebang!).

Thanks,

Grady

The set I've got is pretty much the same as this. The compressor isn't bad. The airbrushes aren't amazing, but work well enough for you to give it a try and see if you get on with it.

Looking at your link, there's a kit with essentially the same compressor but a Harder & Steenbeck brush for £120ish...

https://www.everythingairbrush.com/airbrushing-kits-brand/value-kit-range/harder-steenbeck-kits/ab-as-18-airbrushing-kit-with-ultra-airbrush.html

What kind of issues have you noticed with the airbrushes you have?

Thanks for the reply!

Just don't feel great quality. Very much still learning myself, so I can't really talk about any problems with paint quality from any sort of position of authority - it's probably more me than the brush. Also didn't come with any instructions, so had to very carefully dismantle it and work out how it went back together again myself.

Having tried both, I really don't like the siphon feed brush. It's a bugger to clean and doesn't seem to give as good a finish as the gravity feed brush. I probably need to clean it better...

I do all of my work with the cheapest, dual action and gravity fed airbrush I can find. Aliexpress do them for about 10 dollars. Easy as that. 0.30mm needle.

For me it all comes down to controll and detail , i started with a chinese brand that got cloged and just never seem to work right , i then moved on to a h&s ultra which felt amazing and i have used it to do all my basing ,preshading ,

ive now brought a h&s infinty and the build quality is brilliant its really good for detail but i have found that at my current skill level im not taking full advatage of the airbrush

I would say middle of the road if you plan on developing your skills that way you wont be slowed down by a cheap product or be paying for extra control that you wont notice untill your skill level dramtical increase

I would recommend a double action gravity airbrush.Also, as you mention base coating, you will be better with an airbrush with a .5 needle\nozzle combination as there is some coverage involve when base coating.I own the Badger Patriot 105 and I am very happy with it. I used it all the time for my basing\precoating. Saying that the brush is very good for detail work as well. Very easy to dismantle also for cleaning which is a bit advantage also...check this http://www.airbrushgeek.com/badger-patriot-105-review/

Going for a cheap Chinese airbrush might seem as a good choice at first because of their price, but as said ian, they don't last very long. Put a bit more money now and you won t regret it later. The badger patriot is cheap for an airbrush this quality. You ll be able to up your skills without being frustrated by the airbrush

Get a compressor with an air tank as this stops the airflow pulsing which will ruin your paint job. You can get a decent one of eBay. I've had mine for two years with no issues. It also came with three airbrushed that, whilst not the best are not too bad.

But get a decent brush. I inherited an Aztek and am going to get a H&S at some point soon.

johnnyk wrote:
Going for a cheap Chinese airbrush might seem as a good choice at first because of their price, but as said ian, they don't last very long. Put a bit more money now and you won t regret it later. The badger patriot is cheap for an airbrush this quality. You ll be able to up your skills without being frustrated by the airbrush

Yep. I'm pretty tired of the "buy a cheap ass airbrush" argument. Every time this question comes up, there is inevitably a chorus of people trying to convince someone this is the way to go and they've "done just fine" with their crappy airbrushes or whatever, but it's just bad advice all around. If you're serious about painting, invest in decent tools. If you can't afford anything more than a $30 airbrush, save up until you can; it's a much wiser decision in the long run.

OP: Since you're in the UK, I would look at Harder & Steenbeck airbrushes. They're made in Germany and are readily available in Europe. Their "starter brush" is the H&S Ultra and the next one up from there would be the Evolution, which is a really nice airbrush.

The evolution is good. Really good. I love mine.

Do not know much about this topic to be honest, in that it is the only airbrush I have tried, but my Badger 200 (or perhaps one of its variants) has served me well.

I told a mate to buy a cheap one to learn on, so it doesn't hurt as much when he kills it (because he would - and he did).

He bought a $200 airbrush off ebay. Snapped the nozzle off and bent both needles. Then learned that spares for that brush aren't common here and that buying a new brush would actually be cheaper.

He broke the second one.

He's now on his third and he's managed to gum it up (blocked nozzle somewhere). $600 down and he's still no better at the basics.

I learned on an old (40 year old) badger single action syphon feed. Fine for basecoating or terrain. Cost me $30 with a can of propellant.
I graduated to a double action gravity feed once I learned the control needed. Then a mate in the FX industry gave me his "old one" (he replaced them yearly ). I bought a tanked compressor for it and a second moisture trap (because the air WILL pick up moisture when it expands and thin your paint further). It served well for the next 20 years (still have it, still use it. Haven't broken it yet.)

$ 600 is a lot of money to waste on airbrushes! most people I know thought that bought $200 airbrush, manage to keep them without any problem for a long long time.....
Your friend must have been very unlucky or rather reckless with his airbrushes!

I have only spent about £10 in replacement parts for my badger in the last five years. This is despite it getting clogged up quite often. Perhaps your friend is really accident prone or buying super fragile types.

I guess there are really top end airbrushes, and really cheap ones, and ones inbetween. Going inbetween unless money is tight seems a reasonable starting point (after all, if you are going to spend a lot of money, you might need first understand airbrushes to decide exactly which particular very expensive one to go for).

 Samsonov wrote:
(after all, if you are going to spend a lot of money, you might need first understand airbrushes to decide exactly which particular very expensive one to go for).

One problem I've always had with trying to buy airbrushes is the lack of good objective information and comparisons on them. Because it's very personal, what makes a good airbrush to one person might be irrelevant to another, it makes it hard to decide which one to buy.

People will recommend airbrushes, you can find heaps of recommendations, but with no actual useful information. They'll say stuff like "this one feels good", "I like that one", "that's a really nice airbrush". People probably think they are being helpful when they say those things but I find it largely useless if they can't articulate *why* they prefer one airbrush over another. A couple of people, like Paul Budzik, know enough about airbrushes to compare them well, but he doesn't really do reviews of stuff that is in a wargamer's price range.

I think very few people have both the knowledge base required to evaluate an airbrush objectively and of those even less actually bother buying/testing a wide range of airbrushes to make comparisons.

Anyway, to the original post, it's a bit of those "how long is a piece of string?" questions. Some people are going to buy a $20 airbrush and be totally happy with it, other people won't be happy until they spend $200 on one. Some super cheap airbrushes are going to have manufacturing flaws that make them inappropriate (eg. you're never going to get a good spray pattern if the nozzle/needle/aircap aren't concentric) or seals that wear out quickly, but some cheapos are fine (though often damaged seals comes from user error overtightening things, in general all parts on an airbrush only need to be tight enough that they don't leak, you usually won't do any damage if you undertighten them, except maybe for packing nut but most people don't touch that anyway).

Neo iwata. And a £30-50 compressor with a tank from eBay.

Other option is a Vallejo kit that has air paints and a harder and steinback airbrush.

For minis you need gravity fed and double action. You're doing tiny models, not T- shirts!

Also, and this is getting to Duncan Rhodes level of meme but thin your paint, even Vallejo air paints. Use thinner or make your own, (2:1 ddH2O & IPA + few drops of glycerol) and thin them. Your compressor should be on about 14-20 psi. Not massive.

https://www.amazon.com/Master-Airbrush-Multi-purpose-Dual-action-Compressor/dp/B001TO578Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1490720855&sr=8-4&keywords=master+airbrush

These Master Airbrushes are probably the cheapest available. Mine has been a good workhorse for terrain and basecoating.

https://www.amazon.com/Master-Airbrush-Multi-purpose-Dual-action-Compressor/dp/B001TO578Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1490720855&sr=8-4&keywords=master+airbrush